[Repeat of series introduction that began on 17 December 2023: Where would you go today in the Old Testament to argue that Jesus is the Christ? There’s so much to this that cannot be dismissed. We’re given in many ways what the Messiah would be like, what his character would be, how he’d be received (even by different people), what he’d do, how he’d redeem, that we’d have his lineage, what he’d say, how it would all end, how he’d come and more. So much, and we see it all done in just one man! How would you know that he is the promised Messiah? Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, and glorification all demonstrate the facets of his excellent work. Jesus himself asked two of his disciples the same question I could ask you today, and then went to the same source to explain it that I’d like to go to as well in this series: “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:26-27. Jesus had to suffer to then enter into his glory he said. With this premise, he goes through some measure of the 39 books of the Old Testament revealing himself to them thereby. This is the same Old Testament we have today. I wish we were given the transcript of that talk, but God didn’t wish to give it. But can we see it? Many historical events in the Scriptures could be fulfilled by men and women, but no one but Jesus (Messiah) could fulfill them all. The Lord himself demonstrated that he was and is the Christ, and our New Testament reflects that its writers were well aware of this. The clear approach of the Apostles was to argue the same from the Bible that Jesus read- the 39 books we now call the Old Testament. To know what it means that Jesus is the Christ is to show the fulness of God’s revelation to mankind in the New Testament in him. In the Old Testament, God said he’d defeat sin and death; the New Testament shows us that work done. There are so many ways to talk of this. So many passages. I won’t exhaust them, but in this series, I wish to examine some of these passages. These passages are how I would prove Jesus is the Christ from the Old Testament].
Judah was a tribe within the nation of Israel, one of Israel’s twelve. Israel is the name of the entire nation that descended from Abraham, but Israel was also a man, a grandson of Abraham. God himself told the man Jacob to change his name to Israel in Genesis 32:28. Near the death of Israel, he speaks in an amazing prophetic manner about the future of his children who became the heads of those twelve tribes. We’ll come back to this in Genesis 49 below. Judah was one of the sons of Israel and head of the tribe that bore his name. Judah himself was not a “good man.” He does nothing exemplary in his life in the biblical record. On the contrary, the account of the man in Genesis is actually quite terrible. No one’s hope is in Judah the man, but God fulfilled his promises through Israel as a nation and thus through this man as well. Jacob (AKA Israel) was aware of these promises. Genesis 32:12. The promise of Abraham having descendants as bountiful as the stars or sands (see Genesis 15, etc.) takes on more than just a bloodline promise by the time we come to the New Testament. Jesus never married nor had any kids yet Isaiah in Isaiah 53:10 speaks prophetically of him saying, “…If He renders Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring…” This is the spiritual seed. The Hebrew and Greek words used are where we get our words for semen or sperm in English. Abraham’s descendants were and are Israel, yes, but they’re also now all Gentiles who are in Christ as well. This is specifically not less than all the children of God made children of God in the New Covenant era by the Holy Spirit. If one is “born again” they’re made into children of Abraham. Since Jesus is a literal bloodline descendant of Abraham through Isaac, Jacob and Judah, he unites us to the family if we’re in him. All those in Christ are now called “children of Abraham” as if by bloodline. We actually become (male and female) inheritors of God’s own creation by faith.
Jesus was born of a virgin. He’s not “of Adam” as we are. He is holy in every way. Not from below, but from above. John 8:23. He became like us in nearly every way, but not entirely as us. He never sinned and he is God. He came through Mary. She was of Adam in every way, but her Son was not. Jesus’ genealogy is traced through Mary’s side in Matthew. I believe Joseph’s genealogy is traced by Luke to establish Jesus though both Matthew and Luke understand the virgin birth. The genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels all trace Jesus’ genealogy through Judah back to Abraham or Adam.
In Genesis 49:8-12, we have Israel’s prophecy about Judah. Verse says: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Judah’s pre-eminence as a tribe is shown in a few ways in Israel’s history. David, a son of Jesse, was from this tribe. Jesus himself is called the, “Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David…” in Revelation 5:5. He is David’s root, yet simultaneously also a branch or descendant from his own line. This tells me he’s David’s God, his source. Jesus himself quizzed people on his descent from yet supremacy over David in Matthew 22:41-46. The scepter is a picture of a ruler. Another prophecy of Jesus’ birth says, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” Micha 5:2. This is from Judah. Jesus was born in the “City of David.” In Bethlehem.
So, in Genesis 49 we have Israel stating cryptically, in way I believe fully beyond his own comprehension, that Jesus would thousands of years later be born of Judah’s line. “And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Genesis 49:10. All of the children of Abraham say amen to this. Not just in our generation, but in all of the generations both before and after us as well. God preserved Israel. The scepter never departed from Judah therein. Christ came. Christ is Lord of all.
God bless!!!
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