No 21

(The Tribe of Judah)

“JUDAH, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as an old lion. Who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Gen. 49:8–10). Of all the sons of Jacob (Israel), Judah is the most prominent; his name means “praise”. The above text says much about him and his future role in God’s plan. Judah will be the leader of his brothers. Reuben, the eldest, lost his position of leadership because of his sin with Bilhah, his father’s concubine and Judah assumed the position of leader of the family. Judah will be a great conqueror. Judah, here is compared to a lion, the strongest of all beasts and the greatest conqueror of Israel was King David, a descendant of Judah. Judah will produce a royal line of Kings. The first king of Israel was Saul of the tribe of Benjamin but he was rejected by God, from that point on, the only legitimate kings of Israel throughout her history were descendants of David. The kings of the northern tribes were all idolatrous and did what was evil in the sight of God. Judah will produce the Messiah The word “Shiloh” means peace and is a direct reference to the Messiah, Jesus who is a descendant of Judah (Matt 1:2).

Today, if you ask a Jewish person from which tribe he or she is from they will not say “I am a Reubenite or a Simeonite” but will say the “I am a Judahite”. Actually no Jewish person knows from what tribe they are from because all the records were destroyed in 70 AD by Titus and his armies. Since Judah holds the highest position in the family of Jacob, Jewish people prefer to associate themselves with the tribe of Judah by saying that they are Judahites or in shorter form, Jews because Judah is the origin of the word “Jew”. In the New Testament, there are several references to Judah but the most important one is found in Revelation 5:5 “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” Jesus Christ who is the King of kings and Lord of lords was the only person worthy of opening the seals to the book that was in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.