OT: Genesis 49:8-12

Reading:

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.   Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?   The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.   Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:   His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Commentary:

This was the blessing which Jacob gave to his son Judah, just before Jacob's death.  Of the twelve sons of Jacob (a.k.a. "Israel"), Judah was the tribe God from whom Christ would be born.  Jesus came from Judah….so did David.  Of the twelve sons, Judah had power over his enemies.  Thus he is pictured as both a young lion who crouches and catches his prey and even as an old lion whom few would challenge.  The tribe of Judah was both strong and numerous by God's blessing here given through Jacob, and in the wilderness Judah's army was the strongest.  When the Israelites settled in the Promised Land, Judah also took the high country hills of "Judea" and Jerusalem, which also symbolizes strength.  Judah likewise had the rule when David was given the throne, and Jerusalem was the "city of David."  All this leads up to Christ who was a descendant of Judah.  "The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come…."  Kretzmann here writes, "The scepter is the mark of royal power, and the ruler's staff, or the mace of the chieftain, resting between his feet as he sat upright, likewise belonged to the insignia of authority and power."  The government would thus remain in Judah's power until Christ came, and history proved this to be true.  By the time Christ was born (Shiloh…means tranquil), the Jews of Judah had lost the right of self-rule.  Rome was in power.