Messianic Prophecy. Messiah in Pentateuch, Part 4. CA314 LESSON 10 of 24. Louis Goldberg, ThD

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1 Messianic Prophecy CA314 LESSON 10 of 24 Louis Goldberg, ThD Experience: Professor of Theology and Jewish Studies, Moody Bible Institute Before we say anything concerning Jacob s blessing of Judah, we should get some background insofar as Jacob is concerned. The historic background is spread out across a number of chapters beginning with Genesis 25 and then on through to Genesis 49. In Genesis 25 we have one very important point concerning the sale of the birthright by Esau. This meant that Jacob acquired the material blessings involved in the transfer of father to son. In Genesis 27 we find the trickery involved so that Jacob requires the spiritual blessings that make possible the position of the priesthood of the clan, one who will then speak on behalf of the clan to God. Then in chapter 28 we find Jacob on the run because of what he and his mother had done to Esau. And we find in chapter 28, verse 16, Jacob s experience at Bethel, and he makes a statement, I knew it not, that is, concerning the presence of God and associated with Bethel. At least the text says this. Actually, quite literally we would say, and I knew Him not, and there is a suggestion that here was Jacob s conversion experience, shall we say. I m not being dogmatic, but it seems to suggest itself that as Jacob is on the run now, he s frightened of what Esau might be able to do to him. He no doubt had his mind upon Esau, and I m sure he also thought of God and how God might be able to protect him. Then after some twenty years of working for his Uncle Laban we find he s on the return. And in chapter 32, in Genesis 32:27, in the wrestling with the Angel of the Lord there is the confession on the part of Jacob as to who he was; he confessed when he was asked as to his name. This simply was not the handle, so to speak, or the first name situation. Rather, in Hebrew when we ask for somebody s name, we are really asking for his character, and Jacob answered and gave his character associated with his name. His name is changed at that point to Israel, and we might say we have a theoretical dedication of life here. It doesn t happen where Jacob has this full practical dedication of life until we come to Genesis 35. Between chapters 32 and 35 is some pretty sad reading, and I think finally, when we get to chapter 35, Jacob has made up his 1 of 6

2 mind that he is totally dedicated to God and he is going to carry this out insofar as his family is concerned. In the ensuing years we find that Joseph ends up in Egypt, and Jacob and the rest of the family then follow him, and the family begins to grow in the land of Egypt. Finally, in Genesis 49 we come to the point where Jacob adds his blessings or curses with regard to his sons. And when we look at Genesis 49, we find that the first three sons are passed over. Reuben is disqualified from being the leader of the clan. In the same way, Simeon and Levi are disqualified. Reuben was disqualified because of an excess of immorality, whereas Simeon and Levi are disqualified because of the horrible affair with regard to Shechem and Hamor in the affair with Dinah. Finally, we come to the fourth son, and he is Judah. Judah, then, receives the blessing in the sense that he is going to have the leadership over all of the tribes. We had already pointed out that in tracing the messianic line we find that in this chapter and through the action of Jacob s blessings and Judah in particular that it will be of Judah that the Messiah will ultimately come. But here is the blessing then that singles out Judah, and in chapter 49, verses 8, 9, and 10, Jacob has a number of things to say regarding Judah. But it s verse 10 that takes on special significance. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler s staff from between his feet. The next two lines are a headache insofar as trying to interpret them. Different people interpret them differently. It s Soncino the Chumash on the Pentateuch or the Torah, the first five books of Moses, has on this passage the following translation insofar as those last two verses are concerned. As long as men come to Shiloh and unto him [that is, Judah] shall be the obedience of the peoples. I wonder, however, if this really captures the messianic prophecy that blessing is intended to be. It seems that in the Soncino outlook that there is some sort of a fulfillment within the history of Israel at a time when Shiloh was the worship center of Ephraim, and we lose somehow for the most part the specific reference to Shiloh as the Messiah. In another possibility there is the suggestion that... we would translate the last two lines until He comes to whom it [that is, the scepter] belongs. Here again, I think that this puts an undo strain on the way to handle Shiloh of 6

