{"id":25938,"date":"2025-01-18T15:15:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T21:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/sermon\/genesis-188-a-new-world-coming\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:21:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T15:21:59","slug":"genesis-189-a-new-world-coming","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/genesis-189-a-new-world-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Genesis 189 \u2013 A New World Coming"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[12],"series_event":[511],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-25938","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-genesis","series_event-genesis","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Genesis 189 \u2013 A New World Coming","sermon_date":"20250119","sermon_month":"01","sermon_year":"2025","sermon_notes":25936,"sermon_slides":25940,"sermon_mp3":25952,"sermon_id":"118252331265170","series_or_event":511,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":12,"chapter_and_verse":"49:8-12","sermon_transcript":"

Genesis 189<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

A New World Coming<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Genesis 49:8-12<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

January 19, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Dr. Andy Woods<\/strong><\/p>\r\nLet's take our Bibles this morning and open them to Genesis 49:8.\u00a0 Lord willing, we will be covering Genesis 49:8-12 today.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is \u201cA New World Coming.\u201d\u00a0 One of my favorite books when I became a Christian had that title: There's a New World Coming<\/em> by Hal Lindsey.\u00a0 I thought it would fit very well with the passage that we're looking at.\r\n\r\nWe are at the tail end of the Book of Genesis.\u00a0 God has used Joseph so strategically to take God's nation\u2014the nation of Israel, which began with the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\u00a0 It is a very important nation in the outworking of God's purposes, because God is obligated to bless the world through Israel.\u00a0 Joseph enters the picture, as we have studied Genesis 37 through 50, where God has used Joseph to sort of take Israel out of Canaanite corruption.\u00a0 They're beginning their sojourn in Egypt (which was God's plan all along) to go to a place called Goshen, where they're going to be protected from polytheistic Canaanite influences for 400 years.\r\n\r\nThe wickedness of the Canaanites, which Israel left in the land of Canaan, would grow to a point where God would ultimately bring His people out of Egypt.\u00a0 In the Exodus and in the Book of Joshua, He will eradicate those Canaanites; and that land that God bequeathed to Abraham will be called the Land of Israel.\u00a0 All of this is yet future from our standpoint in our study.\u00a0 But moving Israel out of Canaan into Egypt is a work that God did through Joseph.\u00a0 That work has been completed.\r\n\r\nNow you get to the very end of the Joseph account, and you have Jacob, Joseph's father, who is about to die.\u00a0 He is 147 years old at this point.\u00a0 He knows he's ready to die; he gathers his sons together, including Jacob's Dozen, who would become the progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel; and he begins to articulate over them a series of prophecies about what these sons and their seed would become in terms of the Twelve Tribes.\u00a0 He has spoken words to Reuben, the firstborn (Genesis 49:3-4).\u00a0 Then he has spoken words to Simeon and Levi (Genesis 49:5-7).\u00a0 Some of that is sort of depressing, because those were three individuals that had it all going for them, and they didn't finish well; and this affected their future tribes.\r\n\r\nNow the tone completely changes when we get to Judah, the fourth born (Genesis 49:8-12).\u00a0 Jacob is speaking now to Judah, one of his sons.\u00a0 As we look at the prophecies related to Judah, here's an outline that we are going to follow.\u00a0 The first thing Jacob is prophesying over Judah is Judah's preeminence; and the preeminence has a few parts to it. First of all, there's praise (Genesis 49:8).\u00a0\u00a0 It says, \"'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.<\/em>'\"\u00a0 So this becomes a blessing.\u00a0 This is the first major blessing that we have studied in this section, as Jacob is speaking to these sons; and the tone now has changed.\u00a0 He basically talks about how Judah is going to be the equivalent of praise.\u00a0 In fact, that's what the Hebrew name Judah<\/em> means: It means praise<\/em>.\u00a0 So you can see where that name comes from.\r\n\r\nAccording to this prophecy, he is also going to be successful in war.\u00a0 He says, \"your brothers shall praise you<\/em>,\" but then he says, \"your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies<\/em>.\"\u00a0 Now \"hand on the neck of one's enemies<\/em>\" is basically a figure of speech communicating success in warfare.\u00a0 In 2 Samuel 22:41 and Psalm 18:40 you see that figure of speech is used to describe success in warfare.\r\n\r\nIn the process of this Jacob says something very interesting.\u00a0 In Genesis 49:8 he says, \"Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies<\/em>.\"\u00a0\u00a0 Is it not interesting that it was Judah who decided not to lay hands on Joseph?\u00a0 You might remember that when the brothers wanted to get rid of Joseph it was Judah who was acting like the adult in the room, saying, \"No, let's not murder him.\u00a0 Let's just kind of toss him into this pit.