Now, Genesis 49 again, verse 10. Jacob was dying here, and he was speaking to his twelve
sons. His twelve sons were gathered
about his dying bed, and he was addressing them individually. As he said in verse 1, gather
yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall
you in the last days." He was addressing them individually,
but as representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel. In other words, what he was speaking
to these boys individually, he was speaking concerning the future
people of the twelve tribes. And in verse 10, the dying Jacob,
speaking to his son Judah, said, The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet unto Shiloh
comes. Every word that he spoke of Judah
he spoke with regard to our greater Judah the Lord Jesus Christ. Jacob was looking at Reuben and
at Simeon and at Dan and at Benjamin and Joseph and Judah. He was
looking at these individual boys. But as he looked at them, he
was prophesying by the Holy Spirit what should take place years
and years and centuries to come. Now, let's look at his prophecy
concerning Judah. Now, as I say, he was looking
at Judah, but he was talking about Christ, because Christ
came from Judah. Our Lord Jesus was of the family
of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah. And he says in verse 8, Judah,
as he looked at Judah, he talked about Christ, our greater Judah. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren
shall praise. Did you know that the word Judah
means praise? That's exactly what it means.
Judah's mother gave him that name out of gratitude to God. When she named him Judah, she
named him praise. And if you'll turn with me to
Luke chapter 2, you'll find Mary's song of praise at the announcement
of the birth of Christ in Luke chapter 2, verse 46. Mary speaking in Luke 1, verse
46. And Mary says, My soul doth magnify
the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done
to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is
on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed
strength with his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the imagination
of their hearts, he hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with
good things, and the rich he hath sent away empty. Judah, thy brethren shall praise
thee." And he's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, for He
alone is worthy of all praise. And then he says in verse 8,
Judah, thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Now when
one gets his hand on the neck of his enemy or his prey, he
can stop his breath and he can destroy him. And the writers
say that when Judah, when Israel prophesied of Judah's hand being
on the neck of his prey, they're talking about when our Lord met
sin and hell and death at the cross and fought toe-to-toe and
destroyed them all. Oh, behold the man of sorrows,
behold him in plain view. He's the mighty conqueror. over
all his enemies, sin and hell, and the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death, when he rent the veil in two. And then Jacob said, Judah, thy
father's children shall bow down before thee. Now to the descendants
of Judah, David and Solomon, the people, did bow down. But Jacob is not talking about
David and Solomon here, he's talking about Christ. Judah,
the greater Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, thy father's children
shall bow down before thee. Turn to Philippians, chapter
2, verse 9. Philippians 2, 9. God hath also
highly exalted him. and given him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, and every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee." Jacob continues his prophecy, Judah, talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the son of Judah. My son, thou hast gone up," Jacob
was looking right at Christ here, "...from the battle of the cross,
from the battle with sin, and with Satan, and with death, and
with hell, from the prey, from the victory, thou hast gone up
to the right hand of the heavenly Father." Read on, "...he stooped
was ever such a stoop as this. He who was rich became poor. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of no reputation, took upon himself
the likeness of sinful flesh, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He stooped down. And as an old line who shall
rouse him up? That's the question. Charles
Spurgeon said, that's the great question. Who dare rouse him
up? Who dare stand against him? At
the day of his victory, at the day of his conquest, at the day
of his return on the throne of judgment, who can stand? Who
can stand? But the prophecy of verse 10
is the one that I invite your attention more closely tonight
In verse 10, all of these others are true, and we could dwell
on them. Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Christ
alone is the object of eternal praise. Those who gather about
the throne in glory, their employment shall be to praise the Lord Jesus.
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's
children shall bow down and worship thee. Christ is the only monarch
who could be elected as the sovereign of his kingdom by unanimous vote,
there wouldn't be one vote against him. Among all the hosts of heaven
and the host of redeemed on earth, not one vote against him. Thy
brethren shall praise thee and bow down before thee willingly,
and thou art aligned well from the praise from the battle, from
the conquest. Thou art gone up and stooped
down, but you are a victor now. And then verse 10, he says, "...the
scepter," the scepter, the sovereignty, "...shall not depart from Judah."
