Please take your Bibles and turn with me in the written word of God to the 49th chapter of Genesis. And as you are turning there, there are times when I come to my study at the beginning of the week and I start looking over a passage and at first I'm thinking to myself, why is this here? And what is the Lord trying to say to us? And I think to myself, we'll just skim over this as quickly as we can and move on to the next part, which to a first-year thinking is more interesting. But you ask the Lord for his help and say, Lord, open my eyes to see what it is that you're showing us, because the Spirit of God never wastes words. And so we come to a place where, just like this morning, I'm not going to be able to preach this passage in one sitting. We'll have to divide it up into two. Because now, by the end, you're saying to yourself, how is there going to be enough time to explain all of it? Because the riches of God's Word are so deep. He has a purpose behind everything He says, things that He means for our soul's profit. So we're only going to be able to work through the first 15 verses of this chapter this morning, and God willing, we'll get the balance of the chapter next Lord's Day. So beginning in chapter 49 verse 1, let's read the text together. Jacob called his sons and said, Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey of my son you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. and to him shall be the obedience of the people, binding his donkey to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk. Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea. He should become a haven for ships and his border shall adjoin Sidon. Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between two burdens. He saw that rest was good and that the land was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden and became a band of slaves. Skip down now to verse 28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them, and he blessed them. He blessed each one according to his own blessing. Skip down again to verse 33 at the end of the chapter. And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people." Let's pray. Father, we need the illumination of your Spirit if we are to comprehend the Scriptures. We confess, left to ourselves, Father, we cannot understand spiritual things. But for us who are in Christ, We understand because we have believed, and you have given us your spirit. And we need your insight to open our eyes to see what it is you're telling us in these words, because they're written for our soul's profit. Lord, we pray that you'll draw us to Christ and help us not just to be hearers of the word, but to be effectual doers of it as well, to walk away changed and transformed as we marvel at your grace shown forth in this chapter. For in Jesus' name we pray, amen. The 49th chapter of Genesis is full of interpretive challenges, the first of which is the fact that these prophecies given about the 12 tribes are written in poetic language, and it's not exactly easy to always understand what it is Jacob intends. So I'm going to tell you right here at the outset, I don't pretend to understand every single thing that Jacob says here. I will do my best, but there's still some things that are hidden from me or mysterious to me, as I suspect there always will be. But perhaps the more difficult thing to wrap your mind around is what the Bible says in verse 28 when it says, "...and he blessed them." He blessed each one according to his own blessing. Now certainly when you read about Joseph and the blessing he gives to Joseph and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he's gushing. But that's to be expected, isn't it? Because we have seen over and over again how Jacob favored Joseph, loved him as his favorite. That makes sense to us. But when we read about the first three sons, Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, it doesn't seem a whole lot like a blessing, does it? Reuben, you're my firstborn of my strength, you turncoat. You're not going to prosper. and Levi and Simeon, you bloodthirsty rebel, you're going to be scattered all over Israel. If this is a blessing, it's almost like Jacob is saying, here's your blessing, you warthog-faced buffoon, and here's your blessing, yak face. I mean, it's like there's an insult more of a curse than a blessing. If this is a blessing, then you have to ask yourself the question, what would a curse look like? It doesn't seem to be something that's a blessing at all, and yet that's what the Scripture calls it. Certainly, Jacob was an old man. He was 147 years old. And he died after he spoke these words. Now, how awkward is that? You say these bad things about your kids, and then you go, And you leave them with the awkwardness, right? And have we not seen that partiality is a besetting sin that runs all through the narrative of Genesis? We see it beginning with Eve. She thought Cain was going to be the Messiah. Big oops there. But she thought Cain was the Messiah, the promised seed of the woman, until he showed his true character by murdering Abel. But she actually preferred Cain to Abel. Abel's name literally means nothing, as if he's an afterthought. He's nobody, because Cain is the real issue going on here. Isaac favored Esau over Jacob. Rebecca favored Jacob over Esau. Then Jacob in turn favored Rachel and neglected his wife Leah. And then we find Jacob favoring Joseph, which caused all kinds of problems for his brothers. And then when he thought that Joseph was dead, Benjamin became the new golden child and the one he favored then. My point is, it would be very easy to look upon chapter 49 and conclude this is just a crotchety old man. who is angry and bitter at his sons, and that's why he says the things that he says, and then the partiality he has for Joseph and Benjamin comes out, but the rest of them he's showing all this bitterness. Until, at least, you get to what he has to say to Judah. Because he has nothing but glowing words of praise for Judah, And his prospects are very optimistic as to how Judah's going to go. But when you think about who Judah was, you've got to ask yourself why. Because remember who Judah was. Judah, his best friend, was an idolatrous Canaanite because birds of a feather flock together. This was the man who had the great idea to sell Joseph into slavery, and who therefore had caused Jacob 22 years of bitterness and pain as he thought that his son was dead. This is the same man whose character was so notorious that his daughter-in-law, Tamar, says, all I have to do is cover my face, dress like a prostitute, and I know my father-in-law will sleep with me. Obviously he had a reputation as a skirt chaser. If ever Jacob was going to vent his bitterness, surely he was going to say, Judah, you are he who has tormented me, who caused me to be bitter and mourn my son's death for 22 years when the whole time you knew he was alive. And yet that is not what he does. The whole key to interpreting chapter 49 is found in verse 1, where Jacob says this, This is not Jacob venting his bitterness