Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1157
“Until Shiloh comes; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.” Genesis 49:10.
THE dying Patriarch was speaking of his own son, Judah, but while speaking of Judah, he had a special eye to our Lord, who sprang from the tribe of Judah. Everything, therefore, which he says of Judah, the type, he means with regard to our greater Judah, the Antitype, our Lord Jesus Christ. You will remember how Jacob gathered his 12 sons around his bed and, addressing them individually as representatives of the 12 tribes that bear their names, uttered different predictions, and gave to each a special blessing. After first addressing Reuben, Simeon and Levi, he proceeds to salute Judah in words full of majesty—“Judah, you are he whom your brethren shall praise.” A happy expression, for the word, “Judah,” signifies “praise.” The name was given to him by his mother as expressing her gratitude to God at his birth.
It is now confirmed to him by his father, who discerns in it a presage of his character and his destiny. And verily this is true of Jesus. If the virgin mother hailed His advent, how much more do His grateful Brethren laud His career! Do not His Brethren recognize in Him a Leader and Commander, a Savior and a Friend? Is it not here, on earth, our sweetest employment, and will it not be in Heaven our highest delight to praise His name? The praise we bestow on men is mere flattery—the praise we receive from men is insincere. But Jesus has a peerless name and His Brethren derive from Him priceless benefits.
In Jesus are fulfilled the dreams of Joseph. The sun and the moon and the 11 stars all bow before Him! All the sheaves make obeisance unto His sheaf. Let Him be crowned with majesty who bowed His head to death is the common verdict of all the Brotherhood of the House of God. “Your hands shall be at the neck of Your enemies.” As one that gets his hands upon the neck of his prey, stops its breath and destroys it—or as one who seizes his enemy by the throat and flings him down to death. How true has this been of Jesus! He has laid His hands upon the neck of His enemies. When He came to the Cross, fought foot to foot with the old Serpent, and there vanquished sin and death and Hell for us, it was a terrible battle, but it ended in a splendid victory, of which we shall never cease to sing!
Nor do we doubt but the hands of Jesus Christ are at this moment on the neck of His enemies. They may be very rebellious, and, for a time, they may seem to get the ascendancy—but He has got the upper and as surely as Truth and righteousness must flourish and prevail—as surely as Jehovah is the living God, the kingdom of Christ will yet break in pieces all the powers that resist it. “He shall break them as with a rod of iron: He shall dash them in pieces like potters’ vessels.” “Your father’s children shall bow down before you.”
To the descendants of Judah in the persons of David and Solomon the whole nation gave allegiance. But worship of a higher order, homage of deeper significance and adoration from a wider circle pertain to Him, for whom our Father in Heaven demands of all His faithful children love, honor, and obedience. “Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up.” And how does this describe the Savior—that “Lion of the tribe of Judah”—that strong and mighty Lion who entered into conflict with the lion of the Pit and overcame him! From the prey He has gone up again, up into His Glory—gone up beyond the stars, up to the right hand of the Infinite Majesty—there to sit in perpetual peaceful triumph.
“He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion.” The lion may have been an emblem that befitted the son of Jesse. The lion couching might have been fitly chosen for his heraldic device, when the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and of Saul. Yet with how much more propriety may this emblem be emblazoned on the arms of Prince Emmanuel! Did He not stoop down? Was ever such a stoop as His? Let Him be crowned with majesty who bowed His head to death! It is for this that He deserves to conquer, because He was willing to submit to shame and death, itself, for the sake of His people. How glorious is it to think that He has gone up, seeing that He once came down! Who should deserve such honors but He who laid such honors aside for a while?
“Who shall rouse Him up?” A grand question! Who shall rouse up the Lion of the tribe of Judah? Who dare do it? Who can stand against Him? He is a Lamb, gentle and tender. “A bruised reed He will not break, and the smoking flax He will not quench.” But let Him be provoked—then fiercer than a lion that roars from the forest will He be upon His foes! So shall it come to pass on that tremendous day when He will ease Himself of His adversaries and shake Himself clear of all His enemies. Do you not remember these terrible words of His—“Beware, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there are none to deliver”? “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.”