\"\u00a0 This is all the way back in Genesis 37:26-27 where it says:\r\n\r\n\"Judah said to his brothers, 'What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?\u00a0 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh, and his brothers listen to him.'\"<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"So let's not kill him.\u00a0 Let's sell him as a slave.\"\u00a0 And so Judah is actually the one who saved Joseph's life.\u00a0 It's almost as if God made a decision to bless Judah and to bless his progeny in military warfare (laying their hands on their enemies) because Judah made a decision not to kill Joseph.\u00a0 It is a marvelous thing that, sometimes when we don't do what our sinful impulses want to do, God rewards us in a very special way.\r\n\r\nYou might remember the Tower of Babel incident all the way back in Genesis 11:4.\u00a0 (I call this the first United Nations Conference.) Why did they come together to build this tower?\u00a0 Genesis 11:4 says:\r\n\r\n\"'Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.'\"\u00a0 <\/em>So they came together in this first kind of global, New World Order, One World project, and their motive basically was, \"We want to make ourselves famous.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nNow, it's interesting to me that there was a man of great humility, named Abram, living in that region, in Ur of the Chaldeans.\u00a0 He was not trying to make himself a name.\u00a0 Of course, Abram's birth would be later on (we don't learn about Abram until later on in Genesis 11), but we get the impression that Abram was not involved in this project.\u00a0 And what did God say He was going to do to Abraham?\u00a0 In Genesis 12:1 God says, \"'And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing<\/em>.'\"\u00a0 Abram, unlike the builders at Babel, was not trying to make a great name for himself.\u00a0 I mean, not only did God stop the project at the Tower of Babel, but to the fellow that was not trying to make his name great God says, \"I'll make your name great.\"\r\n\r\nThe same kind of thing is happening here with Judah.\u00a0 Judah, who would not lay his hands on Joseph, became the guy that would lay his hands on his enemies, in terms of military conquest.\u00a0 So don't think that if you die to yourself in some issue, that God won't reward you for it.\u00a0 God does this all of the time in the Bible.\u00a0 Judah wouldn't kill Joseph, so He made him a warrior.\u00a0 Abram was not trying to make his name great, (although the builders at Babel were trying to do that), and so God says to Abram in Genesis 12:2, \"'I will make your name great<\/em>.'\"\u00a0 It's kind of interesting the way that God works.\u00a0 When people don't try to pursue their own agenda, and when people don't try to promote themselves, God has an interesting way of promoting them and rewarding them on His terms.\u00a0 And so that largely is what is happening here in these prophecies concerning Judah.\r\n\r\nThen it says in Genesis 49:8, \"'Your father's sons shall bow down to you<\/em>.'\"\u00a0 Now this is speaking of the preeminence of Judah.\u00a0 Judah was the fourth born, and yet he was given the rights of preeminence, which typically go to the firstborn.\u00a0 The rights of preeminence should have gone to Reuben, but Reuben disqualified himself (Genesis 35, going into his father's concubine).\u00a0 Simeon and Levi, the second and third born, disqualified themselves from the rights of preeminence because they overreacted to a situation that happened in Genesis 34 where they vented anger at the Shechemites for what the Shechemites did to their sister.\u00a0 They didn't practice the principle \"let the punishment fit the crime.\"\u00a0 Their anger boiled over, and they lost the rights of the firstborn as well.\u00a0 So the rights of preeminence should have gone to Reuben, but he disqualified himself.\u00a0 Then they should have gone to Simeon, but he disqualified himself.\u00a0 They should have gone to Levi, but he disqualified himself.\u00a0 And so now the rights of preeminence fall on the fourth born\u2014a man named Judah.\r\n\r\nArnold Fruchtenbaum says this about this verse:\r\n\r\n\"Then he added: 'Your father's son shall bow down before you<\/em>,' again showing the preeminence of Judah.\u00a0 Indeed, he did gain the preeminence over the other tribes.\u00a0 In Numbers 2:9, in the wilderness wanderings, Judah 'set forth first<\/em>;' in Numbers 10:14, he headed the march through the wilderness.\u00a0 In 1 Chronicles 5:2, 'Judah prevailed over his brethren<\/em>.' In Judges 1:1-2, Judah is chosen by God to go up first against the Canaanites.\u00a0 Indeed, Judah received the preeminence.\"\r\n\r\nSo why is it that when you go through the Bible, God keeps using Judah?\u00a0 He keeps having His hand on Judah, even though Judah is not the firstborn, but the fourth born.\u00a0 You would really have no knowledge of that had you not given yourself to a study of Jacob's prophecies over his children at the end of his life.\u00a0 And so that's why I'm sort of going through this slowly and methodically, because if you can understand what is being spoken of here prophetically, the rest of the Bible starts to fit into place.\r\n\r\nThe Bible, as you move through it, is not going to re-explain all of this; it's just going to tell you that it's happening.\u00a0 If you're one of these Christians that's rushing through the Bible and not fully grasping what the Word of God is saying (particularly in the first book of the Bible), everything else happening in the Bible is sort of a mystery.\u00a0 You know that it's happening, but you don't know why it's happening.