Now, the sovereignty of all Israel remained with the tribe of Judah. From this, all the way from David
to Solomon, even after the The tribes were divided, the ten
and the two, and then finally most of the tribes completely
lost track of. The Israelites, even to this
day, are called Jews. Jews. Christ Jesus came of the
tribe of Judah. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah. Identification shall not depart
from Judah. The sovereignty shall not depart
from Judah. The kingship shall not depart
from Judah. The spotlight shall not fall
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
comes." Now, over the head of Christ on the cross of Calvary,
Pilate wrote these words. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of Judah, the King of the Jews. Somebody came to him and
said, don't write up there, he is the king of the Jews. Right,
he said he was the king of the Jews. And Pilate said, what I've
written, I've written. And here, way back hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of years before that moment, old Jacob
sitting on his dying bed, for the scripture says a little later
he raised his feet up and put them in the bed. They covered
him up and he died. But sitting there on the side
of that bed, and his twelve sons standing around, and he starts
with Reuben. He said, Reuben, this affair
you had with my concubine some time ago, you're unstable as
water, you're excellent, but you're unstable. And Simeon,
you and your brother Levi killed a man, and you ought not have
done this. And that's a sign of the type
of thing that will go on in your tribes in any turn. and everything's quiet, and this
old man with the damn dying eyes could see out beyond this boy
standing here, and see out beyond his descendants, and see out
beyond David and Solomon, and see out beyond the division of
the tribes, and see out beyond the scattering of the people,
and he could see Christ. And he said, Judah, the scepter
will never depart. from you until Shiloh comes. Before the DMI of Jacob, God
brought the mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And He said,
Judah, the scepter shall not depart from you until Shiloh
comes, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Underscore that word, Shiloh,
if not actually, at least in your mind, shallow. This old
dying patriarch, this father of Israel, said to his son Judah, the scepter
shall not depart from you till shallow comes. Where did he get
that name shallow? You know, preachers are not supposed
to say, I don't know. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't know where he got that
name. I did a little research and a
little concordance work and a little bit of Greek lexicon work, and
I don't know where he got it. Unless God gave it to him, I'm
sure that's an answer. God gave it to him. It was a
name coined by Jacob. It was a name coined by Jacob.
Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee. He's looking at Christ. He's not looking at that boy,
Judah. Thy brethren are going to praise thee. You're going
to defeat all your enemies. You're going to conquer sin,
death, and hell. You're going to stoop down, but
you're going to go up from the prey, and nobody will stand before
you. And the scepter is not going
to depart. Israel is not going to fade away
until he comes, shallow, shallow. You know, a pet name, a lot of
you give your wives pet names, you give your husband pet names,
you give your children pet names. Somebody said a pet name is often
the product of a special love. When you give somebody a pet
name, you're saying to them, you are to me what you are to
no one else. You are to me what you are to
no one else. They call you whatever they want
to, but this is my name. This is my name. God does that. God said, Jacob, you shall be
called Israel. God said, Saul of Tarsus, thou
shalt be called Paul. Christ said, Simon, you shall
be called Peter, the little stone. And you know the disciples called
the Lord Jesus Master. Master. And Jacob knew what he
meant. I know that he did. I know that
he knew what he meant. He said, Judah, the scepter shall
not depart from you, nor a lawgiver from between your feet, till
Shiloh comes." Till Shiloh comes. I'm not certain entirely what
Jacob meant, but I can give you some of the meanings of the word
Shiloh, which have been given by the best writers. These are
some of the meanings of the word shallow. This is a beautiful
prophecy. I like prophecies like this,
especially since I read the last chapter. But it's so beautiful,
this dying man inspired by the Holy Ghost, blessing his sons,
and he says, The scepter shall not depart
from you till shallow." One writer says shallow means sent. Sent. S-E-N-T. This is the name the
same as Messiah, the messenger, the messenger, the messenger
of the covenant. Christ said, I am come to do
the will of him that sent me. Christ is the sent one. God the
Father sent him. It was no accident that he came.
God the Father sent him. I am come to do the will of him
that sent me. As my Father sent me, so send
I you. He said, I am sent. I'm the messenger,
and I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Christ
comes. to his people with, the Scripture
says, healing in his wings. He comes to heal our souls. He
comes to heal our homes. He comes to heal our nation.
He comes to heal our world. He says, I am the Lord that healeth
thee. He healeth all our diseases. There is a balm in Gilead to
heal. Christ came to heal, and Christ
comes as the messenger of the covenant with terms of peace. Would you have peace with God?
Christ comes with those terms. They are repentance and faith.
He says, repent and believe the gospel. Come unto me, and I'll
give you rest. Christ comes as the messenger
of the covenant with terms of peace. Sent. Sent. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah until the one whom God shall send comes, and he
comes as the substitute for his people. What the terrible law
could not do, Christ did. He has accomplished full redemption
by the sacrifice of himself. A robe of perfect righteousness
is complete by the obedience of the one whom God sends. And then the word shallow, according
to another author, means, until the sun shall come. The scepter
shall not depart from Judah until the sun, the sun. Turn to Isaiah 9. Isaiah chapter
9, verse 7. The scepter shall not depart.
