Genesis 189 – A New World Coming
Genesis 49:8-12 • Dr. Andy Woods • January 19, 2025 • GenesisGenesis 189
A New World Coming
Genesis 49:8-12
January 19, 2025
Dr. Andy Woods
Let’s take our Bibles this morning and open them to Genesis 49:8. Lord willing, we will be covering Genesis 49:8-12 today. The title of our message this morning is “A New World Coming.” One of my favorite books when I became a Christian had that title: There’s a New World Coming by Hal Lindsey. I thought it would fit very well with the passage that we’re looking at.
We are at the tail end of the Book of Genesis. God has used Joseph so strategically to take God’s nation—the nation of Israel, which began with the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is a very important nation in the outworking of God’s purposes, because God is obligated to bless the world through Israel. 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. 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.
The 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. 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. All of this is yet future from our standpoint in our study. But moving Israel out of Canaan into Egypt is a work that God did through Joseph. That work has been completed.
Now you get to the very end of the Joseph account, and you have Jacob, Joseph’s father, who is about to die. He is 147 years old at this point. 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. He has spoken words to Reuben, the firstborn (Genesis 49:3-4). Then he has spoken words to Simeon and Levi (Genesis 49:5-7). 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.
Now the tone completely changes when we get to Judah, the fourth born (Genesis 49:8-12). Jacob is speaking now to Judah, one of his sons. As we look at the prophecies related to Judah, here’s an outline that we are going to follow. 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). 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.‘” So this becomes a blessing. 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. He basically talks about how Judah is going to be the equivalent of praise. In fact, that’s what the Hebrew name Judah means: It means praise. So you can see where that name comes from.
According to this prophecy, he is also going to be successful in war. He says, “your brothers shall praise you,” but then he says, “your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.” Now “hand on the neck of one’s enemies” is basically a figure of speech communicating success in warfare. In 2 Samuel 22:41 and Psalm 18:40 you see that figure of speech is used to describe success in warfare.
In the process of this Jacob says something very interesting. In Genesis 49:8 he says, “Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.” Is it not interesting that it was Judah who decided not to lay hands on Joseph? 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. Let’s just kind of toss him into this pit.” This is all the way back in Genesis 37:26-27 where it says:
“Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? 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.'”
“So let’s not kill him. Let’s sell him as a slave.” And so Judah is actually the one who saved Joseph’s life. 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. 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.
You might remember the Tower of Babel incident all the way back in Genesis 11:4. (I call this the first United Nations Conference.) Why did they come together to build this tower? Genesis 11:4 says:
“‘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.'” 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.”
Now, it’s interesting to me that there was a man of great humility, named Abram, living in that region, in Ur of the Chaldeans. He was not trying to make himself a name. 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. And what did God say He was going to do to Abraham? 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.'” Abram, unlike the builders at Babel, was not trying to make a great name for himself. 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.”
The same kind of thing is happening here with Judah. 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. So don’t think that if you die to yourself in some issue, that God won’t reward you for it. God does this all of the time in the Bible. Judah wouldn’t kill Joseph, so He made him a warrior. 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.'” It’s kind of interesting the way that God works. 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. And so that largely is what is happening here in these prophecies concerning Judah.
Then it says in Genesis 49:8, “‘Your father’s sons shall bow down to you.'” Now this is speaking of the preeminence of Judah. Judah was the fourth born, and yet he was given the rights of preeminence, which typically go to the firstborn. The rights of preeminence should have gone to Reuben, but Reuben disqualified himself (Genesis 35, going into his father’s concubine). 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. They didn’t practice the principle “let the punishment fit the crime.” Their anger boiled over, and they lost the rights of the firstborn as well. So the rights of preeminence should have gone to Reuben, but he disqualified himself. Then they should have gone to Simeon, but he disqualified himself. They should have gone to Levi, but he disqualified himself. And so now the rights of preeminence fall on the fourth born—a man named Judah.
Arnold Fruchtenbaum says this about this verse:
“Then he added: ‘Your father’s son shall bow down before you,’ again showing the preeminence of Judah. Indeed, he did gain the preeminence over the other tribes. In Numbers 2:9, in the wilderness wanderings, Judah ‘set forth first;’ in Numbers 10:14, he headed the march through the wilderness. In 1 Chronicles 5:2, ‘Judah prevailed over his brethren.’ In Judges 1:1-2, Judah is chosen by God to go up first against the Canaanites. Indeed, Judah received the preeminence.”
