Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Jacob's Last Words, Jacob's Last Words.
This is a pretty interesting chapter where he gives these blessings upon his children.
He talks about some things about them that are positive, some things that are negative.
And I'm going to focus this morning just on the first four sons that are listed here.
But the Bible says in verse number one, And Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather
yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father.
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency
of dignity and the excellency of power, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou
winnest up to thy father's bed, then defilets thou it.
He went up to my couch.
Now if you would flip over to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 1, you can kind of keep
a finger in Genesis 49 or stick a bookmark there because we'll be coming back there throughout
the sermon.
But he starts out by talking to Reuben, and he starts out by saying that he's the firstborn
son, he is mighty in strength, he's dignified, he has great power.
So here's a guy who's got everything going for him, right?
He's the firstborn, he's in line to get the double portion of the inheritance, he's a
strong young man, he's powerful, he's got dignity, but it says, unstable as water thou
shalt not excel, because thou winnest up to thy father's bed, then defilets thou it.
He went up to my couch.
Now what is he talking about?
Well I'll read this for you, you don't have to turn there.
Genesis 35 verse 22 says, it came to pass when Israel dwelled in the land that Reuben
went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard it, now the sons of Jacob
were twelve.
So we see that Reuben, even though he had everything going for him and every advantage
in life, and he had a lot of good attributes, he ended up ruining his life and losing his
birthright because of fornication.
As he committed fornication with Bilhah, the concubine, then instead of being blessed,
he actually gets a curse from his father Israel that he will not excel.
And of course we don't hear much about Reuben in the Bible as being a great Bible character,
and he did not get the inheritance that the firstborn son would normally get.
Normally the oldest son gets a double portion, but instead Jacob took away that double portion
from his son Reuben, and he gave it to his son Joseph instead because of the fact that
Reuben committed fornication.
Now if you would look down at your Bible there in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 1, the Bible
reads, dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor.
So does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor.
What's the Bible saying?
Even if you are a wise and honorable person, and even if you have a great reputation, just
a little folly, the Bible says, can ruin your reputation.
Just as you could have a giant thing of ointment, and just a few tiny little dead flies inside
that ointment could cause the whole thing to stink.
And even though the ointment is very costly and filled with great ingredients, just the
fact that there are dead flies in it makes no one want to use that ointment and it ruins
the whole smell.
I mean if you were to mix a beautiful perfume plus dead flies, it's just going to smell
rotten.
And God's saying that that's what your life is like.
Just because you have a lot of good things in your life, just that one rotten part of
your life can make the whole thing stink.
Now especially in a church like ours, where there's a lot of work being done for the Lord,
we need to keep this in mind.
Because a lot of people tend to have this idea that because they're doing a lot of good
work for the Lord, that that allows them license to go out and do bad things and to commit
sin and that the whole thing is going to sort of balance out wrong.
You go out and commit fornication, your whole life is going to stink.
And it's going to send a stinking saver no matter how much soul winning you do, or no
matter how much Bible reading you do, or no matter how much you volunteer for this at
the church or that at church.
That does not excuse sin.
God has not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness.
And the Bible says this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should
abstain from fornication.
God demands us not to have any intercourse outside of marriage.
And so you young people, you must wait until you're married to indulge in that physical
relationship and no sooner.
Now if you've already made that mistake in the past, well then you need to start over
right now, confess and forsake that sin and be pure and clean from here on out.
And if you're married, you need to keep your body only for your spouse until death do you
part.
Now I know exactly what dead flies smell like because we have these fly catchers that we
put in our backyard and they're the ones that are like a plastic bag and they have a yellow
plastic piece at the top and they're filled with a liquid.
And we get them at Home Depot, who knows what I'm talking about, those type of fly catchers.
Well here's the thing about those.
We fill them up because a lot of, sometimes we'll just get like a plague of flies for
some reason in our neighborhood.
And so when we put these things out, it solves the problem.
They work very well, but they fill up and we have to replace them sometimes a couple
of times until all the flies are dead.
And I mean they will fill up like, we're talking this high and about this thick of dead flies.
And I'm telling you, it stinks horribly.
It's the worst smell.
And you'll just walk into the backyard and be like, whoa, we got to change those fly
traps and get rid of those things.
And we burn them and they smell horrific.
So that's what the Bible is comparing it to, beautiful ointment or perfumes or lotions
and then just mix in that dead fly smell.
