FBC Morning Light – January 25, 2023

Judah’s Transformation and the Promise of Messiah

Well, good Wednesday morning to you, middle of the week we are, and we come to the end of the book of Genesis today, and also reading in Matthew 18 and the 18th Psalm. But Genesis 49, I want to kind of bring a conclusion to the Judah story.

This whole section through chapter 50 from Genesis 37 is often referred to as the Joseph story, but there is a sub story in the Joseph story, and some might even argue that it's really, you know, the main thrust of this passage.

You don't really think about it much because so much emphasis on Joseph, but it's the Judah story. So remember Judah. Judah has gone through this whole episode with his brother Joseph. Judah has gone from being a wicked evil co-conspirator to eliminate Joseph from their family.

It was Judah's idea to sell Joseph into slavery so they could get some money out of him. That was Judah's idea. He's gone from being a co-conspirator to get rid of Joseph, to chapter 38 where he fathers a couple of sons through his daughter-in-law whom he thought was a prostitute.

So you've got a pretty sordid story there. But then you see him humbled by that incident in chapter 38, and the brokenness of Judah comes out later when it's Judah that offers himself to take the place of Benjamin in servitude to Joseph.

Now you come to chapter 49, and this one, who in our reading here from chapter 37 onward, goes from being a co-conspirator to the fathering of children by his daughter-in-law. He becomes the one, by the grace of God, who will eventually be the tribe, his family, his line will be the line, the tribe that brings spiritual blessing for the entire world.

You see this in chapter 49 in Jacob's blessing of his son Judah. He said, Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. All the rest of the nation of Israel is going to praise Judah. It is through Judah that the kings will come.

It is through Judah that victory will come. Judah is a lion's whelp, he says, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion who shall rouse him? Then verse 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come.

This is a reference to the coming of Messiah, and to him, to Messiah, shall be the obedience of the people. Judah is going to be the tribe through whom Messiah will eventually come, the king who will be the king not only of Israel, but the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, the king of all the earth.

He will be the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham when God said to Abraham, in you Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed, and that blessing will come through Judah. What a gracious transformation we see in this man, Judah.

Jacob’s Burial in Canaan as an Act of Faith

The other thing I wanted to point out as a final statement of faith, if you will, on the part of Jacob, in the end of chapter 49, Jacob is about to die. He's in Egypt, he's far away from the land that God had promised them.

But in chapter 49 verses 29 through 32, Jacob makes his sons swear that when he dies, they will not bury him in Egypt, but instead he will be buried in the land of Canaan. He says, I am to be gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the land of, in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave in the field of Mephila, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.

In other words, that little plot of land was the down payment of the promised inheritance of the entire land of Canaan. Jacob says as a statement of faith, you bury me there, because that is to be our inheritance.

That's to be our inheritance. Take me back there, don't bury me in Egypt. By the way, it's just a little bit of an aside, I think we ought to think carefully when it comes to the matters of our burials and funerals and things of that nature.

What are we communicating? What do we want to communicate in those burials, in those funerals? We want to communicate a forward look, don't we? We want to communicate the promise that God has made to his people.

Dying in Faith and Trusting God’s Promise

Jacob certainly did, and he died in faith, a man of great faith. Our Father and our God, I pray that from this we would be challenged to be indeed a people of faith. We thank you for your grace, whereby your amazing grace you can take one who is a wretch and transform him into one whom you will use in great ways.

Oh Father, thank you for your grace. Bless now these thoughts to our hearts today, we ask in Jesus' name. Have a great rest of your Wednesday. I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.