or his frustration. This is the Holy Spirit of God Himself speaking through him as a prophet. And what He's telling them is not simply the destiny of His twelve sons, but rather, He's telling them the destiny of the tribes that will come from them. Their destiny from the time that Jacob dies until Jesus comes, the first time. Until the birth of the Messiah, He's telling them about the destiny of the tribes. And in doing so, some of the destinies of those tribes were adversely affected by the sins of their forefathers. For example, Reuben, whose tribe never really prospered, or for Levi, and for Simeon, whose tribes were scattered among Israel, as we will see. But that being said, God intends this for good. For several reasons. For one thing, we're going to see that even in the harshest of rebukes, God's grace makes itself known, as we will see. But furthermore, what's it doing? It's bringing a deeper repentance to these men over their sins. It's reminding all of us that there are consequences for sin in this life. as a warning to us, lest we follow in the same direction. But also, this is set forth as a warning to the posterity of these men. Because when we come to the New Testament, don't we find Paul saying, beware of those who make much of genealogies. Because there were Jewish people who said, me, I'm a tribe of Benjamin. Or look at me, I'm a priest in the line of Levi. Judah, I belong to the tribe of Judah. And I'm very proud of that. And they thought because of that, that they were right with God. And it's as if the Lord is reminding us, before you boast in who your daddy is, remember who they are. And remember the kinds of sins they committed. That they were nothing in and of themselves, but it was God's grace that made them different. And so don't boast that you're a physical descendant of these men. Remember that these men were fallen, that these men were deserving of wrath. Andrew Fuller gives a good summary of this chapter. He says this, In what way can it be said that Joseph blessed his sons? It might be thought that the first three sons, at least, were cursed rather than blessed. No, they were rebuked, but not cursed. nor cast off like Esau. They still continued among the tribes of Israel. It must have been very affecting for these brethren thus to stand by and hear, as from the mouth of God, what would be the consequences of their early conduct on their distant posterity. And as their minds were now tender, it may be supposed to have wrought in them renewed repentance or gratitude as the subject required." End of quote. And I believe he has summarized very well what's going on here. Well, so as we dive in, I want you to note something. that the blessings are not given in strict chronological order, even though he starts with Reuben as firstborn. Rather, the prophecies here are grouped topically, based on who their mother was. So what you have in the first verses 3-15 is prophecies directed to the six sons of Leah. Verses 16-21 are focused upon the four sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. And verses 22 and 27 deal with the two sons of Rachel. So what we're going to do is we're going to group our preaching under those three headings, and then we're only going to get through the first heading today. And then God willing, next week we'll go through headings two and three. But let me go ahead and give you the headings now. First, the destiny of Leah's six sons. Secondly, the destiny of Bilhah and Zilpah's four sons. And third, the destiny of Rachel's two sons. So this morning I'll have only one Roman numeral. Roman numeral one, the destiny of Leah's six sons. It starts off with Reuben in verses 3 and 4. Let's remember the story of Reuben and all the children, how they came to be. Remember that Leah and Rachel were competing with one another for the affections and love of Jacob. And then they gave their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah, to him as wives, which they would have children that were basically considered their children instead. Reuben was Jacob's firstborn. And it's a very sad thing because we read there when he was born that God saw Leah that she was neglected by her husband. And therefore he remembered Leah and opened her womb and gave her a child by Jacob and she named him Reuben. And the name Reuben means sea, a sun. It makes you cry to look at it. Because here she is saying, even with the name of her firstborn son, look at me, Jacob. See, I've given you a son. Will you love me now? See, a son. And as the firstborn son, Reuben was entitled to the double portion of blessing, because the firstborn received a double portion bigger than all the rest. And that's the very point that Jacob makes in verse 3. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. He's exalting his privileges that he had, and he's showing that so that he can tell him just how far he had fallen from obtaining them. Because you remember the story, 40 years earlier, Reuben had gone in to Jacob's wife, Bilhah, who was the maidservant of Rachel. And he committed incest with his father's own wife. And Jacob knew of it. Now think about how awkward it would be to have a son in your home, and you look at that son and you know he's been intimate with one of your wives. Or imagine you're Dan in Naphtali, who are Bilhah's sons, and you realize, my half-brother has been intimate with my mom. and how awkward that would make you be. What a horrible sin, because it's not only a sin of adultery, it's an incestuous sin. A woman who should have been a second mother to him, he had been intimate with. Paul speaks in the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and speaks of a man who was a member of the church, who not only was engaged in sexual morality, but he was engaged in sexual morality with his own stepmother. And he says, such a sin should not be named in the church. It's not even named among the Gentiles. Even the pagans don't do that. And you've got someone who's a member of the church who's doing these things, and he says, put him under discipline immediately and cast him out of the church, lest a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Well, Jacob could look at Reuben and say, you know, even the Canaanites don't do what you did, and the Egyptians don't do what you did. That's how wicked and vile the things were. And notice in verse 4, The word you is used three times. The word your is used one time. Four times, the second personal pronoun is used. It's always used singular. Jacob is looking Reuben right in the eye, in front of all of his brothers, and he's rebuking him in front of them. Notice what he says. He says, unstable as water. That is, try to grasp water in your hand. Can you do it? You can't. This is your character. You're an unstable man. This is your nature. Because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. And notice the last phrase of verse 4. It's as if he takes his eyes off of Reuben, looks at the rest of the brothers and points at Reuben and says, he went up to my couch. How humiliating. How embarrassing for