\u00a0 Genesis 49 gives you the explanation as to why it's happening.\u00a0 Why is Judah favored over and over again despite being the fourth born?\u00a0 The answer is in Jacob's prophecies here in Genesis 49.\u00a0 \"Judah, you're going to be elevated to preeminence, to the point where my other kids, the eleven, are going to basically be bowing down to you.\"\u00a0 \"Your father's sons shall bow down to you<\/em>.\"\r\n\r\nIt's kind of interesting that God has people in Scripture that will bow down to us.\u00a0 You say, \"Well, this is just the Old Testament stuff.\u00a0 I mean, God doesn't work that way today, does He?\"\u00a0 Well, notice what Jesus said to the struggling church at Philadelphia in Revelation 3:9.\u00a0 They were being persecuted by a group of people in Philadelphia (in the area of Asia Minor) called the \"Synagogue of Satan.\"\u00a0 This is what Jesus says concerning that struggling church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:9):\r\n\r\n\"'Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie\u2014I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.'\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nNow we're not given the circumstances by which that prophecy was fulfilled, but God is saying to Philadelphia, \"I know your struggles; I know you're being treated unfairly; I know you're being persecuted.\u00a0 And the day in history is going to arrive when your very persecutors are going to bow down to you.\"\u00a0 You have a similar kind of situation here with Judah.\u00a0 \"The rest of your brothers are going to bow down to you.\u00a0 You know, you're going to be elevated to this place of preeminence.\"\r\n\r\nYou move into Genesis 49:9, and as Jacob is prophesying over Judah's life, you have some prophecies given concerning Judah's power.\u00a0 There is an analogy here to a lion.\u00a0 Genesis 49:9 says, \"'Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, you may have gone up.\u00a0 He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up<\/em>?'\" The Hebrew at the end of Genesis 49:9 is \"lioness\"\u2014a female lion.\u00a0 \"And as a [lioness] who dares to rouse him up<\/em>.\" So this is a statement of Judah's power.\u00a0 He is analogized here to a lion's whelp, speaking of his current and future vigor and nobility.\u00a0 Judah is also going to become very successful in killing and consuming his prey, and you can kind of dovetail that with the prophecies given in Genesis 49:8 where he is going to be very successful in biblical history in military warfare.\u00a0 \"You didn't lay your hands on Joseph, but I'm going to allow you to lay your hands on My enemies,\" God says.\u00a0 And the rest of the Scripture vindicates that.\r\n\r\nThen it describes Judah being couched as a lion, and it even describes Judah as a female lion\u2014a lioness.\u00a0 Now, some of the commentaries I've read indicate that a female lion is actually more fierce than a male lion.\u00a0 I mean, you know the story: If mama ain't happy, no one's happy.\u00a0 And so it's interesting how the gender switches to a lioness at the end of Genesis 49:9 as a tool that the Holy Spirit is using to describe the fierceness of Judah in military warfare. In Genesis 49:10, we are going to see that the Messiah, Himself, is not going to come through the lineage of Reuben; He's not going to come through the lineage of Simeon; He's not going to come through the lineage of Levi.\u00a0 He is going to come through the lineage of Judah.\u00a0 The exact tribe that the Messiah is going to come from is given here in this prophecy in Genesis 49:10.\u00a0 More on that in just a second. Genesis 49:9 is why Jesus is frequently described as a lion in the Bible.\u00a0 Revelation 5:5 says: \"And one of the elders said to me, 'Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 It's very interesting that Jesus, coming from Judah, is analogized to a lion.\u00a0 Revelation 5:5 indicates that.\r\n\r\nYou say, \"Well, wait a minute, Pastor.\u00a0 I thought Jesus was a lamb.\"\u00a0 Well, He is that too.\u00a0 John 1:29, says, \"The next day [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'\"<\/em> Revelation 5:5 calls Him a lion; John 1:29 calls Him a lamb.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is that every human being is going to meet Jesus one way or the other.\u00a0 You'll either meet Him as your Lamb or you'll meet Him as the Lion.\u00a0 I'm a path of least resistance guy; I'd much rather deal with Jesus as a Lamb than a Lion.\u00a0 Another way of saying it is you either meet Jesus as your Savior in this life, or you'll meet Him as your Judge in the second life.\r\n\r\nWe condemn this idea that all roads lead to Jesus\u2014that all roads lead to God\u2014but there's a certain truth to it when you think about it: All roads do lead to Jesus.\u00a0 Everyone has to encounter Jesus at some point.\u00a0 You can encounter Him in this life as your Savior\u2014as the Lamb\u2014but if you reject that, and you don't want anything to do with that, then you will still meet Jesus.\u00a0 You will just meet Him as a ferocious lion in the next life.\u00a0 Judge or Savior; Lion or Lamb: The choice is yours.\u00a0 And God tells people to decide, because the idea that we're meeting with Jesus is inevitable; it can't be canceled.\u00a0 You can't live a life with your back turned towards Jesus and act like you're never going to encounter Him again, because we do in the next life.\u00a0 So I find it interesting that right before the prophecies about a coming Messiah in Genesis 49:10, Judah is analogized, in terms of his military prowess, as a lion.