So why is it that when you go through the Bible, God keeps using Judah? He keeps having His hand on Judah, even though Judah is not the firstborn, but the fourth born. 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. 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.
The 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. 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. You know that it’s happening, but you don’t know why it’s happening. Genesis 49 gives you the explanation as to why it’s happening. Why is Judah favored over and over again despite being the fourth born? The answer is in Jacob’s prophecies here in Genesis 49. “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.” “Your father’s sons shall bow down to you.”
It’s kind of interesting that God has people in Scripture that will bow down to us. You say, “Well, this is just the Old Testament stuff. I mean, God doesn’t work that way today, does He?” Well, notice what Jesus said to the struggling church at Philadelphia in Revelation 3:9. They were being persecuted by a group of people in Philadelphia (in the area of Asia Minor) called the “Synagogue of Satan.” This is what Jesus says concerning that struggling church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:9):
“‘Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.'”
Now 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. And the day in history is going to arrive when your very persecutors are going to bow down to you.” You have a similar kind of situation here with Judah. “The rest of your brothers are going to bow down to you. You know, you’re going to be elevated to this place of preeminence.”
You move into Genesis 49:9, and as Jacob is prophesying over Judah’s life, you have some prophecies given concerning Judah’s power. There is an analogy here to a lion. Genesis 49:9 says, “‘Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you may have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up?'” The Hebrew at the end of Genesis 49:9 is “lioness”—a female lion. “And as a [lioness] who dares to rouse him up.” So this is a statement of Judah’s power. He is analogized here to a lion’s whelp, speaking of his current and future vigor and nobility. 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. “You didn’t lay your hands on Joseph, but I’m going to allow you to lay your hands on My enemies,” God says. And the rest of the Scripture vindicates that.
Then it describes Judah being couched as a lion, and it even describes Judah as a female lion—a lioness. Now, some of the commentaries I’ve read indicate that a female lion is actually more fierce than a male lion. I mean, you know the story: If mama ain’t happy, no one’s happy. 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. He is going to come through the lineage of Judah. The exact tribe that the Messiah is going to come from is given here in this prophecy in Genesis 49:10. More on that in just a second. Genesis 49:9 is why Jesus is frequently described as a lion in the Bible. 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.'” It’s very interesting that Jesus, coming from Judah, is analogized to a lion. Revelation 5:5 indicates that.
You say, “Well, wait a minute, Pastor. I thought Jesus was a lamb.” Well, He is that too. 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!'” Revelation 5:5 calls Him a lion; John 1:29 calls Him a lamb. The truth of the matter is that every human being is going to meet Jesus one way or the other. You’ll either meet Him as your Lamb or you’ll meet Him as the Lion. I’m a path of least resistance guy; I’d much rather deal with Jesus as a Lamb than a Lion. 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.
We condemn this idea that all roads lead to Jesus—that all roads lead to God—but there’s a certain truth to it when you think about it: All roads do lead to Jesus. Everyone has to encounter Jesus at some point. You can encounter Him in this life as your Savior—as the Lamb—but if you reject that, and you don’t want anything to do with that, then you will still meet Jesus. You will just meet Him as a ferocious lion in the next life. Judge or Savior; Lion or Lamb: The choice is yours. And God tells people to decide, because the idea that we’re meeting with Jesus is inevitable; it can’t be canceled. 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. 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.
Then 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. The first thing that is mentioned is a scepter. 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.'” You know, the first thing you notice here is this scepter. A scepter is regal authority; it’s something that a king has in his hand. As you go through the Bible, all the kings in Scripture (and there are a lot of them) came from the Tribe of Judah. There are 19 northern kings; all of them bad. 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. 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. (Saul being illegitimate because he came from the wrong tribe—Benjamin.) The priests, by way of contrast, came from the Tribe of Levi. That’s why there is a book in your Bible, in the Pentateuch (the Torah), that is written to the priests. It is called the Book of Leviticus. Leviticus is written to the priests because the priests come from Levi; and the kings come from Judah.