Reuben. But he's saying, you have forfeited the blessings of the firstborn. Like my brother Esau, you no longer will inherit those blessings. As a matter of fact, my firstborn, I'm going to consider, is Ephraim, as we saw last week. Ephraim, the secondborn son of Joseph, will be as my firstborn. He shall receive the double portion of the blessing. You have forfeited it by your sin. Now, brothers and sisters, as harsh as it is, we should come away with this sober warning. There's consequence for sin. And there are some sins, like incest, that carry greater consequences with them, that will not be gone from us in this present age. Temporal difficulties, temporal hardships that will follow us until our grave, that will not be erased until eternity. And such was the case with Reuben. And notice what the prophecy was. Here it is, you shall not excel. That is, neither you nor your descendants shall excel because of this sin. You forfeited your birthright. Matthew Henry points out that no prophet, judge, or prince ever arose from the Reubenites. As a matter of fact, there's only two notable persons who arose from the Reubenites. Their names are Dathan and Abiram. They're notable because they're notorious. They led the rebellion against Moses. As a matter of fact, in the Book of Judges we read that when Cicero was going to invade the land of Canaan, the Reubenites refused to help repel him. Although we are told they did help some of the other tribes claim their territory in the promised land. So the very things that Jacob said would happen did indeed happen because the Lord cannot make a prophecy and it fell to take place. That being said, there is a silver lining. Not everything is gloom and doom here. Matthew Henry says it this way, quote, He shall have all the privileges of a son, but not of a firstborn. In other words, he's lost the firstborn blessing, but that being said, he still has the dignity of having a tribe of Israel named after him. Hundreds of years later, Moses would again bless the 12 tribes, Deuteronomy chapter 33, and this is what he says of Reuben. Let Reuben live and not die, nor let his men be few. Let him grow in number. And then, in the book of Revelation, and this is something I'm going to come back to many, many times. Have you ever noticed the discussion that takes place in the Revelation at the end, when the city of the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, and lands upon the new earth that God has created? It's this massive city. It's over a thousand miles wide, and a thousand miles high, and a thousand miles deep. It's shaped like a cube, and it has a gate running around it. And that gate has twelve foundation stones it sits upon, and those twelve foundation stones have names. The names of the twelve apostles. But then there are three gates in each side, going north, south, east, and west. Three gates on each side. Twelve gates total that you enter in and exit from. But the interesting thing about the gates is there are no locks on it. You ever think about it when you pull out your keys? Keys are proof of total depravity. Because you don't have to lock your doors if there are no thieves. You don't have to lock your doors if there are no murderers. But we have to have locks on everything because there are thieves and there are murderers. In heaven, there's these 12 gates, but they don't have locks upon them. They're open day and night. They're never shut. Because there's no fear of an invader coming in and encroaching upon God's territory. But those gates all have names upon them. And the names, the Bible says, are the names of the twelve patriarchs, the names of the twelve tribes of Judah. So let's put it this way, brothers and sisters, you and I, if you're in Christ, we're going to have the privilege of walking in and out all twelve of those gates for all eternity. And as we walk under one of them, we're going to be able to look up and see a name over it, and the name is Reuben. Think about that. Because though there were temporal judgments that fell upon Reuben, there were no eternal judgments upon him. Why? Because later, Jesus, from the tribe of Judah, would die for Reuben's sins. And because of that, the wrath of God was taken away from him. So that even in the greatness of his sin, even an incestuous man, is going to be saved in that day, because God has shown mercy to him. Pretty remarkable that God, who gave this very prophecy about Reuben, would then be willing to have Reuben's name put upon one of the gates of heaven. Let's move on to Simeon and Levi. They too had sins in their past that followed them. They weren't incestuous sins. They weren't odd things like what Reuben had done. But they were violent. They were men who were bloodthirsty. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Let's remember them. How were they born? What were their names? Simeon means heard. Here is Leah saying, God has heard about me, and He's heard me and remembered me, and now He's given me the second son. Now my husband will pay attention to me. But of course, as you know the story, Jacob didn't notice. He barely paid attention to her. He came occasionally for the conjugal visit, and that was it. And he comes for another such visit, and she conceives a third child, Levi. And Levi means attached. Now my husband will be attached to me. I've given him three sons, and now he'll stop neglecting me, and he'll be attached to me from the hip. And still, it did not happen. But you know what happened with Simeon and Levi, they're notorious, their names go together. There was a man named Shechem, Prince Shechem, son of Hamor. Shechem saw their sister Dinah, and he committed fornication with her. As you read the details of the text, it seems that this was not a rape. This was a consensual act of fornication that Dinah was complicit in. And despite Shechem's sin, there was in this worldly man enough common grace that he really did have some true love and affection for Dinah in his heart. So he comes to Jacob and says, please, give her to me as my wife. And you remember what happened. What Simeon and Levi see here is an opportunity. an opportunity to slaughter the entire city. And so they say, well, it's an abomination for us to be connected to anybody who's not circumcised. So let all the men of your city be circumcised, and then you can marry our sister. And so they are all circumcised. They comply with the request. And when they're so sore and in pain, and the most intense pain took place three days after their surgery, they can't defend themselves. Then Simeon and Levi, they go in with their swords and they slaughter every man in the place. And remember what happened, then the rest of the brothers come in and help them plunder the goods that were there, take away all the women and all the children as their own, all the cattle, all the jewelry, which all this became a snare in their souls as well, because then they would worship the gods that these women worshipped. But Jacob rebuked them and said, You have brought a reproach upon my name. I will now be odious to my