\r\n\r\nThen we come to Genesis 49:10; and this is the verse that most people know the most about in terms of the Messianic line leading to the Savior, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The first thing that is mentioned is a scepter.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Genesis 49:10: \"'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.'\" <\/em>\u00a0You know, the first thing you notice here is this scepter.\u00a0 A scepter is regal authority; it's something that a king has in his hand.\u00a0 As you go through the Bible, all the kings in Scripture (and there are a lot of them) came from the Tribe of Judah.\u00a0 There are 19 northern kings; all of them bad.\u00a0 In the South there are 20 kings, eight of which are good, and even those are not good all of the time, but they are good some of the time.\u00a0 You read about all of these kings (and it's almost dizzying information as you go through the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings) and you notice that all of them, unless they were illegitimate usurpers, came from the Tribe of Judah.\u00a0 (Saul being illegitimate because he came from the wrong tribe\u2014Benjamin.) The priests, by way of contrast, came from the Tribe of Levi.\u00a0 That's why there is a book in your Bible, in the Pentateuch (the Torah), that is written to the priests.\u00a0 It is called the Book of Leviticus.\u00a0 Leviticus is written to the priests because the priests come from Levi; and the kings come from Judah.\r\n\r\nAnd I want to be very clear about this: Jesus did not come from the Tribe of Levi.\u00a0 He came from the Tribe of Judah, because He is the ultimate King\u2014the quintessential King.\u00a0 In fact, that is a big part of the argument in the Book of Hebrews, where the author of the book is trying to demonstrate that Jesus brought in a priesthood that we are now under; and He's ministering that priesthood from the Father's right hand.\u00a0 I mean, Jesus, as High Priest, is doing a lot in your life right now as a Christian.\u00a0 The author of Hebrews tells us that it's a wonderful priesthood; it's even better than the Old Testament priesthood.\u00a0 And if Jesus was just going to be another ordinary, run-of-the-mill, Old Testament priest, He would have been born in the Tribe of Levi.\u00a0 But Jesus busted the mold; He brought in a higher priesthood.\u00a0 And the first piece of evidence we know about which demonstrates that is that He comes not from Levi; He comes from Judah.\u00a0 And the fact that he comes from Judah means He's much higher than the priesthood of the Old Testament order. So we're under a wonderful priesthood today, but don't confuse it with Aaron's priesthood; and don't confuse it with the Levitical priesthood.\u00a0 Jesus could not be qualified to be an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, Levitical priest, or else He would have been born in the Tribe of Levi.\u00a0 But He was not; He was born in the Tribe of Judah.\r\n\r\nWhat this is speaking of here is this regal authority\u2014his kingship.\u00a0 And it says there in Genesis 49:10, \"'The scepter shall not depart from Judah.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 In other words, Judah's preeminence (which has been described in the prior verses), will not disappear until Jesus is born through that tribe, as the ultimate King.\u00a0 Genesis 49:10 says, \"'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.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 \"Judah will not go out of existence until the rightful King shows up,\" is what Jacob says here in this particular prophecy.\r\n\r\nGenesis 49:10 also talks there about the ruler's staff.\u00a0 It says, \"'The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 What does the ruler's staff mean?\u00a0 It means the lawgiver<\/em>; the theocratic administrator; someone who governs in the place of God the Father.\u00a0 In this case, it will be God the Son.\u00a0 And until that happens\u2014and this Messiah, this Savior, is born through the right tribe, the tribe of Judah\u2014Judah's right to rule will not disappear.\u00a0 The kings are going to keep coming from her line; the tribe of Judah will not go out of existence until the right king shows up: That is Jesus Christ.\r\n\r\nContinuing on in Genesis 49:10, it starts talking about Shiloh.\u00a0 \"'The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 Now what does that mean, \"Until Shiloh comes?\"\u00a0 Until the one comes, whose right it is, to rule as the ultimate king.\u00a0 Arnold Fruchtenbaum, in his Genesis Commentary, summarizes this concept of the ruling staff and the scepter as follows:\r\n\r\n\"The point is that the ruling staff<\/em> and the scepter<\/em> will not depart from Judah until he come whose right it is<\/em> and then He will receive it forever...\u00a0 He, to whom it is<\/em>, or until he come whose right it is<\/em>, and, of course, this is the Messiah...What it means is that Judah will exercise royal power finally, to the end when the Messiah comes to rule the world.\u00a0 Royal power will be passed from generation to generation in Judah in succession until He come whose right it is<\/em>. Once it is given to the Messiah, royal power remains forever with Him; this is ultimately a reference to the Second Coming when the Messiah comes to rule the earth.\"\r\n\r\nNow, you can't have the Second Coming until you have a First Coming, which is Jesus coming to the right tribe.\u00a0 Because the prophecy\u2014Judah's authority, Judah's preeminence, Judah's power, and Judah as the progenitor of all of these kings that we read about in the Bible\u2014will not stop until the right King shows up.\u00a0 This is what Jacob is speaking of here.