Jesus lived as a child and much of his adult life in a land described by Isaiah as “gloom,” “distress.” “walking in darkness,” and “living in the land of the shadow of death,” Isaiah 9:1-2. And it was into such a world that Jesus came “to fulfill that same prophecy in Isaiah,” by being the “great light” that Isaiah had also predicted (2), that Matthew then confirmed as being Jesus, quoting Isaiah’s prophecy, in Matthew 4:16.

So Jesus came as a light into his world of darkness. But a light to reveal what, exactly?

Jesus answered that in John 17:4 when he said to his Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do,” that “work” being verse 6, “I have revealed you (Father) to those you gave me out of the world,” and in verse 26, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” 

It was Jesus’ great wish and desire to make his Father real to people, which he was fully able to do because he’d “seen and heard” the Father personally (John 3:32). So he could say to his disciples in John 8:38, “I’m telling you what I saw when I was with my Father,” and in John 15:15, “everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

But why was it so important to Jesus to make his Father known? Because it tied in with Isaiah’s prophecy about the world being so dark, and Jesus knowing why it was so dark too. It was dark because, as he explained in  John 8:42, instead of “God being people’s Father” there was another “father” at work in people’s lives, “the devil,” verse 44, and people “wanting to carry out that father’s desire,” not God the Father’s. 

So it was Jesus’ job as the light of the world to illuminate the contrast between the two fathers. And it boiled down quite simply to the devil being a murderer and a liar (44), whose sole objective from the beginning has been to kill us off by getting us to ignore and disobey God – the fruits of which have never changed either, just endless unsolvable problems and humans divided. But, verse 47, “He who belongs to God hears what God says.” And Jesus shed a light on that too, by hearing what God said in his own life (John 5:19-20, 30, 6:38, 14:10).

So Jesus came to shed a light on two fathers, and his job ever since, Acts 26:18, has been “turning people from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” – from the devil “father” to God the Father. On, then, to “Issachar: a tribute to donkeys’….(next blog)

How on earth would the Jews believe Jesus was the Messiah coming out of some backwater nowhere like Nazareth? If he’d come from a Jewish stronghold like Jerusalem, yes, but not from that northern region known as “Galilee of the Gentiles.”  

But Matthew had an ace up his sleeve, a prophecy from Isaiah that pinpointed exactly where the Messiah would come from. It would be in that very area, “Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan“ Isaiah 9:1, in “the land of Zebulun and Naphtali” on the west side of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan river.

And it was here that Isaiah had predicted years of darkness, firstly due to the evil of all its kings, then invasion by the mighty Assyrians that left the area desolate and populated mostly by pagan Gentiles in the years following. But Isaiah had also predicted that God would “honour” the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, Isaiah 9:1, and those “walking in darkness would see a great light,” and in “the land of darkness a light would dawn” (2) – that Matthew then quoted word for word in Matthew 4:15-16 as proof that Jesus really was the Messiah.

So this backwoods area of Zebulun and Naphtali in the province of Galilee, with its mix of Jews and Gentiles, was the home ground for Jesus’ childhood and most of his ministry. It was here that he turned water into wine, fed thousands from just a few loaves and fish on two separate occasions (Mark 6 and 8), healed hundreds who came to him including the demon possessed (Luke 4:40-41), raised a young girl from the dead, calmed a raging sea, and “news spread about him through the whole countryside” (Luke 4:14).

There was no ignoring the dawning of a great light, but what a shock when Jesus stood up in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4:16-21, where he not only quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 as being fulfilled as he spoke, but also in the lifetime of Elijah and Elisha that God had sent them to feed and heal two Gentiles, but no Israelites (Luke 4:25-27). The intent was clear, that Jesus had been sent as a light to the Gentiles in this land of darkness too – exactly as Simeon had recognized in Jesus when he saw him, describing him as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel,” Luke 2:32. 

And all this tucked away in the story of Jacob’s son Zebulun, that Jesus would become a light to Jew and Gentile alike. But does that include him being a light to those “Living in a dark world” today?….(next blog)

In the same chapter that Isaiah predicted the birth and eternal reign of Jesus (Isaiah 9:6-7), he also predicted the effect of Jesus on Zebulun, Jacob’s son. But what was Zebulun’s connection with Jesus?