And I want to be very clear about this: Jesus did not come from the Tribe of Levi. He came from the Tribe of Judah, because He is the ultimate King—the quintessential King. 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. I mean, Jesus, as High Priest, is doing a lot in your life right now as a Christian. The author of Hebrews tells us that it’s a wonderful priesthood; it’s even better than the Old Testament priesthood. 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. But Jesus busted the mold; He brought in a higher priesthood. And the first piece of evidence we know about which demonstrates that is that He comes not from Levi; He comes from Judah. 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. 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. But He was not; He was born in the Tribe of Judah.
What this is speaking of here is this regal authority—his kingship. And it says there in Genesis 49:10, “‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah.'” 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. 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.'” “Judah will not go out of existence until the rightful King shows up,” is what Jacob says here in this particular prophecy.
Genesis 49:10 also talks there about the ruler’s staff. It says, “‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet.'” What does the ruler’s staff mean? It means the lawgiver; the theocratic administrator; someone who governs in the place of God the Father. In this case, it will be God the Son. And until that happens—and this Messiah, this Savior, is born through the right tribe, the tribe of Judah—Judah’s right to rule will not disappear. 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.
Continuing on in Genesis 49:10, it starts talking about Shiloh. “‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes.'” Now what does that mean, “Until Shiloh comes?” Until the one comes, whose right it is, to rule as the ultimate king. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, in his Genesis Commentary, summarizes this concept of the ruling staff and the scepter as follows:
“The point is that the ruling staff and the scepter will not depart from Judah until he come whose right it is and then He will receive it forever… He, to whom it is, or until he come whose right it is, 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. Royal power will be passed from generation to generation in Judah in succession until He come whose right it is. 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.”
Now, you can’t have the Second Coming until you have a First Coming, which is Jesus coming to the right tribe. Because the prophecy—Judah’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—will not stop until the right King shows up. This is what Jacob is speaking of here.
Now, put yourself for a moment, in the shoes of a devout religious leader within Israel. At the time of Christ the Romans had come. The Romans had taken from the nation of Israel the power of capital punishment—the right to execute their own criminals. The Romans had come and were a power that was occupying Israel, and yet Israel did not have a Messiah. 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. And yet how could Genesis 49:10 be violated, when we understand John 10:35 that “the Scripture cannot be broken”?
So, here they were, being subjugated by Roman power. “We don’t have a Messiah. The prophecy is very clear that Judah can’t go out of existence in terms of preeminence until the ultimate King comes. We don’t have the King.” And so they felt as if God had broken His word. But the truth of the matter is, God cannot break His word because “the Scripture cannot be broken.” There was a Messiah born from the Tribe of Judah in the City of Bethlehem (just a few miles southwest of Jerusalem). And there He was, lying in the manger, in spite of Roman occupation. It looked as if the Word of God had been violated; it looked as if the Word of God had been broken. “Rome is now in charge over us. And oh my goodness, we don’t have the Messiah.” They had the Messiah. He just didn’t come the way they thought He was going to come. The truth of the matter is, God means what He says and says what He means—God can’t break His word. The Messiah was there in spite of Roman oppression. Contrary to the Jewish mind, God had not broken His word. The Messiah must be born through the Tribe of Judah. Genesis 49:10 tells us that.
In 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? When the Seven Year Tribulation period manifests itself on planet Earth, Jesus is the One Who is qualified to cause all of those disturbances. There is a lot of false teaching going around today that says, “Well, you know, the Seal Judgments: that’s just Satan. That’s just the wrath of man or the wrath of Satan. And the wrath of God doesn’t start till later.” That is complete and total nonsense.
As 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. 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. By the time Jesus opens the scroll, we know in which direction things are headed. What is the seven-sealed scroll anyway? It is the title deed to the earth. Satan has been an illegitimate occupier of planet Earth since the Fall of man in Genesis 3. Jesus is saying, “I’m bringing the whole thing to an end. 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.” And so this scroll that He is opening represents the title deed to the earth. It represents God’s judgment on Christ-rejecting humanity, although, fortunately, many people will be saved during this time period.
This whole time period doesn’t represent the wrath of Satan or the wrath of man—God can use Satan or man, as He wants to use them—but it represents the wrath of Jesus. Jesus is causing the wrath. 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. The Rapture of the church must take place before this time period even begins. 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. “Comfort one another with these words” as they do, which is a self-contradictory concept.