\r\n\r\nNow, put yourself for a moment, in the shoes of a devout religious leader within Israel.\u00a0 At the time of Christ the Romans had come.\u00a0 The Romans had taken from the nation of Israel the power of capital punishment\u2014the right to execute their own criminals.\u00a0 The Romans had come and were a power that was occupying Israel, and yet Israel did not have a Messiah.\u00a0 This is why history tells us that the Jewish leadership at that time paraded through the city streets of Jerusalem in sackcloth and ashes; they felt that Genesis 49:10 had been violated.\u00a0 And yet how could Genesis 49:10 be violated, when we understand John 10:35 that \"the Scripture cannot be broken\"<\/em>?\r\n\r\nSo, here they were, being subjugated by Roman power.\u00a0 \"We don't have a Messiah.\u00a0 The prophecy is very clear that Judah can't go out of existence in terms of preeminence until the ultimate King comes.\u00a0 We don't have the King.\"\u00a0 And so they felt as if God had broken His word.\u00a0 But the truth of the matter is, God cannot break His word because \"the Scripture cannot be broken.\"<\/em>\u00a0 There was a Messiah born from the Tribe of Judah in the City of Bethlehem (just a few miles southwest of Jerusalem).\u00a0 And there He was, lying in the manger, in spite of Roman occupation.\u00a0 It looked as if the Word of God had been violated; it looked as if the Word of God had been broken.\u00a0 \"Rome is now in charge over us.\u00a0 And oh my goodness, we don't have the Messiah.\"\u00a0 They had the Messiah.\u00a0 He just didn't come the way they thought He was going to come.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is, God means what He says and says what He means\u2014God can't break His word.\u00a0 The Messiah was there in spite of Roman oppression.\u00a0 Contrary to the Jewish mind, God had not broken His word.\u00a0 The Messiah must be born through the Tribe of Judah.\u00a0 Genesis 49:10 tells us that.\r\n\r\nIn the end times, why is Jesus qualified to open a seven-sealed scroll which will bring God's colossal global judgments to the earth in the Seven Year Tribulation period?\u00a0 When the Seven Year Tribulation period manifests itself on planet Earth, Jesus is the One Who is qualified to cause all of those disturbances.\u00a0 There is a lot of false teaching going around today that says, \"Well, you know, the Seal Judgments: that's just Satan.\u00a0 That's just the wrath of man or the wrath of Satan.\u00a0 And the wrath of God doesn't start till later.\"\u00a0 That is complete and total nonsense.\r\n\r\nAs Jesus is opening that seven-sealed scroll in Revelation 5, He starts to peel back the seals; and every time He peels back the seals, the scroll gets looser, until He will peel back seal number seven.\u00a0 Then the whole scroll will be opened and the seventh seal will trigger the Trumpet Judgments; and the seventh trumpet will trigger the Bowl Judgments.\u00a0 By the time Jesus opens the scroll, we know in which direction things are headed. What is the seven-sealed scroll anyway?\u00a0 It is the title deed to the earth.\u00a0 Satan has been an illegitimate occupier of planet Earth since the Fall of man in Genesis 3.\u00a0 Jesus is saying, \"I'm bringing the whole thing to an end.\u00a0 There's a new world coming: My kingdom, located on planet Earth, which will be patterned after justice and not after the unrighteousness you see all around you.\"\u00a0 And so this scroll that He is opening represents the title deed to the earth.\u00a0 It represents God's judgment on Christ-rejecting humanity, although, fortunately, many people will be saved during this time period.\r\n\r\nThis whole time period doesn't represent the wrath of Satan or the wrath of man\u2014God can use Satan or man, as He wants to use them\u2014but it represents the wrath of Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus is causing the wrath.\u00a0 That's why you, as a member of Christ's church can't be in this time period, because you are clearly promised an exemption from divine wrath.\u00a0 The Rapture of the church must take place before this time period even begins.\u00a0 Because people are playing all of these games related to when the wrath starts, they are coming up with these scenarios that we are going to be here for half of it, three quarters of it, or all of it.\u00a0 \"Comfort one another with these words\" as they do, which is a self-contradictory concept.\r\n\r\nJesus is causing these things upon the earth.\u00a0 One of which is the destruction of 25% of the world's population.\u00a0 We came out of 2020\u2014and everybody was upset about COVID and things like that\u2014where deaths, although real, represented less than a percent of the human population.\u00a0 Think of a scenario where 25% of the population is just wiped out.\u00a0 That is what is happening in Revelation 6.\u00a0 Who is causing the whole thing?\u00a0 Jesus is causing it.\u00a0 And as Jesus is causing it, the wrath of God (which is long overdue) is hitting planet Earth.\u00a0 Satan is gradually being evicted from planet Earth, because he's an illegitimate occupier.\u00a0 God's Kingdom, by the time you get to the end of this whole thing, manifests itself on planet Earth.\r\n\r\nIn Revelation 5, John sees this seven-sealed scroll in heaven, and he starts crying\u2014he just starts weeping.\u00a0 \"Well, John, what are you crying about?\"\u00a0 The reason is that he does not think anybody is qualified to open it.\u00a0 If no one can open it, the world will continue on in its current state forever.\u00a0 Wouldn't that make you cry?\u00a0 That would make me cry.\u00a0 \"You mean there's not a better world coming?\"\u00a0 \"No.\u00a0 What you see is what you get.