Genesis 49:10

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.