“Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. “Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up? “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (vv.8-10)
Here in our text Jacob is prophetically testifying that Judah would be the tribe to deliver Israel from its enemies - and his blessing supersedes even that of Joseph, for he says that, 'his father’s sons shall bow down to you,’ and then he goes on to say that ‘the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes.' That future generations would be governed by Judah, and from his tribe (Judah) would come the Messiah, the Prince, the Deliverer, who would become Israel’s invincible Leader.
Why Judah? He had made some serious mistakes when he was younger, yet Judah’s excellence gradually began to come to light after Jacob had initially sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain. Judah, from then on, was the leader of all of his brothers. But, when Judah offered to give his life for the life of his brother Benjamin, his worth and excellence even exceeded anything that Joseph had done. This selfless act revealed why he would be the one through whom the Messiah would descend.
The word ‘Shiloh’ in our text means “the peaceful one.’ The name ‘Shiloh´ speaks of a man and is a Messianic reference. Due to the word’s primary inference being “peace,” the prophet Isaiah is believed by many to have been inspired to write of the coming Messiah, the prince whose Name would be “Prince of Peace” -"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Jesus, the Messiah, from the tribe of Judah, from the root of David, spoken of prophetically here by Jacob and later by Isaiah has become the deliverer of "whosoever believes on His name," through His sacrificial death on the cross, and resurrection to new life. He has become the deliverer of our enemies, and the Savior of our souls. Hallelujah!
The Truth: “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:5)