\"\r\n\r\nThen all of a sudden Revelation 5:5 says this: \"And one of the elders said to me, 'Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seals.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 There is someone qualified to open this scroll\u2014the title deed to the earth, without which Satan continues on in permanent control over planet Earth.\u00a0 It is Jesus Christ and His qualifications are given: He comes from the Root of David (He's a Davidic descendant); and even before that, it says that He comes from the right tribe\u2014He comes from the Tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10).\u00a0 And He is actually called a lion in Genesis 49:9.\u00a0 The whole reason Jesus is qualified to open the seven-sealed scroll is that He fulfilled the prophecy at His First Coming, that Judah, as a preeminent power, would not go out of existence until the Messiah comes.\u00a0 Because Jesus fits the credentials, He is now qualified to do what He does in Revelation 5.\r\n\r\nOnce Heaven and John figure this out, they stop crying and they start celebrating; and you should be celebrating too.\u00a0 Because if you don't understand this, the only thing you're stuck with in this life is the \"nasty now and now.\"\u00a0 What's happening now goes on and on forever.\u00a0 All of the death and cancer, drive-by shootings, terrorism and wars, and human governments that really have no idea what they're doing, that's the norm.\u00a0 But you don't think that way.\u00a0 You are filled with Christian hope and optimism, because you know that the \"nasty now and now\" is just temporary.\u00a0 There's a new world coming; and the reason there's a new world coming is that God kept His promise concerning Genesis 49:10.\r\n\r\nBy the way, did you know that you are supposed to be praying for that Kingdom to come?\u00a0 When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, one of the things that He said was, \"Thy kingdom come\"<\/em> (Matthew 6:10).\u00a0 It's like, \"Lord, let's get the show on the road here.\u00a0 Set it up now!\" And when His Kingdom comes (and it will come) what is going to characterize that kingdom?\u00a0 The very end of Genesis 49:10 say, \"And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.\"<\/em>\u00a0 The Hebrew noun peoples<\/em> there is plural.\u00a0 Most of the commentators believe that it is talking about the Gentiles (in Hebrew goyim<\/em>; and in Greek, ethnos<\/em>), referring to the ethnicities of the earth.\u00a0 When Jesus comes back and sets up this Kingdom, after Satan has been evicted from planet Earth and humanity is judged (because Jesus is qualified to open that seven-sealed scroll), once that Kingdom comes, the Gentiles of the earth in that thousand-year Kingdom will obey Him (Revelation 20).\r\n\r\nIsrael and Jerusalem will be preeminent in that Kingdom.\u00a0 Let's look at Isaiah 2:2-3.\u00a0 See, John in the Book of Revelation doesn't give you all the facts.\u00a0 He just tells you the duration of the Kingdom, that is 1000 years (Revelation 20:2-7), before God does some global warming and takes the earth and destroys it by fire (2 Peter 3:10).\u00a0 \"Well, Pastor, do you believe in global warming?\"\u00a0 \"Yes I do.\u00a0 God is going to take this whole planet and melt it down by fire; and then He is going to replace it with a new heaven and a new earth.\"\u00a0 But before that happens, there is this thousand-year Kingdom where countless Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled.\u00a0 John doesn't give us these details, but he gives us the duration of the Kingdom.\u00a0 You have to consult the Old Testament prophets to get a handle on what the Kingdom is going to be like.\u00a0 During that Kingdom Age, Israel and Jerusalem will be preeminent over the whole earth.\r\n\r\nIsaiah, 700 years before Jesus was born, predicted it.\u00a0 He said in Isaiah 2:2-3:\r\n\r\n\"It will come about that in the last days The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.\u00a0 And many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.' For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.\u00a0 He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.\u00a0 Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn of war.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nWhat a Kingdom this is going to be!\r\n\r\nYou probably know that the United Nations in New York has this inscribed on one of their walls, meaning they think they're going to bring this in.\u00a0 And if you know anything about the United Nations, there have been more wars since the formation of the United Nations than before.\u00a0 The United Nations can think of itself as the Messiah all at once, but it will not bring in these conditions.\u00a0 In fact, the only thing the United Nations will do is make it worse.\u00a0 But Jesus, coming from the right tribe will fulfill this prophecy in Genesis 49:10: \"And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples\"<\/em>\u2014the goyim<\/em>\u2014the Gentiles.\u00a0 Jesus will fulfill this prophecy.\r\n\r\nOne of my favorite commentators on the End Times is Robert Thomas.\u00a0 He talks in his commentary about how when Satan is let loose for one last hurrah at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, the nations of the earth immediately attack Jerusalem.\u00a0 Why would they do that?\u00a0 Because that is the nerve center of the Kingdom: Jerusalem.\u00a0 Thomas says, \"At the end of the Millennium that city will be Satan's prime objective with his rebel army, because Israel will be leader again among the nations.