Isaiah explains in Isaiah 9:1, that one day “there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress” – the people “in distress” being “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,” both of which God had “humbled in the past” by stirring up the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser, to punish them for their evil ways (2 Kings 15:27-29, 1 Chronicles 5:26).   

“But,” Isaiah then adds in Isaiah 9:1, the time will come “in the future” when “God will honour Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.” Galilee was the area along the Jordan where Zebulun and Naphtali were located, so a prophecy is being made here that promises a great blessing for Zebulun and Naphtali too. 

And they’d need a blessing too because, as Isaiah explains in verse 2, their “people were walking in darkness,” due to all their kings being so evil that God had the Assyrians bring the Israelite kings reign to an end, and the ten northern tribes of Israel, including Zebulun and Naphtali, carted off into exile (2 Kings 17:5-6). 

The “darkness” continued too, because the area of Galilee was stripped of its Israelite population, and was called “Galilee of the Gentiles” instead by Isaiah – and by Matthew too, who repeats Isaiah’s prophecy in Matthew 4:15. Matthew, like Isaiah, also includes the “lands of Zebulun and Naphtali” as part of Galilee, meaning that the people of Galilee in the time of Jesus was a mixture of Jewish and pagan Gentile cultures – in “darkness,” in other words, just as Isaiah had predicted in Isaiah 9:2, that Matthew confirmed in Matthew 4:16.

But this, amazingly, was where Jesus grew up. He was born in Bethlehem, but lived in Nazareth after his family returned from Egypt (Matthew 2:19-23). Nazareth was in “the district of Galilee” (22), where Zebulun was located. To ask what connection Zebulun had with Jesus, then, it starts with Jesus – as far as where he lived as a child – being a Galilean Zebulunite. Not a great place to grow up, though, because on hearing he came from Nazareth the reaction was: “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding” (John 1:46). Even to a Jew, nothing good could come from such a dark backwater as the Lower Galilee region of Zebulun where Nazareth was. But something good had come because in “Zebulun, a light has dawned”….(next blog) 

So how did Jacob know in Genesis 49:13, that his tenth son Zebulun (and sixth son by Leah) would “live by the seashore and become a haven for ships, and his border would extend toward Sidon”? Was it simply God inspiring the prophecy, or that Jacob somehow knew what Zebulun would turn out to be? But either way, why would it matter to us today?

One reason it matters is knowing if the prophecy came true, to see if the Bible really does predict things long before they happen. Fortunately, Matthew 4 nicely confirms that for us, when – 1800 years after Jacob’s prophecy – “Jesus went and lived in Capernaum, by the lake (Galilee) in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali – to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah (in Isaiah 9:1): ‘Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan,’” verses 13-15. 

In Matthew, then, Zebulun not only still exists, it’s also still associated with “the sea,” as it was in Jacob’s original prophecy about Zebulun in Genesis 49, and in Isaiah’s later prophecy in Isaiah 9. And the same again in Moses’ prophecy about Zebulun in Deuteronomy 33:18-19, when he predicts that Zebulun “will feast on the abundance of the seas.”

Which also ties in nicely with Jacob specifically mentioning Sidon in Genesis 49:13 and the importance of Zebulun being butted up against it, because Sidon was a wealthy port city on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and well known for its fishery. The name Sidon even means “fishery” in both Hebrew and Greek, so in Zebulun’s connection with Sidon it had direct access to Sidon’s huge fishing industry and the “abundance of the seas” (that Moses predicted), as well as its port, the “haven of ships” that Jacob predicted.

Zebulun’s hugely significant connection with Sidon would also explain Moses’ other prophecy for Zebulun in Deuteronomy 33:19, that not only would Zebulun feast on the abundance of the seas, but also on “the treasures hidden in the sand.” How did Moses know that one day the production of glass – from sand – would become a vast industry in Sidon, and the glassmakers of Sidon would become famous for their skill? Or that Sidon would also become famous for its purple dye extracted from small shells, a dye so rare it became the mark of royalty – shells also being “treasures hidden in the sand.”  