neighbors. And he's terrified that the other nations are going to do it to him before he does it to them. That is, come and slaughter him because he's notorious for what had happened with these men. But the men justify themselves. They justify themselves and they say, Well, should he treat our sister like a harlot? Now, here's the thing. Even in the Law of Moses, fornication was a sin, but it was not a capital offense. So these men are taking vengeance in their own hands. Not only are they killing Shechem, they kill all the men in the place and slaughter them without divine sanction to do so. They were self-willed. They did not submit themselves to God. Because the Bible tells us very plainly, vengeance is mine. I will repay." It is God's prerogative to bring justice to bear. It's not ours to take it into our own hands. Same thing happens today, doesn't it? We've read stories and heard stories over the last 30 years or so. We're professing Christians would plant bombs in abortion clinics, blow them up and kill the doctors who did the abortions and things like that. And what was the justification? Oh, I've saved lives. I've saved the lives of those who would have been aborted. The problem is, God has not given the power of the sword to the local church, nor has he given it to the individual Christian. He's given the power of the sword to execute wrongdoers to the civil government. And very often, the sword is not wielded by the civil government. We know there's injustices, things that are left unconvicted, unpunished. But we have to trust the Lord that on the Day of Judgment, Christ Himself will perfectly balance the ledger books of justice. And to say to Him, Lord, we defer it to You, and trust You will make all things well. It's not our place to take that into our own hand. These men had, and because of it, there's very dire consequences that come to them. Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Verse 5. Let not my soul enter their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. And this way it says in verse 7. Cursed be their anger. He doesn't say, Cursed be Simeon and Levi. Remember when Cain slaughtered Abel? That's exactly what God said. Cursed be Cain. But that's not what He says here. He doesn't say, Cursed be Simeon and Levi. Cursed be their sin. Cursed be their anger. Cursed be what they've done. And cursed be their wrath because it's cruel. He's condemning the sin, but He's not condemning the sinner in this case. And then here's the pronouncement, I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And this very much happened, just as with Reuben. Jacob's prophecy came to be fulfilled. You know, we hardly ever use the little maps in the back of our Bibles, but you might want to use it today. You should be able to find a map that shows you the layout of the tribes of Israel. And if you want to know where Simeon's tribe was, look down in the southernmost portion to the land of Judah. And you'll find that they're slap-dab in the middle of Judah. They were surrounded on all sides by Judah. They were landlocked, as it were, by his territory. As you read through the Old Testament, you'll find that basically Simeon's tribe was absorbed into Judah and pretty much ceased to be a tribe at all. That is, by intermarriage and all that kind of thing, their cities became the cities of Judah. They were lost. You can say they were scattered among Israel. Even so, the Levites were also scattered. They never were given any land that was their own. As a matter of fact, they were scattered through the 48 different cities all across the land of Israel. Because to take vengeance in our own hands is a great and sinful thing. But here again, just like there was a silver lining behind the blessing given to Reuben that seemed more like a curse, even so it is with Simeon and Levi. With Simeon, if they were, through intermarriage, incorporated into Judah, that also means that they were put into the line of the Messiah, because the Messiah came from Judah. But what about Levi? The Levites, yes, they were scattered. They never had land of their own. They had 48 different cities they occupied. But the Levites also, by God's own appointment, became the priests. The priests came from them, and think about what the priests had to do. The priests were given a teaching function in the law of God. They had to teach God's law to His people. So, in other words, they were given the privilege of being heralds of the Word of God that had been given up to that time to instruct them in the law and what the law meant and what was required in the law. But think about what else they were doing. Their very office itself and the sacrifices they were making. Do you realize that no one was ever forgiven for their sins because of one single animal that was slaughtered on a Jewish altar? The book of Hebrews tells us that the blood of animals could never take away sin. That blood was pointing to something else. Their very office and the sacrifices they were making were pointing to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It was a type and shadow pointing them to Christ, the Messiah who was to come. Their very office pointed to it. Somebody's going to come who's going to represent you before God, who's going to take your guilt before God, who's going to intercede before you before God and plead for God to forgive you. So, let's put it another way. The Levites had the privilege of preaching the Law and the Gospel. Here is what the righteous requirement of God's Law, and here's how it's fulfilled through the sacrifice of one who is pure and holy and blameless. So, by being scattered, which was meant as something of a curse. They blessed God's people because they were instructed both in law and in gospel. So do you see, once again, God takes sin when it abounds, and His grace abounds even more. To use even the sinfulness of men to spread His glory among the nations. And all this brings us then to Judah. And you can imagine we're going to pitch a tent on Judah right now. Because Judah is an incredible, incredible prophecy that's given here. Now, I don't pretend to know what Judah was thinking. But if you were Judah, and you had the past that Judah had, What are you thinking when you hear Jacob begin to bless your brothers? And he says this about Reuben. Oh, Reuben, yeah, you're the one that defiled my couch. And Levi and Simeon, you're the ones who were bloodthirsty. And this is what's going to happen to you. And now you, Judah. Oh, my. What's he about to say? Can't keep your hands off your own daughter-in-law? You sold my favorite son into slavery and let me think he was dead for 22 years. But that's not what he says. Judah, you are he whom your brother shall praise. And let's remember the circumstances of Judah's birth, because it has something to do, there's a play on words going here with Judah's name. Because remember, Judah was the fourth-born son of Leah. The first three sons she had, and she kept desperately hoping that Jacob would begin to notice her. Maybe my husband will now love me. But one child after another is born, and Jacob doesn't change. And when she gets to Judah, she says, now I will praise the Lord. In other words, Jacob does not love me. Jacob neglects me, but my God loves me. And He doesn't neglect me. And maybe it's time for me just to be content. that I'm not going to wait for Jacob to start loving me. Instead, I'm going to love the God who already loves me and who's been so attentive to me. And so what does she do? Now I'll praise the Lord. And so she names Judah, Praise. My attention is directed toward you. And notice that in verse 8, Jacob is playing off of his name. Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Or he could say it this way. He could have said, Praise, you are he whom your brothers shall Judah. He's making a play on words that, in other words, you are aptly named because your brothers are going to praise you. The next thing he says is, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. He doesn't say you won't have any enemies. But what he's saying is, you will prevail over them. You will have victory over your enemies. Your hand will be on their neck. Theirs won't be on yours. Yours will be over them because you're going to triumph over them and have victory over them. It's interesting, in Judges 1, verses 1 and 2, that when Joshua had brought Israel into Canaan to make his conquests, or excuse me, I believe that's Joshua 1, verses 1 and 2, Judah was given the lead. They were told, you go forth and lead the rest of the tribes in conquering and making conquests. Sometime later, many years later, there was a man who was a descendant of the tribe of Judah, you've probably heard of him, his name was David. Listen to what he says in Psalm 18. Psalm 18, verses 40 to 42. You also have given me the necks of my enemies, so that I destroyed those who hated me. They cried out, but there was none to save, even to the Lord, and He did not answer them. But I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind. I cast them out like dirt in the streets." Do you realize it was really under David's rule that Israel was finally consolidated? and that the enemies of Canaan were driven out. There was just a few more left, and Solomon took care of the rest of them. But this victory prophesied took place even under David's rule. Back in Genesis 49, he says, That is, your brothers and your sisters shall bow down before you." And that sounds awful like the prophetic dreams that Joseph had, doesn't it? Your brothers will bow down in front of you. He says, they're going to bow down to you because you're going to be an authority over them. Then he says something strange, verse 9. Judah is a lion's whelp. Whelp is the young of an animal. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion. And as a lion, who shall rouse him? He's saying, the mightiest of beasts, think about the lion, it dominates every place it goes. With its mighty power, its teeth, its sharp fangs, its claws, it dominates everything. King of beasts, this is what you are, and I cannot help but think about Aslan. Because you remember when the children, the Provence children, were being introduced to the name Aslan. Mr. Beaver tells them, you're going to meet Aslan. And they say, Aslan? Who's Aslan? And he says, he's the king of the beasts. He's a lion. And you remember what the children said? They said, I'd be terrified to meet a lion. And it's interesting, Mr. Beaver gives them no comfort. Well, you should be terrified. Of course you should be terrified. You're meeting a lion. He's the king of the beasts. And he goes on to tell them about him. And then finally, one of the children says, but Mr. Beaver. Is he safe? I love what Mr. Beaver says. His response is, Have you been listening to me? He's a lion! Of course he isn't safe! But he is good. What a description of the lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ. He is not a tame lion. He's not safe. He will demand your life. He'll demand you suffer for him. But he's good. He's always good, but He's not safe. You can't tame Him. He doesn't go by your rules. He says you've got to submit to Him. He doesn't submit to you. He's a king, and He has the right to tell us what to do. And of course, this line of the tribe of Judah is exactly what's being prophesied here. And speaking of Jesus, verse 10 is the highlight of the entire chapter, in my view. He says something strange here. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of the people. What in the world does that mean? He says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. You know what a scepter is? It's a small little stick, almost like the size of a baton, maybe a little bit bigger. It's a sign of royal authority. Usually it goes hand in glove with a crown. And what he's saying here is, Judah, this is what your descendants will be. You're going to be a lineage of kings. And the scepter isn't going to depart from you. It's going to be passed like a baton from one generation to another. You're going to have authority. You're going to rule. That's why your brothers and sisters are going to bow down to you, because out of Judah will come the kings. And he says, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. That is, a king has legislative authority. And so there will always be a legislator, a king who imposes his will upon the people from between his feet, but only for a while. It's going to happen for a while until something happens. There's one particular man who's going to come. And then this passing from one generation to another is going to come to an end. Until Shiloh comes. You're going, what? Who? Who's Shiloh? Now, we know in the Old Testament there's a city of Shiloh, right? But that is not what this word is talking about. In fact, this word that's used here in Hebrew is the only time in all of Old Testament Scripture it's ever used, this term Shiloh. And scholars to this day don't know completely what it means, but the best guess, the best attempt seems to be this. Shiloh means he whose it is. He to whom it belongs. So, let's think about that. Judah, the scepter, will be passed from one generation to another of your descendants until the one comes to whom the scepter truly belongs. And when Shiloh comes, the one to whom has that authority, to him, notice what it says, shall be the obedience of the people. Now, he's already said, all the other tribes of Israel will bow down before you, but now he goes even farther than that. He says, not just the people in your nation, all the peoples of every nation are going to bow down to this one Shiloh. You might say, he's going to be the king of kings, He's going to be the Lord of lords. He's going to be the salvation of Jew and Gentile alike. He's going to be the judge of the whole earth. He's going to be the head of the church, the head of the state, the head of everything. He's going to be Lord of all. Do you know now who Shiloh is? Shiloh is Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In fact, when Gabriel came to Mary in the book of Luke, It says, Behold, the power of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and