3 [Ernst Wilhelm] Hengstenberg I think has the more acceptable way to handle this passage of Scripture and we would, as we read it, handle it in this way: The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler s staff from between his feet, [now here come] until Shiloh comes. In other words, now Shiloh is not a place, as the Soncino would suggest, but Shiloh now becomes the name of a person, in other words, the Messiah. A number of other writers will concur with this understanding, and there are some Jewish interpreters and exegetes who will also handle it in this way so that we would see it in this light, until Shiloh comes and to Him [that is, to Shiloh] shall be [or to the Messiah] shall be the obedience of the peoples, so that we have a messianic prophecy now. Here is Jacob adding his blessing to his boys, and concerning Judah who is going to be the leader of the clan, Jacob has a special word so we would then interpret it in this light insofar as Jacob s unusual message for Judah. He prophesied now that the descendants of Judah would not set aside their right to rule themselves as a people in the future and not hand over the lawmaking power in their ranks as a nation to someone else [that is, for example, the Messiah] but that the Messiah would come first. In other words, there is an aspect of the timing now concerning the Messiah. That is, in the coming of the Messiah, the nation, with Judah as its leadership, would hand over its rulership to Him. If we observe the passage carefully, we note that Shiloh is to come prior to Judah s subjugation of their scepter and their lawgiver to this Messiah. In other words, the prophecy is that the Messiah would come before Judah would set aside their governing and lawmaking right over a united people and to place it in the hands of the Messiah. To check this out from our vantage point today we go back to the tragic date of AD 70. This was the point at which the Romans sacked the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the Herodian temple. And we realize that after that date in history Judah indeed lost its lawmaking and governing rights as a national entity, but it didn t work the way that it was intended. They lost their lawmaking and their governing rights in the sense that the king was refused His authority. King Messiah did not in the days of His flesh have the kingdom offered to Him by the leadership of the nation, and therefore Judah did lose its rights in these areas. So in a negative way Judah lost these factors when God had designed that in a positive way, at least theoretically, that Judah should hand over its rulership to King Messiah, David s greater Son. As such, then, I think that this passage gives us a very beautiful presentation hundreds of years before Messiah ever came. Judah is to have the lawmaking and the governing capacities over the whole national entity, but of Judah would come the Messiah and the lawmaking 3 of 6

4 and the governing capacities should have been placed in Messiah s hands. As we ll see a little bit later on when we handle the prophetic passages, this will yet come to pass in history when the Messiah returns to rule and to reign over a nation that will acknowledge His right to rule. We move on to a question that I would like you to wrestle with. Are there messianic or typological teachings regarding the life of Joseph? And I m not going to be dogmatic in this area. Certainly when we read many volumes on typology, many passages which seek to exegete and to interpret the life of Joseph, Joseph is made out many times to be a type of Christ. The psalmist states in Psalm 105:17 18, and 19: He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the LORD tested him [or, refined him]. People see all sorts of connections between the life of Joseph and the life of Christ. We certainly would agree that there is nothing innate in the New Testament that would connect Joseph and Messiah. But is there strong inference that we can do this? And some do see the strong inference; they perhaps see the inference between the sufferings of Joseph and the sufferings of Christ especially in this aspect of the passage which I just read that the word of the Lord refined him. And there is an aspect of this in Hebrews 5, where the Messiah was tried and tested, and in His cryings as the Son of Man, He too learned obedience to the Father. There are these suggestions, and as I said, some try to make the inference and say Joseph is a beautiful type of Christ. For myself, I still try to hold to a quite strict usage of types, and I don t see any type and antitype tied between Joseph and Christ. Certainly many of the men of the Old Testament suffered for their faith, and many of us also suffer for our faith. Many of us will be tried and tested and refined so that there will be a greater obedience to God. But to say that since I or any other Bible character has suffered and therefore this can be linked to Christ, I think it takes something more involved in a tie or a link in order to establish a type. As I said, I m not trying to be dogmatic here, but if you can find some strong inference in this area, feel free to go to it. However, as I have said already from the hermeneutics of typology, be careful on how you type. Illustrations, many; but typology, [you need] to exercise caution. 4 of 6