This is God's promise. This is God's prophecy. It shall
not depart till the sun comes. unto us, Isaiah 9, 6, unto us,
a child is born unto us, a son is given, and the government
shall be on his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace." He's the son of David. He's the Son of David. He's the
Son of Judah. He's the rightful heir to the
covenant throne. He is the sovereign of Israel.
He's the Son of God. He who came to us is divine. No man can undertake the task
of redemption. No angel is equal to the task
of redemption. All the religions of the world
could combine together and not redeem one soul. He who died
on that cross is the one who made the world. He who died on
that cross was the one who was before all worlds. He who died on that cross is
none other than God himself, clothed in human flesh. Who but
God, who but God could snatch a sinner from hell? Who but God
could satisfy divine justice? Who but could please a perfect
law, who but God could remove infinite sin. Who but God. He's the Son of God. Under us
a son is given, the son of Judah, and the Son of God, and thank
God the Son of Man. What does he mean when he says,
I am the Son of Man? He's my kinsman. I am a man,
my rich brother, who can pay my my strong sensor who can drive
out the enemy, my perfect redeemer who can satisfy the law. He is
my strength as a man, my shield and my sword. And then I like
this, I like this application here. Another writer says the
word shallow means to whom it belongs. Turn to Ezekiel. You're going to like this scripture
here. Ezekiel 21. You're going to rejoice in it.
You like all scripture, but you're going to rejoice in this. This
made cold chills go up and down my back. Jacob sits here on the
side of his deathbed, and God speaks to him and through him,
and to these boys through him, and he prophesies what's going
to happen. And he says, the scepter, the
rod of sovereignty, the identification with the kingdom, with the covenants,
not going to depart out of the hand of Judah until he comes,
watch it now, to whom it belongs. To whom it belongs. It didn't
belong to David. It didn't belong to Solomon. It didn't belong
to these others who held it. They held it for somebody It
says in Ezekiel 21, verse 25, and God seems to have gotten
his fill of their idolatry and their wickedness and their iniquity
especially. Oh, he says, when men do wrong,
it's terrible, but when kings go wrong, when kings go wrong. And he says, and thou profane,
wicked king of Israel, your day is come. iniquity shall have
an end. Thus saith the Lord God, Remove
the diadem, take off the crown. This shall not be the same. Exalt
him that's low, and abase him that's high. I'll overturn, overturn,
overturn it, and it shall be no more, until he comes whose right it
is and to whom it belongs, I'll give it to him." I'm tired, God
said, of your, I'm tired of your profane wickedness in high places. I'm tired of your compromise.
I'm tired of your iniquity. I'm tired of the, of the evil
on the throne. Take off the crown, God said.
Lay aside the dowdy. But don't destroy it. Let it
lay there. till he comes to whom it belongs,
and I'm going to give it to him. I'm going to give it to him,
the one to whom it belongs. That scepter shall not depart
from Judah. Oh, it was tainted, and it was
stained, and it was spotted, and it was drugged through the
mud, and it was drugged through the mire, and it had a lot of
evil about it, but it never was put away till he came to whom
it belongs. The crown, the rod, the kingdom,
the worship. There's a picture. I never have
seen it. I read about it. There's a picture
of Nelson, the great seaman, on board a French man of war. And Nelson is receiving the swords
from the various captains whom he had conquered. They're all
lined up there, and they're presenting their swords to him. And there's
an old seaman standing beside him. And as Nelson, you see from
the picture, took the swords, he turned and handed them to
that old seaman, and that old seaman just took them under his
arm. And he's standing there with a half a dozen swords stuck
under his arm while the great conqueror is there receiving
the swords, and there's a smile on his face. He's been with his
mighty admiral, his mighty captain, through many mighty battles,
and now the victory. And now the day of victory. What
a glorious day when Christ shall come and his people shall stand
by his side and rejoice. as all the swords of rebellion
are surrendered to him to whom it belongs. What a triumph! The only king of kings and Lord
of lords, what a triumph over his enemies, when every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father. The scepter shall not depart
until he comes to whom it belongs. To whom it belongs. And then the fourth and final,
and I think the meaning that has the most support. The word
shallow means peace. It comes from the same root as
the word Salem. King of Salem, which signifies
peace. That's what it is. The angels
came down here to the Judean hillsides and they said, We bring
you good tidings of great joy unto you as born on this day
in the city of David a Savior, Christ the Lord. But they preceded
that announcement with this word, Peace on earth and goodwill toward
men. Do you know what peace is? Have you ever said to yourself,
do you know what real peace is? Have you ever said to yourself,
there's nothing that I desire, there's absolutely nothing that
I want, I am totally, perfectly satisfied, I am perfectly content,
there is nothing that I fear, there is nothing that I dread,
There's nothing that I regret. I don't know anything about that,
do you? Nobody else does. I've never reached that state,
and nobody ever has in the flesh. But I'm looking forward to it.