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nAs a participant in the Millennial Kingdom, did you know that you're going to make countless trips to Jerusalem?\u00a0 Zechariah 14:16-18 says:\r\n\r\n\"Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths\"<\/em>\u2014Jesus is going to be living in Jerusalem\u2014\"And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them\"<\/em>\u2014immediate justice will come to those not obeying the King in this time period\u2014\"If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall upon them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nIsaiah 49:22 says:\r\n\r\n\"Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; And they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.\u00a0 Kings will be your guardians, And their princesses your nurses.\u00a0 They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth And lick the dust of your feet...\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nThat is the reaction of the Gentiles to the Jews in the Kingdom age, as Jesus is fulfilling all of these prophecies.\u00a0 Zechariah 8:23 says, \"Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, \"Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.\"'\"<\/em>\u00a0 It's not going to be a situation where we're saying to the Jews, \"Hey, you need to come to our conference; you need to read our books.\"\u00a0 It's a situation where people are grabbing the garment of a Jew, ten people grabbing the garment of one Jew, saying, \"We're going to go with you because we know that God is with you.\"\u00a0 We know because God is fulfilling what He said He would do all the way back in Genesis 49:10, which speaks of \"the obedience of the peoples.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nNotice that word obedience.\u00a0 Do you realize that Jesus is not interested in being anyone's consultant?\u00a0 The Kingdom Age is going to demonstrate that.\u00a0 He is not interested in coming into a person's life in kind of an advisory role.\u00a0 \"Hey, why don't you try this option?\"\u00a0 He is the King!\u00a0 Isaiah 33:22 says, \"For the Lord is our judge, The Lord is our lawgiver, The Lord is our king...\"<\/em>\u00a0 Micah 5:2: \"'But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.\u00a0 His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.'\" <\/em>\u00a0That's what it's talking about there in Genesis 49:10 when it says \"to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.\"<\/em>\u00a0 Kingdom, regal authority.\u00a0 Jesus is qualified to exercise this because He was born into the right tribe\u2014the Tribe of Judah 2000 years ago, even though the Jews didn't recognize Him for what He was.\r\n\r\nThe Lordship of Jesus Christ (the Greek word is kyrios<\/em> meaning Lord<\/em>): what we teach here is that for a person to be justified before God, they have to receive a free gift by way of faith.\u00a0 There are no other verbs that are added to that transaction.\u00a0 Believe<\/em> means to trust.\u00a0 You either trust or you don't.\u00a0 That is a birth issue.\u00a0 Jesus is Savior at that point.\u00a0 But I'll tell you something else, folks: if you want to grow as a Christian, if you want to mature as a Christian, you had better not treat Him as a consultant.\u00a0 Jesus is not there to advise and consent.\u00a0 He is the ruler.\u00a0 He is the Kyrios<\/em>.\u00a0 He is the Lord.\u00a0 And you can't grow as a Christian if you won't acknowledge that.\r\n\r\nFirst Peter 3:15 says, \"But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is within you, yet with gentleness and reverence.\"<\/em>\u00a0 You might as well get used to the idea of Jesus ruling your life, because He is going to be ruling all of planet Earth one day with a rod of iron.\u00a0 Why not get used to it now?\u00a0 Without that mindset, you can't grow as a Christian.\u00a0 The obedience of the nations coming from the Tribe of Judah.\r\n\r\nIs Jesus going to take the world and run it into a ditch at that point?\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 What is going to be unleashed on planet Earth is unprecedented prosperity.\u00a0 Genesis 49:11: \"He ties his foal to the vine,\"<\/em> meaning that you have a vine that is strong enough to tie down a colt to it; meaning it must be pretty sturdy.\u00a0 There must be some pretty significant agricultural prosperity going on here.\u00a0 Genesis 49:11 continues: \"And his donkey's colt to the choice vine.\" <\/em>\u00a0There is an emphasis on abundance.\u00a0 When the Millennial Kingdom comes, you're not going to have inflation; you're not going to have high gas prices; you're not going to have unemployment or underemployment.\u00a0 Prosperity will break out all over the planet.\u00a0 There's a new world coming.\r\n\r\nIsaiah 65:21-22 says:\r\n\r\n\"'They will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.\u00a0 They will not build and another inhabit, They will not build and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the works of their hands.'\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nPeople's life spans during this time period almost go back to Pre-Flood, when people are living for centuries and centuries.\u00a0 You build a house and you enjoy the house, but the house withers away before you do.\u00a0 \"I need a new house.\"\r\n\r\nAmos 9:13 says, \"'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'When the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed.\u00a0 When the mountains will drip sweet wine And the hills will be dissolved.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 There will be very high yield and very high prosperity.\u00a0 In this business of the colt, some see a potential prediction of Jesus\u2014His donkey's colt coming into Jerusalem in His First Coming, riding on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9.