But there’s an even greater prophecy fulfilled in the tribe of Zebulun that proves the Bible is true: it’s “Zebulun’s connection with Jesus”….(next blog)

Jacob made some amazing predictions about his son Judah in Genesis 49:8-12, but do they relate in some way to us too? Do they, for instance, give some real meaning to Jesus’ command to his disciples in Matthew 6:33, to “seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”?

Because what we’ve got in the prophecy about Judah in Genesis 49 is a pointer to Jesus and the kind of kingdom he’ll be setting up in the future. Verse 8, for instance, says his “hand will be on the neck of his enemies,” which is something we can happily seek and look forward to, because we are stuffed with enemies we have no control over, like the massive corporations sucking us dry in their lust for money, or the leaders of nations draining us dry in their lust for war, or politicians taxing us to death in their messiah-like claim to be saving the planet.  

But one day the Lion of Judah will have them in an unbreakable neck lock and their power will be erased forever (Daniel 7:14). And that’s what king David had his eyes fixed firmly on in Psalm 73, when he couldn’t understand why “the wicked prospered” in his world either (3) – “until,” that is, “I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their final destiny” (16-17). 

Well, thanks to the prophecy in Genesis 49:10, we can enter into the sanctuary of God too, where we see Jesus holding the “sceptre of Judah” picturing his royal authority over this planet and “the obedience of the nations being his.” At last, the time when the rule of law for our world will be based on his example, his nature, and what he taught. So in seeking his kingdom first that’s what we’re seeking in our lives right now – knowing that those who obey Jesus now will join him in bringing HIS truly messianic “eternal salvation” to this planet (Hebrews 5:9).

This is what David and those in Hebrews 11 were seeking (Hebrews 11:13-16, 26), that enabled them to obey God and trust him no matter what the world they lived in threw at them. And isn’t that what keeps us going in this untidy world – knowing Jesus will be taking over one day and setting the entire planet up with what God originally planned for it, and he wants us right beside him in the doing of it too.

The prophecy meant for Judah, therefore, has meaning for us too. Because the kingdom it portrayed is in the making right now, in those who believe in faith what’s coming, like those in Hebrews 11, and want to be part of it as well. But “Does Zebulun have meaning for us too?”….(next blog)

Jacob’s last prediction about his son Judah is in Genesis 49:12 – “His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.” An odd statement, perhaps, but up to this point Jacob has been dropping all sorts of clues in his predictions about Judah that tie in with Jesus, such as comparing Judah to a lion (9) having unending royal authority (10), whose “hand will be on the neck of his enemies (8) and “the obedience of the nations is his” (10). 

And then there are hints leading up to Jesus’ death too, in the mention of the donkey and its colt (11), and of Jesus’ actual death in “his garments being washed in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes” (11). And taking into account that it’s the descendants of Judah that lead directly to the birth of Jesus, one cannot help wondering, putting all these bits together, if verse 12 fits in with Jesus too. 

But how does “his eyes being darker than wine” fit in with Jesus? There’s a hint in the word “darker,” because in Hebrew it can also mean “shining, sparkling, flashing, brilliant,” which ties in perfectly with Revelation 2:18 describing Jesus as “the Son of God whose eyes are like a flame of fire.” And when Jesus is ready to do battle in Revelation 19:12, “his eyes are like blazing fire.”

Was it Judah’s fiery nature that stirred this thought in Jacob’s mind, then? Jacob knew what Judah was like – and so did God, because it was Judah he chose to lead Israel into battle after Joshua died (Judges 1:1-2), just like the “armies of heaven followed Jesus” in Revelation 19:14. Judah himself, then, fitted the picture of Jesus in the future “treading the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty” (15). 

Which is a fearsome picture of Jesus, but is this where Jacob telling Judah “his teeth are whiter than milk” fits in with Jesus too? Because teeth in the Old Testament are often associated with intent to hurt and do evil to a person, as in Job 29:17, Psalm 57:4 and Proverbs 30:14. But that is never Jesus’ intent. His intent is to “break the rod of the wicked” who “subdued nations with relentless aggression,” Isaiah 14:6, so that “All the lands are at rest and at peace” (7). That’s Jesus’ motive, and describing his teeth as whiter than milk fits that motive – “white” picturing purity, as in Psalm 51:7. 

