1 Chronicles 5:2 describes Judah as “the strongest of his brothers and a ruler came from him.” He did not get the firstborn rights of Reuben because Jacob gave them “to the sons of Joseph son of Israel” (1) – but in Genesis 49:8, Jacob predicted that his sons would acknowledge Judah’s leadership and authority over the family – or as Jacob phrased it, “your father’s sons will bow down to you.”
And clearly God intended it to be that way, because when “the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place” in Numbers 10:12, it was “Judah who went first under their standard” (14). Judah was God’s choice to lead the way.
And after Joshua died, Judges 1:1-2, “the people of Israel asked, ‘Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?’ And the Lord said, ‘Judah shall go up; behold I have given the land into his hand.’” So Judah was God’s choice to lead them into battle too.
Jacob also predicted back in Genesis 49:8 that Judah would have his “hand on the neck of your enemies.” Which was perfectly fulfilled in the life of king David of Judah, who sang of it in Psalm 18:32, “It is God who arms me with strength,” and in verses 37-40: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. I crushed them so they couldn’t rise. You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet. You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes” (also in 2 Samuel 22:40-41).
This was when Israel became a power to be reckoned with, led by the Jewish kings David and Solomon. And it was God who meant this to happen, because it was he who chose David to be Israel’s king, 1 Samuel 16:12, “and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power,” making it very clear he was God’s choice of leader, verse 13.
Is it any coincidence, then, that people who have no interest in – or respect for God – hate Jews? Maybe they think Jews are awful people, as even Christians have thought through the ages, but it was God who chose Judah, and God who created a line of descendants from Judah that led to king David, and from king David a line of descendants that led to Jesus, who would inherit “the throne of his father David, and reign over the house of Jacob forever,” Luke 1:31-33. And it’s all been God’s doing, which began with his choice of Judah, and Jacob’s description of him in Genesis 49, when he called “Judah: a lion’s cub”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 