5 Now let s turn to a very interesting study, the incidence, the experiences of the Israelites in their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. Here many preachers and many writers see all kinds of types. Here again, we need to be careful in how we establish our typology. One of these, certainly, can be classified as a type, and that is the institution of the Passover. We have already suggested this. The historical background is given to us in Exodus 12, and there is the tie between 1 Corinthians 5:7 8, so we will indicate here a type which is innate; that is, there is a very definite mention and therefore a very important link. In Exodus 12 we have the Passover lamb, or we can say as the Scripture declares, the Lord s Passover. And in 1 Corinthians 5:7 8 Paul definitely declares that Christ is our Passover, so that in similarity I think we have two or at least three similarities between the institution of the Passover and Christ or Messiah. Perhaps we can suggest these now. The first are those passages which connect the two as a very definite link, and so therefore we would suggest as the Lord s Passover lambs were put to death (Exodus 12:6 and 11), so Christ, our Passover, was put to death on our behalf (1 Corinthians 5:7). We know the story: that in the tenth plague Moses prepared his people so that they would not succumb to the action of the death angel where the firstborn of their families would perish. The way they avoided this penalty was to take a lamb. Moses instructed them very carefully concerning this action. They were to take the blood from that lamb after it had been killed, and they were to apply the blood on the doorposts and on the lintel of the house. When the death angel would pass over Egypt, by the way this is where the word comes from, when the death angel crossed over Egypt on that fateful night, the firstborn of the Hebrews did not die because they had the blood of the lamb outside on the house or whichever dwelling they had. The Egyptians, however, who did not have the blood on their dwelling places, their firstborn perished. So we see, then, the link which connects the two. Let s note also another similarity, and here comes the aspect of the vicariousness. And so we state that as the Lord s Passover lambs were put to death on behalf of the nation (Exodus 12:7 and 23), so Christ, our Passover lamb, was put to death on behalf of everyone, and again we would indicate 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Christ is our Passover lamb. But also we would include John 1:29, where John the Baptist, when they pointed to Christ as He was approaching, said in a true fashion of a priest, Behold, the Lamb. But unlike other priests who selected Passover lambs, John the Baptist continued and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then we would also include another passage, 1 Corinthians 15:3, where Paul declares that Christ [or 5 of 6

6 Messiah] died for our sins according to the Scriptures, so that we have a vicariousness now, you see. In the Old Testament situation the Passover lambs were put to death on behalf of the nation so that the Hebrew families would be spared, their firstborn would not die; so, therefore, we see the beautiful type now. But there is still another similarity I think which we should note. As the Lord s Passover lambs provided life for every Israelite (Exodus 12:23), so Messiah, our Passover lamb, provides life for everyone who believes in Him. The picture of the death angel crossing Egypt on that night, when he saw the blood on the doorposts, he passed over that house and the firstborn was spared; in a sense we might say that because of that lamb that had been killed for that family, in a sense, the firstborn received new life. He was permitted to live, whereas this was not true insofar as the Egyptians were concerned. But here comes the beautiful type, antitype relation. So Messiah, our Passover lamb, provides life for everyone who believes on Him. We don t just see Jesus dying for us on the cross, but we must also recognize that He gives us life. In 1 John 5:12 we are reminded that he that has the Son has life. And the same would be true, also, insofar as 1 Corinthians 5:7 8, when Paul talks about the unleavened bread of sincerity and in truth. We have to recognize that here is life of a new quality, of a new nature, and it gives us a beautiful picture concerning this matter of life. I think there s something else we might also mention insofar as this third similarity is concerned. In the Jewish Passover Seder or meal, which they eat in observance of the Passover every spring, there are in the course of the meal four cups of wine which are taken. The first cup at the very beginning is the cup of sanctification. The second cup divides the meal. The third cup is taken after the meal. In Luke 22:20 likewise also, the cup after supper; it is from this third cup that Jesus institutes the cup of the Lord s Table. But this third cup is referred to as the cup of salvation, the cup of redemption, and in the Passover meal that Jesus enjoyed with His disciples, as He held up that cup, everybody knew the meaning of that cup from Jewish tradition. It was the cup of redemption, the cup of salvation, and here Jesus holds it up and says, This is the new covenant in my blood, or in a sense, this is the atonement and in the aspect of atonement there is life, new life. So I think that in this tie between the institution of the Passover in the Old Testament and Jesus as the Passover Lamb in the New Testament setting, we see three beautiful similarities that should also rejoice our soul. Think on it, won t you, because I think it gives us some of the very basis concerning our own salvation. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 6 of 6