Because that's exactly what Christ's name is, peace. And that's the
kind of peace that he's going to bring to his people someday.
That's the kind of peace that we shall know. That's what David
was talking about when he said, I shall be satisfied. I shall
be satisfied. There shall be nothing that I
desire, nothing that I want, nothing that I fear, nothing
that I dread, nothing that I regret. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with his likeness. That's who he is. Judah, the
scepter shall not depart from you till he comes who is peace. to his peace. And he shall bring
that peace to the heart, and he shall bring that peace to
the mind, and he shall bring that peace to the soul. He shall
bring that peace to all who know him and all who love him. And
someday, by his grace, when he comes again, he's going to bring
that peace to this world. And the ox shall lie down with
the lion, and the little child shall put his hand on the hole
of the snake, and there shall be perfect peace." Perfect peace,
when the King of peace, when the Prince of peace. Somebody said, I wouldn't change
my blessed estate with all that this earth calls good or great,
and while my faith can keep her whole, I'm not going to end the
unbeliever's goal. But this last line, and then
I'll close, it says here, "...the scepter shall not depart from
Judah until he comes who is the one to whom it belongs, the King
of Peace, the Son, and then unto him shall the gathering of the
people be." I heard a preacher a few days ago on the radio,
and he was talking about the unity of Christendom. He was
talking about the unity of Christendom. He was talking about what the
world needs is a unity and a gathering together in heart of all Christians. I wanted to say to him, God's
people are united. They're united around and in
Christ. They're not divided. God's people
are not divided. It says, When Shallow comes to
Him, shall the gathering of the people be. Now, all religious
people aren't united and never will be. And all professed believers
aren't united and never will be. And all who call themselves
lovers of God are not united, and never will be. But those
who know shallow are united. They are not divided. Their hearts
are bound together and beat as one in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are complete in Him, and they are one in Him. And
he is their king, he is their redeemer, he is their hope, he
is their refuge, he is their life, he is their salvation,
he is Alpha and Omega, he's the author and finisher of their
faith, he's everything to them. They are already gathered to
him. And there's no division. And there's no division. They found the soldier, an Irish
soldier, on the battlefield dead. And Charles Spurgeon said that
this poem was found in his pocket. Boys, I got to follow Christ
until this old carcass dies, for I dare not face in the land
of grace the sorrow of his eyes. It's not the throne, it's not
the books, it's him I've got to see. It's Him, just Him, that's
the Savior of fellows like you and me. And boys, I'd rather
frizzle up in the flames of a burning hell than stand condemned and
look into His face and hear His voice so well say, Depart from
me, I know you're not. Yeah, God's people are united
wherever you find them. On the battlefields of Ireland,
if you find them in the heart of Africa, you find them on the
streets of New York. You find them in the cathedrals,
in the temples, you find them in the churches and chapels,
you find them under the brush arbor in the tent, but they're
all united. They're all agreed. They're all
one. They've gathered to Christ. Shallow
has come the Prince of Peace, the one to whom it all belongs,
all the praise and the worship and the glory. Eternally it's
His, and they're gathered at His feet. And when God Almighty
takes them all to glory, they'll be bound together in that same
unity. intensified and multiplied, but
in that same unity. And they all shall want with
one voice cry unto him who loved us and washed us from our sin. In his own blood unto him be
the glory." Our Father enthroned Christ in our hearts. It all belongs to Him. He is
shallow. He is the Prince of Peace. He's
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's the Son. He's the
Heir. He's the Sovereign. Enthrone
Him in our hearts. O God, let every one of us so
appreciate and enter into these words of Jacob, uttered so many,
many years ago. Shallow has come. The victory
has been won. He stooped. He conquered. He
ascended to thy right hand, there he sits, until all his enemies
be made his footstool. And every knee is going to bow,
let mine bow now. And every tongue is going to
confess, let mine confess now. And every voice is going to give
him the glory, let mine give him the glory now. Let me be
a subject of his majesty, King Jesus. Let me be a part of his
kingdom. that may be one of his subjects. In the name of Christ our Lord,
I pray. Amen.