you shall conceive a child. He says to him, He shall sit upon the throne of his father David. This one who is from the tribe of Judah. So what he's telling us here is about the coming Messiah. Now, as you can imagine, I have a lot more to say about that at the end. But let's go on, because there's more to be said. Verse 11, "...binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine." You're saying, what in the world is that all about? Well, back in the day, when you had a beast of burden and you had to stop in a town, you had to have a hitching post where you'd tie him off so he didn't wander off. What he's saying is the land of Judah will be so full of grapevines and of wine that basically you can just stop anywhere and use a vine for your hitching post because it'll be so common you won't have to go looking for one. No, just put time off to the grapevine here. Because that's how abundant and blessed it will be. Then it says, "...he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes." In other words, wine will be so abundant that literally you can just use it to wash your clothes. Because that's how richly I'm going to bless you. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk. Remember, these are days when you didn't have dentists down the street. And so you had rotten teeth and teeth that were worn away. And to be able to say, your teeth are going to be whiter than milk. is a very great blessing when you don't have those things around. The point he's saying here is, I'm going to make you prosperous. I'm going to bless you. And this idea of milk and wine very often is set forth in Old Testament Scripture as signs of prosperity. But I will submit to you that he's not just talking about physical prosperity in the land, but rather the spiritual blessings that will come when the Messiah comes. And let me explain what I'm saying. Isaiah 55 verse 1 has a prophecy you're probably very well familiar with. It's an Old Testament prophecy that really is foreshadowing justification by faith alone. But listen to it very carefully. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come and buy wine and milk without money and without price. The Revelation ends with almost exactly the same word. The Spirit says, come, and the bride says, come. He who has no money, come. Come freely and receive from God something He offers you freely, without price, without charge. Salvation is a free gift. That's what it's saying. But notice there the hint back to the prophecy made by Jacob. Wine and milk, you can have them for free, without money and without price. Well, that's Judah. We'll come back to him in a minute. Finally, we have Zebulun and Issachar, the last two sons of Leah. I don't know why he does this in verses 13 and 14, but he actually reverses their birth order. Because Issachar was born first, before Zebulun. Zebulun was the sixth and final child of Leah. But for whatever reason, he reverses their order. But it doesn't tell us why. Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall adjoin Sidon. This does not seem to be a prophecy that literally he's going to live by the coastline. Because if you look again in your map, you'll find that Zebulun was smack dab in the middle of two water bodies. There was the Mediterranean Sea on the west, there was the Sea of Galilee on the east. But here's the point. they were in the intersection of the trade routes between those two seas, so that all the commerce made from the fishing they would benefit from, and that seems to be what the text is saying. As a matter of fact, Moses says in Deuteronomy 33, verses 18 to 19, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents. They shall partake of the abundance of the seas, and of the treasures hidden in the sand. So there was this blessing that they would get from the commerce taking place in both seas. And that's exactly where they lived and were occupied. But there's another blessing that would come. Richard actually mentioned it in his prayer earlier. I don't know if you noticed or not. He quoted from Matthew 4. And I smile because I let the Holy Spirit knows what we're about to talk about. And so in his providence brought these things to mind. There's a greater blessing that took place in Zebulun. There's a prophecy in Isaiah 9 verses 1 to 2 that says this, "...the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." And that is what Richard said in his prayer. "...those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined." Now, what's he talking about? What could Isaiah be looking forward to? When we come to Matthew chapter 4, we find out exactly what he was talking about. Because there was an obscure little village in the land of Zebulun that was so obscure, it's never even mentioned by name in the Old Testament. But you know the name of it because it's mentioned a lot in the New Testament. It's a little town called Nazareth. And this is where Jesus lived and grew as a boy, and as a teenager, and as a man, and where He lived until He was 30 years old. And when He began His ministry, He went up to the northern section, and He went to the land of Zebulun, and He began to preach the gospel to the inhabitants of Zebulun. And that's what the text means when it says that the land that lied in darkness has seen a great light. Imagine having the Messiah come preach the gospel to you from His own lips. That is the blessing that was poured out upon Zebulun. Then we look at Issachar. I don't pretend to understand exactly what this blessing means. Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between two burdens. He saw that rest was good and that the land was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden and became a band of slaves. Certainly on the face of it, it looks like what it's saying is he's a strong man who's able to bear strong burdens, but he started loving laziness and ease and took his ease and therefore was subjugated and became slaves. That's Calvin's interpretation of it. But whatever the interpretation, let me just simply say this. Zebulun and Issachar also have gates named after them in the New Jerusalem. So that where sin abounds, grace abounds more. There's two applications I want to make from the things we've seen this morning. The first is an exhortation, the second one is simply giving you a truth, a truth to meditate upon, a truth to consider, because we see that God's Word is truth. First thing is this, beware that there are some sins that carry greater temporal consequences with them than others. Reuben committed incest, and because of it, he did not prosper. His descendants did not prosper. He lost the blessing of the firstborn because of it. Simeon and Levi took justice into their own hands. They took vengeance which belongs only to the Lord and executed themselves. And as a result, they were scattered among the land. Think of King David. He committed sin with Bathsheba. He tried to cover his sin by having her husband murdered. And because he tried to cover the sin, nine months later, Nathan was sent to him to rebuke him. But he