And no wonder Jacob used these terms in Genesis 49:12, because he’d also been battered around a bit by YHWH too, but look at the change it had created in him. But “How does Judah relate to us?”….(next blog) 

It seems surprising that God would choose Judah as the ancestral line leading up to Jesus, when it was Judah in Genesis 37:20 who supported the plot to “kill Joseph and throw him into a cistern and say a ferocious animal devoured him,” and Judah who then suggested they make money from selling Joseph instead (26-27), and Judah who agreed to soaking Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood and telling their father it was Joseph’s blood (31-33). 

Why on earth, then, would God choose Judah as a prophecy about Jesus – which Jacob has been making obvious so far in Genesis 49 – unless the horrible things Judah did to Joseph also ties in with a prophecy about Jesus. Because there’s a hint of that in verse 11, when Jacob tells Judah, “he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.” Is Jacob remembering Judah soaking Joseph’s robe in blood, and relating that to Jesus too? If so, then we have a prophecy about Jesus’ death nearly two thousand years before it happened. 

It ties in with Isaiah 63 too. In verse 1, we have a figure picturing Jesus “robed in splendour,” but at the same time “his garments are stained crimson.” Which ties in with the “richly ornamented robe” Jacob made for Joseph in Genesis 37:3, that Judah and his brothers also stained crimson by soaking it in blood (31).

When asked then, in Isaiah 63:2 – “Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress?” – the one representing Jesus replies: “I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me” (3). Which is exactly what happened to Jesus on the cross. He trod that winepress alone too, left to die a slow agonizing death, abandoned by all, including his disciples. 

The same thing happened to Joseph, dumped in a waterless cistern to die a slow death alone, abandoned by his brothers too. No one even thought about how it must have felt for him.

Except, perhaps, for Judah, because it was Judah who spared Joseph’s life (Genesis 37:26-27). Did Judah have a tiny speck of understanding how Joseph felt, then, and is that why God chose him? And in turn to help us in our understanding too, of how Jesus felt on the cross and seeing his death through his eyes, described in his own heart-wrenching words in Isaiah 63? 

Jacob has one more verse for Judah that could tie in with Jesus too, when he talks about “Eyes like wine; teeth like milk”….(next blog)

Genesis 49:8-12 is one of the great prophecies of the Old Testament, because it foresees Jacob’s fourth son Judah becoming a great nation with an unbroken lineage all the way through to Jesus, and also what Jacob says of his son describes Jesus himself in the future as well. So it’s a prophecy about Jesus nearly two thousand years before he came. 

And a prophecy about Jesus in two parts: his part as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David who triumphs” in Revelation 5:5, pictured in Genesis 49:8-10 – and his part as “a Lamb” that “had been slain” in Revelation 5:6, pictured in Genesis 49:11-12. 

Genesis 49:11, for instance, mentions “tethering his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch,” bringing to mind Jesus telling two of his disciples in Matthew 21:2 to untie a donkey and its foal so he could ride the foal into Jerusalem on the way to his death as “the Lamb of God who takes away our sins” (John 1:29). 

Genesis 49:11 then adds that “he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes,” bringing to mind the question asked in Isaiah 63:1, “Who is this coming with his garments stained crimson?” And then he’s asked directly in verse 2, “Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress?” Whoever this person is, his clothes are stained the colour of grape juice, or as Jacob phrased it, “the blood of grapes.” The stain on his clothes looks exactly like blood, as though they’ve been washed in blood, and lots of it too. 

So who is this person in Isaiah 63? Verse 1 says he’s “robed in splendour, striding forward in the greatness of his strength,” so a mighty powerful being is being pictured here. But then he identifies himself as “speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.” So all his power and splendour is directed toward saving people. Which describes Jesus perfectly in both his parts, as a triumphant King and a blood soaked Saviour “clothed with a robe dipped in blood” (Revelation 19:13).

