The Tribes and Us: Judah and the Scepter

[Genesis 49 is the record of Jacob’s prophecies about his sons and Deuteronomy 33 is Moses’ blessings to each of the tribes those sons engendered.  This is an exploration of these passages and others about the tribes of Israel and what we can learn from them for us today.]

Genesis 49:8–12

[8] “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you.  [9] Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up.  He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?  [10] The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.  [11] Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.  [12] His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. (ESV)

Judah’s name sounds like the Hebrew word for “praise” and Jacob makes that play on words explicit when he tells Judah “what shall happen to you in days to come” (Genesis 49:1).  Judah was Leah’s fourth child, after Reuben, Simeon, and Levi.  The names of the first three sons were given to them by Leah as pleas for Jacob’s love (Reuben, “now my husband will love me,” Simeon, “the Lord has heard that I am hated,” and Levi, “now my husband will be attached to me”), but with Judah he was so named because, she said, “This time I will praise Yahweh” (Genesis 29:32-35).  What an important change of heart.

Jacob tells Judah that his brothers shall praise him, even bow down to him.  Amazingly, Yahweh had told Joseph in his dreams from God that Joseph’s brothers would bow down to him, as would his father and mother.  That literally happened when Joseph became as powerful as he did in Egypt and was used to save his family from the famine.  But this word to Judah is wholly unexpected and speaking of a much greater and longer lasting “bowing down” than happened with Joseph.

Jacob speaks of Judah’s ferocity toward his enemies, the prey, and of the scepter that will remain his, between his feet, until Shiloh comes.  Either Shiloh is a personal name for Messiah, or to be translated “until he to whom it belongs comes” (that is, the Messiah), or, as the ESV does, “until tribute comes to him,” meaning the conquered nations pay him tribute and submit to his rule.  In either case, Jacob is foretelling that the Messiah, the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15), will come through the line of Judah.  And it won’t just be family that bows to him but all nations.

His will be an era of prosperity (the foal and the vine) and he will be viewed with honor (eyes and teeth).  The son who was down the line for getting this blessing has received it because Reuben, Levi, and Simeon forfeited the blessing by their actions.  Joseph, in one sense, gets the firstborn blessing and “rules” the family for their time in Egypt, but Judah will rule the nation and the nations.  The beginning of this messianic promise was started with David and the reign of his heirs over the nation until it was exiled by the Babylonians.  Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment as the son of David whose coming forth from Bethlehem as ruler in Israel is from ancient days (Micah 5:2), the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5), the greater son of David whom David calls Lord (Psalm 110:1) and who also possesses the priesthood of Melchizedek.

Oddly, when Israel first seeks a king to rule over them, Yahweh chooses Saul, a Benjamite, not someone from Judah.  And Samuel the prophet tells Saul that had he been obedient to Yahweh he would have had the kingship forever (1 Samuel 13:13).  Of course, Yahweh knew that Saul would fail in the way he did and that David would be next.  But this shows that it did not matter greatly what tribe was chosen for this honor.  It was a choice of grace, not merit ultimately.  David had many heirs to the throne who were no better than Saul.  But Yahweh made a covenant with David and his house to keep the kingship there forever.

There is a warrior-king inside all of us that maybe even we don’t dare to rouse, but that should be roused.  There are foes of our family, our community, our nation that need defeating, so we can’t afford not to be roused.  Like Popeye who finally says, “That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more,” and eats that spinach and kicks Bluto’s butt, we need Christian warriors who say, “Enough!” and go to war against poverty, prejudice, godlessness, injustice and a host of other evils.  God will show you your battlefield, and like Judah’s favorite son, David, the five smooth stones to use against Goliath.