told him, your sin is forgiven. The death sentence is commuted because adultery was a capital crime. But he says to him, the sword shall never depart from your house. And we know the sad story of what happened with Amnon and then with Absalom, that there were temporal consequences that followed him. Some sins do carry consequences like that. Many a pastor has fallen to sexual immorality over the years. And you know, if a man falls to sexual immorality that's a pastor, he can repent, he can be restored to God, he can be restored to the church. In fact, he may very well be restored to his family, although there's no guarantee of that, is there? And even if he's restored to the church, there are brothers who would have different opinions about this, but my opinion is this. He should never be restored as an officer. Because he used his office to exploit the sheep. And you should not trust him to be back in that position ever again. Though he can be a member in good standing of the church, there's a consequence, right? There's a consequence that follows him for the rest of his days. If a man molests a child, he could be forgiven. He can be restored to God, but he's going to be marked for the rest of his days as a sex offender. That's just the reality of living in a fallen world and of temporal consequences. And here's the thing I want to drive home to you. These things are set before us to warn us. lest we follow in the same pathway of sin and bear the same temporal consequences. You young people, you children, maybe you think to yourself, well, I want to get serious about religion and serious about the Lord by and by, maybe when I'm an older and an adult and have a family of my own, but I'm young, and the world's so attractive, and it's so alive, and I want to have my season of enjoying the pleasures of sins and sowing my wild oats. And then I'll get serious about the Lord when I'm older. And maybe God will have mercy upon you and forgive you your sins, but don't presume upon it. You're foolish to presume that if you harden your heart now, you'll have a soft heart later. And I would have you spared from the sins and the regrets that you're going to have the rest of your days. Because sin seems so fun and so pleasurable and the world seems so alive, but it's dead. The world looks like it's at liberty, that it's the ones really having the fun, and boy, this straight and narrow stuff is so constrictive, and denying yourself, and following Jesus, and being religious, and being looked at as a religious kook. None of that stuff seems fun. But let me tell you, the pleasures of sin only last for a very, very short season. And if possible, I would have you spared from the regrets that you'll have. that you may carry with you the rest of your days." Temporal consequences that come because of sin. You need to understand something. You need to dare to believe what the Word says and what says the way of the transgressor is hard. He's the one that has the hard life. My oldest sister said that when she was a teenager, she would sometimes feel a little bit envious of some of our cousins who were worldlings. Because they seemed to just get away with all this stuff, and do all this sin, and be able to live in pleasure, and everything was okay. But then, she said, as you grew up and watched how their lives turned out later. You saw the bitterness, and the hardness, and the things and the regrets they carried, and the broken marriages, and the broken friendships, and the broken relationships, and the people they used, and how horrible sin is in its effects. Isn't it interesting that we think of the Christian life as hard, and what the world's doing is easy, but the Bible says it's the way of the transgressor that is hard, and Jesus says, come to me and take my yoke upon you, because my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Look at the people in the world And look at the people in the church. Look at the people who've lived a life of following Jesus, denying themselves, taking up the cross and following Him. They've had to take hard stands, who've been ridiculed for them, but who've endured nonetheless. Let me tell you something. Those people, at the end of the day, are the happiest people on earth. Because they look at Jesus and realize He's worth it. He's worth sacrificing for. He's worth being ridiculed by the world for. Paul could say, here's all the things I've suffered, and he lists all these things, the horrible things he'd suffered for the gospel. He says, but I count it all as rubbish. I count it all as loss for the excellency of knowing Jesus Christ. And knowing Jesus Christ means you get to fellowship with His resurrection, but you also have to fellowship with His sufferings. But if it means I know Him, then bring it. Because He's worth it. These things are given as a warning to us that there are temporal consequences for sin. That we might see it and take heed to our own soul and avoid it. And not pass by it. Don't go anywhere near it. So that we don't have to carry those regrets. I know your parents want that for you. And certainly want it for my children. But beware that there are temporal consequences. And yet, in the midst of all the temporal consequences, isn't it interesting how we see this silver lining that God saved these same men? That their names are literally written in heaven. They have gates in heaven named after them that we're going to see for all of eternity because of what Jesus did. Is the point not being driven home, brothers and sisters, that where sin abounds, grace does abound even more? Which leads us to my second point, my final point, and the one I've been waiting for all morning, which is this, Jesus Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Let me give you a little bit of a history lesson here. It's fitting that the prophecy concerning Judah's descendant Shiloh should be given near the end of Genesis. And why do I say that? Genesis begins in a very hard way. It begins with Adam and Eve breaking the covenant of their God and being ejected from paradise. But as they're being sent out of paradise, they're sent out with hope burning in their heart, hope that God is going to one day send the seed of the woman who is going to destroy the head of Satan and crush it, and deliver His people from sin, and from misery, and from death itself. He's going to deliver us from the wrath that is to come. They understood as they left that God was one day going to send a Savior. Eve had this hope. She had faith that God would send the Messiah. And when He first gave her a son, here's Cain, look, I've been given a man-child from the Lord. And she thought, this must be Him. Of course, she erred in her judgment. But certainly her faith was noble, that she believed God it would be as He said. It becomes obvious that Cain is not the promised one. And then God enables her to get pregnant with Seth. And she realizes, through this man, the seed will come. Because she says, God has enabled me to have a man-child, to replace Abel, whom Cain killed. And Seth has a son named Enoch. And