And Jesus uses wine to picture blood too, when he lifts up a cup of wine in Matthew 26:28 and tells his disciples, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” So was this what Jacob was also getting at in Genesis 49:11, when using terms that would later be used by Isaiah and by John in Revelation – and also by Jesus himself to describe his death? Isaiah 63, then, indicates Jacob knew about Jesus’ death, but it’s also about “Seeing Jesus’ death through his eyes”….(next blog)  

There are hints in Genesis 49 that Jacob knew there was more to the story about Jesus than being a Lion conquering his enemies and all nations one day obeying him (verses 8-10). 

And we know there’s more because of Zechariah 9:9-10 – “Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey’s colt.” So, yes, on the one hand Jesus is a triumphant king, pictured perfectly by Jacob’s description of him as a Lion, and very much in the pattern of his ancestors David and Solomon, who also rode donkeys as kings (1 Kings 1:33). Jesus then fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy exactly, riding on the colt of a donkey into Jerusalem to a crowd cheering “Hosanna to the Son of David” in Matthew 21:5, an acknowledgement that Jesus had David’s royal blood in him.

But why was Jesus so specific in telling his two disciples in Matthew 21:2 – “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you’ll find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me”?

And it had to be the mother donkey and her foal, or colt, that Jesus wanted brought to him. Being a colt it had likely not been ridden before, which explains why it was tied up beside its mother and had to be untied. But all this could seem rather unnecessary in its detail, until reading Genesis 49:11, when out of the blue Jacob mentions that “He (the one whom all nations obey in verse 10) will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch.”

There it is again, and so specific again too, a donkey and its colt – and both “tethered” or tied too, just like the donkey and its colt were tied or tethered in Matthew 21. Which can seem like a rather cryptic clue about Jesus in Genesis 49:11, but not “When you have the key,” the key Jesus himself gave in John 5:39, that “all the Scriptures (the Bible up to that point) are testifying about me.” 

Which is exactly what Jacob has been doing; he’s been giving all sorts of hints about Jesus in Genesis 49:8-10. And he’s still got the rest of verse 11 and verse 12 to go yet in speaking to Judah, so is Jacob “testifying about Jesus” in those verses too?

Well the clues given in those two verses beg the question: “Did Jacob know Jesus would die?”….(next blog)

Jacob is making some obvious parallels between his son Judah and Jesus. He compares Judah to a lion in Genesis 49:9, for example, which ties right in with Jesus being called the “Lion of Judah” in Revelation 5:5. 

Judah is told “your hand will be on the neck of your enemies” in Genesis 49:8, and in verse 9 that he’ll be “like a lion” devouring its prey, putting the fear up anyone daring to challenge him – another obvious parallel with Jesus “reigning until he’s put all his enemies under his feet,” 1 Corinthians 15:25.

And then in Genesis 49:10, Judah is told “The sceptre will not depart” from him – the sceptre picturing royal authority that will always be his, another obvious parallel with Jesus who declared that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Matthew 28:18, and for always too (Hebrews 1:8).

It’s amazing what Jacob knew about his son’s future and how it would lead up to “the one who comes to whom it all belongs” and the time when “the obedience of the nations is his,” Genesis 49:10 – another obvious reference to Jesus telling his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 to go to “all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” 

Already, then, 1800 years before Jesus arrived on the scene, Jacob was predicting his coming. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the Jews expected Jesus to be the powerful “lion” of Genesis 49 who would subdue all their enemies and install his kingdom and authority over the world’s kingdoms forever. They certainly understood that part about Jesus, thanks to Jacob. 

But what they didn’t grasp was Jesus coming as a Lamb first, not a Lion. When John the Baptist “saw Jesus coming” in John 1:29, and he cried out, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” that wasn’t what the Jews were looking to Jesus for. They wanted a Lion, not a Lamb. They were right in expecting “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, to triumph,” Revelation 5:5, absolutely, but in verse 6 John adds: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain…” 

Jesus would also be a Lamb – so why didn’t Jacob include that in his predictions about his son in Genesis 49? Or maybe he did: with a rather cryptic clue perhaps, but not so cryptic “When you have the key”….(next blog)