Genesis 49:8–10

And again she bore a son, and said, "Now I will praise Jehovah"; so she called his name Judah. Never do we hear of her soul rising so high. The sorrow-stricken woman breaks out in praise of Jehovah, and her fourth son carries it in the name she gave him that day. Yes, from Judah, in human descent, came the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. How much His grace rises above our praise!

The blessing of Judah strikes an entirely different note. In verses 8-12 we turn to a prophecy about Christ. He was rejected and killed, yet He comes out triumphant in both grace and judgment. There is a play on Judah's name, for it means "Praise." And Christ is to be the Object of universal praise, as we see in Revelation 5. Verse 8 shows two classes: his brothers and his enemies. His brothers are to sound out his praise, and his enemies are to feel the power of his hand putting them down. Here his father's children are to bow down before Judah, who stands for Christ, just as they were earlier to bow down before Joseph, since he stood for Christ.

"Judah prevailed." What a gracious way of declaring God's pre-determined purpose! In history, how did Judah prevail so as to get this honour? He was one with his brothers in their hatred of Joseph... Judah's prevailing is simply the will of God. So he prevailed, not by his goodness. The Holy Spirit has given us a sketch of his home life, his private life, and Genesis 38 tells his character and his sin plainly. No other son of Jacob is brought into the light like this.

The prophecy about Judah stands in great contrast to the one about Simeon and Levi, for all of it is favourable. Judah had been guilty of very serious wrong too. But his deeply felt repentance, seen in Genesis 44:18-34, was such that God was free to bless him greatly.

But first of all, Judah shows us a picture of Christ Himself. God's purpose is in Him, and Judah is the one whom his brothers shall praise. This could not be said of Reuben; there was nothing praiseworthy in him, whatever his position at the head of the family might have been... God's purpose is in Judah (Psalm 78:68), and here the Christ is brought before us as the One to be praised. Let us praise Him from our very hearts!

"Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book." Here we see the definite plans of God about the centre of His purposes on the earth. Judah was the one in whom the promises were centred... The general promise at the beginning was, "the offspring of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Then it all rested on Abraham's offspring: "in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." The line became narrower and narrower. Judah was chosen from among his brothers, and last of all, the family of David.

The lion of the tribe of Judah tells us of this mighty power at work for God's ancient people. It matches the prophecy of Jacob, which foretells that Judah will prevail over his enemies — "Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies." In order that Judah may prevail he has the strength of "a young lion." But the real source of Judah's strength is that out of that tribe the One would come to whom the people would gather (Gen. 49:8-10). Christ is the true Lion of Judah.

Judah is the royal tribe whose ensign was a lion, and from him Messiah sprang. Lions stand for the majesty and dignity of Israel's throne. Think of that, and you get some sense of the true dignity of the nation as linked to the Son of David. Judah is a young lion. "From the prey, my son, you have gone up," says Jacob... We live in the light of accomplished redemption, with the power of Satan broken at the cross. So we can see how He has gone up, having stripped principalities and powers and triumphed over them... "But who shall rouse Him up?" That shall be the day of the vengeance of our God.

Judah was to stoop and lie down. The first of these original words implies a forced lowering; the second a voluntary humiliation (Psalm 102:10; Philippians 2:7). But he was to lie down as a lion, and in the end to rise up in royal dignity and judgment. It is, in principle, the "sufferings of Christ and the glories that follow." At the end of the Book, the apostle John is called to look at the Lion of Judah, who had prevailed to open and carry out God's decrees for the world. John turned and saw, not a lion, but a "Lamb, as though it had been slain." That was how the lion had prevailed: by humiliation, suffering and death. He went down into them so as to rise again into royal dominion and power.

The lion is a type of unstoppable strength. It may act lawlessly, or, as here, in the righteous carrying out of God's judgments, for "a king's wrath is like the growling of a lion." (Proverbs 19:12.)... These prophecies are still unfulfilled; for He who holds God's mighty power, symbolised by the lion, has not yet appeared in this character. He has been on earth as a lamb led to the slaughter, but not as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." This is the character, however, which He now takes.

So it is Christ that Jacob has in spirit before him when he sees Judah taking on the lion-character. In David the lion-character did rise up for a short time, just as predicted. But the brief glory of his kingdom only foretold and announced the better glory of Christ's lasting one. So the Lion of the tribe of Judah is not only the "Branch of David," springing out of the cut-down tree. He is also, as here, the Root of David, and David himself gets all his real meaning from Him... David's throne is to be lifted up from the dust, and Judah's long-delayed hope is to open out into fulfilment. The thought of Judah's Lion cannot be separated from Judah taking the prey, and then lying down with a front of power that no one will dare to disturb.

In verse 9 Judah is compared to a lion, as a king among beasts. Here we see a hint of Christ acting in judgment. Genesis is the seed-plot of the Bible. We pass on to Revelation, where everything comes to fruition and finality, and in Revelation 5 we find "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" about to take the book of judgment and break its seals. And the universe is filled with His praises.

The prophecy about Judah is in great contrast to the one about Simeon and Levi, for it is all favourable. Though Judah had also been guilty of very serious wrong, his deeply felt repentance, seen in Genesis 44:18-34, was such that God was free to bless him greatly. His brothers would praise him (Judah means "praise"). He would subdue his enemies. His father's children would bow to his authority. He is likened to a lion, the king of beasts, feeding on the spoils of his conquest.

The prophecy about Judah is nothing like the one about Simeon and Levi. All of it is favourable. Judah had been guilty of very serious wrong too. But his repentance was deeply felt, as Genesis 44:18-34 shows, and God was free to bless him greatly. His brothers would praise him (Judah means "praise")… The scepter of royal authority would not depart from Judah, and neither would a lawgiver, until Shiloh came. Shiloh is the Lord Jesus. To Him would be the obedience of the people.

"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet (from among his descendants) until Shiloh come." This was remarkably fulfilled. The tribe always kept its cohesion and self-rule, even in captivity, until "a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered" — enrolled for taxation. The Jews were about to lose their nationality and merge into the Roman Empire as individuals. Joseph and Mary had gone to their home town of Bethlehem for the very purpose of registering as Roman subjects. At that moment Messiah was born. Shiloh came.

The "scepter" may be no more than the tribal symbol. If that is the sense, Judah was kept in that place until Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, came and was rejected. In due time the place was lost, until He comes again… If it means someone entitled to royal rule in Zion, that is true as well. So the line of David through Solomon ran on to Jesus, as Matthew 1 shows; and in Him — dead, risen and glorified — it remains, to be made good when God's time comes.

I believe, with the fullest authority in Hebrew, that the language allows us to take Shiloh as the subject and not the object. And the sense in the context, I believe, demands that we render it "until Shiloh (that is, Peace, or the Man of Peace, the Messiah) come."

The point that is hard to accept from the words is Israel's coming to Shiloh. Either it is "until rest come," or "until Judah come to Shiloh"… The ancient interpretations, the Targums and others, all take it as Messiah. If those are not accepted, then it is "till rest come," or "till Judah come to rest." The words "to him shall the gathering of the peoples be" are the difficulty then.

At the end of that verse another striking fact appears. The word "people" is more correctly "peoples." It refers to the nations in general, and not just to the nation of Israel. Through His rejection and death, the coming of Shiloh has made Him the centre of gathering for a great crowd out of all nations. In the coming age He will be the visible centre of Israel and of the nations too.

Shiloh came; but Israel were not ready, and refused Him. So the gathering (or the obedience) of the peoples, however certain, is still future. God's purpose seemed to fail. But the blood of the cross established it, though unbelief thinks the cross is its ruin. It is postponed, not lost.