Jesus is causing these things upon the earth. One of which is the destruction of 25% of the world’s population. We came out of 2020—and everybody was upset about COVID and things like that—where deaths, although real, represented less than a percent of the human population. Think of a scenario where 25% of the population is just wiped out. That is what is happening in Revelation 6. Who is causing the whole thing? Jesus is causing it. And as Jesus is causing it, the wrath of God (which is long overdue) is hitting planet Earth. Satan is gradually being evicted from planet Earth, because he’s an illegitimate occupier. God’s Kingdom, by the time you get to the end of this whole thing, manifests itself on planet Earth.
In Revelation 5, John sees this seven-sealed scroll in heaven, and he starts crying—he just starts weeping. “Well, John, what are you crying about?” The reason is that he does not think anybody is qualified to open it. If no one can open it, the world will continue on in its current state forever. Wouldn’t that make you cry? That would make me cry. “You mean there’s not a better world coming?” “No. What you see is what you get.”
Then 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.'” There is someone qualified to open this scroll—the title deed to the earth, without which Satan continues on in permanent control over planet Earth. 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—He comes from the Tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10). And He is actually called a lion in Genesis 49:9. 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. Because Jesus fits the credentials, He is now qualified to do what He does in Revelation 5.
Once Heaven and John figure this out, they stop crying and they start celebrating; and you should be celebrating too. Because if you don’t understand this, the only thing you’re stuck with in this life is the “nasty now and now.” What’s happening now goes on and on forever. 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. But you don’t think that way. You are filled with Christian hope and optimism, because you know that the “nasty now and now” is just temporary. 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.
By the way, did you know that you are supposed to be praying for that Kingdom to come? When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, one of the things that He said was, “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10). It’s like, “Lord, let’s get the show on the road here. Set it up now!” And when His Kingdom comes (and it will come) what is going to characterize that kingdom? The very end of Genesis 49:10 say, “And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” The Hebrew noun peoples there is plural. Most of the commentators believe that it is talking about the Gentiles (in Hebrew goyim; and in Greek, ethnos), referring to the ethnicities of the earth. 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).
Israel and Jerusalem will be preeminent in that Kingdom. Let’s look at Isaiah 2:2-3. See, John in the Book of Revelation doesn’t give you all the facts. 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). “Well, Pastor, do you believe in global warming?” “Yes I do. 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.” But before that happens, there is this thousand-year Kingdom where countless Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled. John doesn’t give us these details, but he gives us the duration of the Kingdom. You have to consult the Old Testament prophets to get a handle on what the Kingdom is going to be like. During that Kingdom Age, Israel and Jerusalem will be preeminent over the whole earth.
Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus was born, predicted it. He said in Isaiah 2:2-3:
“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. 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. 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. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn of war.”
What a Kingdom this is going to be!
You 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. And if you know anything about the United Nations, there have been more wars since the formation of the United Nations than before. The United Nations can think of itself as the Messiah all at once, but it will not bring in these conditions. In fact, the only thing the United Nations will do is make it worse. 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”—the goyim—the Gentiles. Jesus will fulfill this prophecy.
One of my favorite commentators on the End Times is Robert Thomas. 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. Why would they do that? Because that is the nerve center of the Kingdom: Jerusalem. 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.”
As a participant in the Millennial Kingdom, did you know that you’re going to make countless trips to Jerusalem? Zechariah 14:16-18 says:
“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”—Jesus is going to be living in Jerusalem—“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”—immediate justice will come to those not obeying the King in this time period—“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.”
Isaiah 49:22 says:
“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. Kings will be your guardians, And their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth And lick the dust of your feet…”
That is the reaction of the Gentiles to the Jews in the Kingdom age, as Jesus is fulfilling all of these prophecies. 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.”‘” 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.” 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.” 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.”
Notice that word obedience. Do you realize that Jesus is not interested in being anyone’s consultant? The Kingdom Age is going to demonstrate that. He is not interested in coming into a person’s life in kind of an advisory role. “Hey, why don’t you try this option?” He is the King! Isaiah 33:22 says, “For the Lord is our judge, The Lord is our lawgiver, The Lord is our king…” 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. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.'” That’s what it’s talking about there in Genesis 49:10 when it says “to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Kingdom, regal authority. Jesus is qualified to exercise this because He was born into the right tribe—the Tribe of Judah 2000 years ago, even though the Jews didn’t recognize Him for what He was.
