A Promise of Kingship

We saw yesterday that the promises of God in His covenant with Abraham are extended to those who are redeemed by Christ. Believers become Abraham’s spiritual sons and daughters, and inherit the promises, just as Abraham’s son, grandson, and great-grandsons inherited the promises in Genesis. The passing-down of the covenant promises from generation to generation was known as the patriarchal blessing. In the record of this process we find another mighty promise that further expands God’s revelation of His redemptive plan.

When Abraham’s son Isaac grew old, he blessed his son Jacob, transferring the promises (and requirements) of the covenant to him (Gen. 27:27–29). Presumably Abraham had done the same for Isaac. Interestingly, neither Isaac nor Jacob was the firstborn of his father; Abraham’s firstborn was Ishmael and Isaac’s was Esau. Ishmael, of course, could not inherit the promises, for Isaac was the son promised by God under the covenant. And God chose between Esau and Jacob (Rom. 9:10–13), allowing the younger son to inherit what normally would go to the older. Isaac, in fact, had been prepared to bless Esau until Jacob gained the blessing by stealth, thereby becoming the bearer of the promises. Years later, as he lay on his deathbed, Jacob called his 12 sons to him to hear his last will and testament (Gen. 49); it was his turn to pass on the covenant blessing. But again, the firstborn was denied. Jacob called Reuben “ ‘unstable as water,’ ” for he had had sexual relations with his father’s concubine (Gen. 35:22), the mother of two of his brothers. The next two brothers, Simeon and Levi, were condemned, too, for they had exacted bloody revenge for the rape of their sister, Dinah (Gen. 34). Finally, Jacob came to his fourth son, Judah, and here he bestowed the covenant blessing, saying, “ ‘You are he whom your brothers shall praise.’ ”

But Judah’s supremacy was not a one-generation status. Judah would become the royal house of Israel, the tribe from which the kings of the nation would rightfully come. This status would remain “ ‘until Shiloh comes.’ ” There is debate about the precise meaning of “Shiloh,” but most commentators see it as a messianic term. God was promising through Jacob that the Redeemer would come in the line of Judah and would reign as King over all peoples.