\u00a0 And his garments are going to be washed.\u00a0 Genesis 49:11: \"'He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine...'\"<\/em>\u00a0 Think about that.\u00a0 There is so much agricultural prosperity that you are not even using water anymore to wash your clothes\u2014very high yield, speaking of plenty.\r\n\r\nDon't skip over this one.\u00a0 The end of Genesis 49:11 says, \"'And his robes in the blood of grapes.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 This is speaking of the Messiah coming back in judgment.\u00a0 It is speaking of the wrath of the Lamb.\u00a0 Speaking of the Tribulation period, Revelation 6:16 says:\r\n\r\n\"And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'\"<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"You mean a lamb can be wrathful?\"\u00a0 \"Yeah, when He starts acting like a lion.\"\u00a0 This is why I keep saying that you have to meet Jesus at some point.\u00a0 You're going to meet Him as your Savior, or you're going to meet Him as your Judge.\r\n\r\nThe end of Genesis 49:11 speaks of Him coming back; and there is such violence that He executes on unsaved people that it is like treading the grapes in a wine press.\u00a0 I have actually been in a wine press in Israel, where you can actually get in and stamp out the grapes that create the wine; and that is what is used in Scripture of a portrait, or a picture, of the blood flowing when Jesus comes back.\u00a0 Isaiah 63:2-3 says of this time period:\r\n\r\n\"Why is your apparel red, And your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?\u00a0 'I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me.\u00a0 I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment.'\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nIsaiah 63:6 continues: \"'I trod down the peoples in My anger And made them drunk in My wrath, And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.'\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nWhen the Millennial Kingdom comes, the question is: \"Hey, Jesus, why are You so bloody?\"\u00a0 \"Well, because I just finished trampling down the unregenerate and the unsaved when I came back the second time, in My second advent, before I started My kingdom.\"\u00a0 What a picture of Jesus!\u00a0 We don't get this picture too frequently, do we?\u00a0 I mean, I'm really comfortable with the Lamb part, except when He gets wrathful and starts acting like a Lion.\u00a0 As these judgments are poured out, it says in Revelation 14:18, \"'Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 Then in Revelation 14:20 it says, \"And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nWhat is the final result of this?\u00a0 In Genesis 49:12 His eyes are mentioned.\u00a0 Of this One coming from the Tribe of Judah\u2014this lion\u2014Genesis 49:12 says, \"'His eyes are dull from wine.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 Obviously, I don't take that as exuberant immorality.\u00a0 It is basically talking about exuberant intoxication due to abundance, not immorality; that is, the accessibility of something the human race considers a luxury during this time period. It's kind of interesting that the focus here is on His eyes.\u00a0 There on the screen is someone's artistic rendition of what John saw on the island of Patmos, as Jesus was walking among the seven lampstands.\u00a0 In the process of his description, John makes reference to the eyes of the Messiah.\u00a0 Revelation 1:14: \"His head and His hair were white like wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire\"<\/em>\u2014eyes that are so pure He can look right through you.\u00a0 He can look into you and see what is happening in your heart that no one else can see.\r\n\r\nAnd then it mentions His teeth.\u00a0 I was driving with my wife yesterday and I said, \"You know, Jesus' teeth are mentioned in the Bible?\"\u00a0 She said, \"Where is that?\"\u00a0 I said, \"It's right there in Genesis 49:12.\u00a0 It says, \"'His eyes are dull from wine and his teeth are white from milk.'\"<\/em>\u00a0 Why are His teeth white?\u00a0 I think that the abundance of milk and dairy products during the Millennial Kingdom is a potential explanation.\u00a0 All of this helps you see how Genesis 49:8-12 is giving, in microcosm fashion, prophecies that are going to be fleshed out in the rest of Scripture.\r\n\r\nWell, sometimes transitioning into the gospel is hard, but today it's easy.\u00a0 It's just a simple question because you've got to meet Jesus one way or the other.\u00a0 Do you want to meet Him as the Lion or the Lamb?\u00a0 Do you want to meet Him as Savior or Judge?\u00a0 You can fix the whole issue right now; the way is simply to trust in the work of the Savior.\u00a0 Jesus' final words on the Cross were \"It is finished.\"<\/em>\u00a0 I mean, He did what He did 2000 years ago so we wouldn't have to face Him like this.\u00a0 And so I encourage you to place your personal trust in Jesus as your Savior. Becoming a Christian, or being justified before a holy God, is not a 12-step program: It is one step.\u00a0 The spirit convicts you of your need to do this, and you respond to it by way of faith; and just like that, your eternal destiny changes.\u00a0 You are no longer hurling towards His judgment, but basking in His grace.\u00a0 It's not something you have to walk an aisle to do; give money to do; join a church to do.\u00a0 It's a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, where you hear that message and you respond to it by way of faith.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t