The Lordship of Jesus Christ (the Greek word is kyrios meaning Lord): 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. There are no other verbs that are added to that transaction. Believe means to trust. You either trust or you don’t. That is a birth issue. Jesus is Savior at that point. 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. Jesus is not there to advise and consent. He is the ruler. He is the Kyrios. He is the Lord. And you can’t grow as a Christian if you won’t acknowledge that.
First 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.” 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. Why not get used to it now? Without that mindset, you can’t grow as a Christian. The obedience of the nations coming from the Tribe of Judah.
Is Jesus going to take the world and run it into a ditch at that point? Not so. What is going to be unleashed on planet Earth is unprecedented prosperity. Genesis 49:11: “He ties his foal to the vine,” meaning that you have a vine that is strong enough to tie down a colt to it; meaning it must be pretty sturdy. There must be some pretty significant agricultural prosperity going on here. Genesis 49:11 continues: “And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine.” There is an emphasis on abundance. 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. Prosperity will break out all over the planet. There’s a new world coming.
Isaiah 65:21-22 says:
“‘They will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 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.'”
People’s life spans during this time period almost go back to Pre-Flood, when people are living for centuries and centuries. You build a house and you enjoy the house, but the house withers away before you do. “I need a new house.”
Amos 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. When the mountains will drip sweet wine And the hills will be dissolved.'” There will be very high yield and very high prosperity. In this business of the colt, some see a potential prediction of Jesus—His donkey’s colt coming into Jerusalem in His First Coming, riding on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. And his garments are going to be washed. 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…'” Think about that. There is so much agricultural prosperity that you are not even using water anymore to wash your clothes—very high yield, speaking of plenty.
Don’t skip over this one. The end of Genesis 49:11 says, “‘And his robes in the blood of grapes.'” This is speaking of the Messiah coming back in judgment. It is speaking of the wrath of the Lamb. Speaking of the Tribulation period, Revelation 6:16 says:
“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?'”
“You mean a lamb can be wrathful?” “Yeah, when He starts acting like a lion.” This is why I keep saying that you have to meet Jesus at some point. You’re going to meet Him as your Savior, or you’re going to meet Him as your Judge.
The 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. 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. Isaiah 63:2-3 says of this time period:
“Why is your apparel red, And your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? ‘I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me. 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.'”
Isaiah 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.'”
When the Millennial Kingdom comes, the question is: “Hey, Jesus, why are You so bloody?” “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.” What a picture of Jesus! We don’t get this picture too frequently, do we? I mean, I’m really comfortable with the Lamb part, except when He gets wrathful and starts acting like a Lion. 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.'” 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.”
What is the final result of this? In Genesis 49:12 His eyes are mentioned. Of this One coming from the Tribe of Judah—this lion—Genesis 49:12 says, “‘His eyes are dull from wine.'” Obviously, I don’t take that as exuberant immorality. 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. 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. In the process of his description, John makes reference to the eyes of the Messiah. Revelation 1:14: “His head and His hair were white like wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire”—eyes that are so pure He can look right through you. He can look into you and see what is happening in your heart that no one else can see.
And then it mentions His teeth. I was driving with my wife yesterday and I said, “You know, Jesus’ teeth are mentioned in the Bible?” She said, “Where is that?” I said, “It’s right there in Genesis 49:12. It says, “‘His eyes are dull from wine and his teeth are white from milk.'” Why are His teeth white? I think that the abundance of milk and dairy products during the Millennial Kingdom is a potential explanation. 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.
Well, sometimes transitioning into the gospel is hard, but today it’s easy. It’s just a simple question because you’ve got to meet Jesus one way or the other. Do you want to meet Him as the Lion or the Lamb? Do you want to meet Him as Savior or Judge? You can fix the whole issue right now; the way is simply to trust in the work of the Savior. Jesus’ final words on the Cross were “It is finished.” I mean, He did what He did 2000 years ago so we wouldn’t have to face Him like this. 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. 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. You are no longer hurling towards His judgment, but basking in His grace. It’s not something you have to walk an aisle to do; give money to do; join a church to do. 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.