Jesus Foretold: Born Of Judah (MP 59)

God told Abraham that through his offspring
[Jesus], blessings to all men will outflow;
But who told Jacob, from Judah a King
Would forever reign? How did Jacob know?
God told Jacob, revealing in advance,
Prophecies, so that we His Word believe,
And knowing they’re fulfilled, can take a stance,
Accepting Jesus, our new lives receive!
In God’s pre-made Plan, He chose to reveal
Glimpses of things to come, that men might see
Traces of the Supreme Being Who’s real—
One who dwells with men for eternity!
Through Judah King Jesus will have His birth;
With an iron scepter He will rule the earth!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Braclets added]
Prophecy Made: Genesis 49:1,10---"Then Jacob called for his sons and said: ‘Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.” “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he [Jesus Christ] comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.’ “ (Written in the 14th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Matthew 1:1-3,16—“A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob [Israel], Jacob the father of Judah, … [35 generations later], and Jacob [a different Jacob] the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary on: “Jesus Foretold: Born Of Judah”
God sprinkled prophecies of future events into the minds of men of the Old Testament who wrote them, and many were recorded by the authors of books in the Bible. This was no accident on God’s part. In His awesome mind the entire future is known as well as the entire past; an elderly human, having knowledge of things in the past as well as those to come, is likely to mingle them indiscriminately in his speech, but not God. He deliberately inserted snatches, as well as complete statements, into scripture of things to come. His reason for doing so? I think God wanted His followers to discover them, so that their faith in His existence be bolstered; their curiosity aroused, to motivate more indepth study of the Bible in assiduous “treasure” hunts through His Word that increase their knowledge of the supernatural world that created this natural world.

Often, two or more future events are extrapolated out of a single prophecy. In the scripture from Genesis (above), Jacob (Israel) is blessing his 12 sons before his death. All of them have their futures told, but we are concerned with that of Judah, whose descendants, according to his father Jacob. will always have the “scepter”, which foretells that a royal kingship will always belong to them; further, the “staff” will be “between his feet”, implying a time of disuse, “until he to whom it belongs comes”, which could be the coming of David (about 1000 B.C.); or the coming of Jesus Christ (about 2 B.C.); or the Second Coming of Christ. I believe it refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, because of the next phrase, “the obedience of all nations” (See Revelation 20). The first time Jesus came, He was rejected by the Jews to be their king, but when He returns, He will come in power and will rule Israel and all nations for 1000 years. The part of the prophecy in Judah’s blessing that has been fulfilled is that Jesus Christ (one of whose titles is “King”) will be born a descendant of Judah; this is verified in Matthew (above) and also in Luke 3.

This is the 3rd prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ that I have written on; the first is found in Genesis 3:15, where God tells the serpent in the Garden that “the seed” of the woman will be his enemy. This is remarkable, for, as you must realize, God could have come to earth as a full-grown man wallking from the Holy of Holies in the temple, or in any form He wanted. But no, He came as a baby from the womb of a virgin, and went though a period of growth as does any man. The second prophecy, in Genesis 12:3, quotes God telling Abraham that through his descendants the whole world would be blessed. Jesus was Abraham’s descendant, and His redemptive atonement of dying for the sins of all men is certainly a blessing to all. Now, in Genesis 49:16, we learn that it is Judah, Jacob’s son, among whose offspring, a king will come and rule the world. These 3 bits of prophecy are enough by themselves to spotlight the Bible as being an inspired proof of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth; yet, the Jews had these, too, and more than 300 more such fulfilled prophecies. How could they not believe in Jesus when He came? The answer? Spiritually dulled by God, brought upon themselves by repeatedly disobeying Him.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)