it's glorious to read. I love when you get to chapter 5 of Genesis, and it says, Enoch was born, then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Revival came. Revival comes and people begin to call upon the Lord for mercy. Well, men spread about the earth, and you know the story. As they spread, their sin spreads. And so God destroys the earth with a flood, but He saves eight people, Noah and his family. And they come out, his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth are from them. All of you and I came from them. Your genetic material was inside of them already. We came from them, and from them came all the nations of the earth. Then we come to chapter 10 of Genesis, and we have this unusual chapter that talks about the table of the nations. And suddenly there's nations. There had been one people until that time, one nation. Now we have multiple nations. You come to Genesis 11, and you find out why there's multiple nations. Because men sinned against the Lord, and He scattered the languages, and that's why we have ethnicities, and that's why we have multicultural places and different territories arguing about their boundaries and warring with one another. That's where all the nations come. But it's as if in those chapters, God has given this big, broad view of, here's the entire globe, And suddenly in chapter 12, the narrative violently shifts. Instead of looking at the big picture, it's like... There's this old man named Abraham and his wife Sarah. God appears to them and says, Get out of your land, out of your father's home, to a land I will show you, for I will make of you a great nation. And in your seed, all the nations, all the nations I just talked about in Genesis 10, all nations will be blessed. through your seed." So what we understand there is the promised seed in Genesis 3.15 is going to come from Abraham. And he has Absalom and thinks, may God bless Absalom. And God says, no, I will bless him, but in Isaac. your seed will be called." Isaac has two sons. He saw the firstborn, but the older shall serve the younger. Jacob is the one through whom the seed will be called. He has 12 sons. And you would think to yourself, well, surely it's going to be Joseph's tribe that God will bless and bring the Messiah through, but that's not. Which tribe will he come from? Well, it's fitting at the end of the book of Genesis that now we even know which tribe the seed will come from. Yours will be a race of kings. A scepter shall not depart from Judah." Now here's a prophecy made, and a thousand years later, the people cry out in Israel. They're in the land of Canaan, and they say, We want a king! Give us a king to rule over us! And so God gives them a king. And who does He choose? He doesn't choose Judah. He chooses Benjamin. Gives him Saul, the son of Kish. Makes him a king over them. But you know the story. He fell through sin. The kingdom was taken away from him. And he says, now I will choose a man after my own heart. And God searches out through Samuel an obscure shepherd boy that nobody's ever heard of. His name is David. And he chooses David and says, this is the one, rise and anoint him. And David becomes a mighty king, one of the greatest kings of all of Israel. In fact, have you ever noticed the rest of the kings are always compared to David? He either walked in the footsteps of David or he didn't walk in the footsteps of his father David. But he is set forth and then God makes His covenant with David. And He says, a son of yours shall never cease to rule upon the thrones. So here, to the tribe of Judah, He says, if you sin, or if your sons sin, I will discipline you. But unlike Saul, I won't remove My kingdom from you. There will still be a son of yours upon the throne. And if you read, sometimes, Psalm 89, it's a psalm celebrating God's covenant with David. But it's obvious that God intended more than just, Israel's going to submit to you for the rest of your days. Because He says, "...he'll be the highest of all kings upon the earth. Nations shall bow down to him." and serve Him, I think you know where I'm going, but turn to Revelation chapter 5, because here's the consummation of all of it. Revelation chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, and we're going to read through verse 10. And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood." And note what he says next. From where? Out of every tribe. and tongue, and people, and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth." Do you see that what God spoke through Judah came to fruition? Because God cannot lie. Everything He says will come to pass, because God cannot lie. And there's omnipotent power behind His promises to be certain that they will come to pass. The point I'm driving home to you is this. By the time we're promised to see the beginning of Genesis, by the end of Genesis, we know what nation He'll come from, what people group He'll come from, and even what tribe He'll come from, the tribe of Judah. The Bible, brothers and sisters, is not a collection of stories. It's not 66 arbitrary books about all this different stuff. It is one story, given by one author, about one people, who has exactly one hero. And that hero's name is God the Father. God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But God is revealed to us through His Son, Jesus. And we have access to God through His Son, Jesus, and never apart from it. Meaning this, that the story of the whole Bible is the glory of the triune God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. And what have we seen throughout all of Genesis, but it's setting up the narrative for the rest of the Bible, that Jesus Christ is the head of His church, He's the head of His people, He's the King of kings, He's the Lord of lords, He's the Lord of all men, He's the judge of the whole earth, He's the only savior of sinners, He's not the best way to God, He's the only way to God. because He's the only mediator between God and men. And He has set forth for us from cover to cover of the Bible, because the Spirit of God is setting Christ preeminent in the Scriptures, that He might be preeminent among His people. I have no application to make to you except to worship Him, and to exalt this One who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for telling us about Jesus and letting us look back with the clear light of the New Testament to see exactly what it was you were saying to Jacob. Thank you for speaking through Jacob and telling us and promising us that one born of the tribe of Judah would be revealed who would take away the sins, not just of Israel, but of every nation upon earth. I pray for any here who don't know the Lord, that you would save them from their sins, that you would awaken them to see there is judgment coming, to open their eyes and bear witness that your word is truth. And as you say there is a judgment coming, so they should take heed and flee from that wrath that is to come by fleeing to Christ. Bless us as we sing your praises this morning. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.