It's not going to counteract it.
It just makes the whole thing to stink.
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor.
So does the little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor.
Go to Hebrews chapter 12.
And in Hebrews chapter 12, we find a perfect verse to describe Reuben's situation.
Here's Reuben.
He's dignified.
He's strong.
He's mighty.
He's got everything going for him.
He's got a godly mom and dad.
He's being raised in a godly Christian home and his parents are well-to-do.
He's got food.
He's got a great job.
He's got a great inheritance.
He messes it all up to fornicate with Bilhah.
Do you think it was really worth it?
No way.
Look what the Bible says in Hebrews and by the way, fornication is never worth it.
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 15, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest
any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled.
Look at verse 16, lest there be any fornicator.
And again, just to make sure people that are maybe new to church or new to the Bible, fornication
is when people are having intercourse outside of marriage before they're married.
That's called fornication.
So it says here, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright.
So God is comparing fornication to the stupidity of when Esau sold his birthright for a bowl
of stew.
He'd been out hunting and he didn't catch anything and he hadn't eaten in days and he's
starving and he comes home and Jacob was cooking this delicious pottage of lentils, right?
He's making this really good smelling soup and that food smelled so good right then and
there that he was willing to sell his birthright, basically give Jacob the double portion of
the inheritance, you know, because that's way off in the future anyway.
He gave him the double portion just so that he could eat that bowl of food right then
and there.
Just because he only cared about gratifying his flesh now and the Bible's teaching us
that's exactly what fornication is like.
You just get that gratification right now and you're just selling your future down the
river.
You're just ruining future rewards there.
And so he says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright for you know how that afterward when he would have inherited
the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he saw it carefully
with tears.
So there are certain damages that you can do to your life that you can't even undo.
Now you can obviously cut your losses and move forward and start over and do it right
but there's still always going to be some damage that's done.
And so we need to take that warning very seriously.
Go if you were to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
So Reuben that's what he did.
He literally lost his birthright because he fornicated with the concubine Bilhah.
But not only did he commit fornication he actually committed a worse type of fornication
because he violated two of God's laws.
First of all fornication is always a sin.
But secondly he fornicated with one with whom his father had been with which is an abomination
unto the Lord and is extra sinful.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1.
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so
much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife.
That's a worse type of fornication.
Now you say well wouldn't that be adultery because usually the word fornication would
be used for what?
People that are unmarried, adultery for people that are married.
I believe that because this is the only time in the Bible the word fornication would be
used for someone who's married.
I think that this person is not married to his father any longer.
I think that what probably is going on here is that his dad has passed away or that his
dad has become divorced from this woman that was his father's wife.
And I believe the reason why he says that one should have his father's wife.
It's not the fact that she and the father are married right now that's the problem.
The problem is that the Bible considers it an abomination for one to basically even if
his dad died to marry his father's wife would just be disgusting in the sight of God that
he would be with one that his father had been with.
See listen to these scriptures.
You can stay there in 1 Corinthians 5 but in Leviticus 18 verse 8 it says the nakedness
of thy father's wife thou shalt not uncover.
It is thy father's nakedness.
Leviticus 20 verse 11 and the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his
father's nakedness both of them shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon
them.
Deuteronomy 22 verse 30 a man shall not take his father's wife nor discover his father's
skirt.
Deuteronomy 27 verse 20 cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife because he uncovered
his father's skirt and all the people shall say amen.
So we have four specific commandments in Leviticus and Deuteronomy saying that don't
lie with one who has been with your father.
That's an abomination to God and he lists that in a whole list of just perversions and
things that we should not ever do no matter what.
So the reason that we don't believe that the father was still married to the woman is because
it uses the word fornication instead of the word adultery.
But it's still gross, it's still sin, it's still wrong because it had been his father's
wife and that is an abomination.
Go back to Genesis 49 if you would.
In 2 Samuel 16 also it talks about how Absalom went in unto his father's concubines similar
to what Reuben did.
And it says that when he does that that all Israel will hear that he's a part of his father
and he went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.
So a lot of scripture on that subject.
We've got Genesis 35, Genesis 49, then we have four different scriptures in the Mosaic
law on it.
Then we have the story about Absalom and then we have 1 Corinthians 5.
Eight different times that this comes up in the Bible.
So there must be a significance there.
So let's go back to the story here and let's move on to our next son.
So the first son we saw, Reuben, had everything going for him, screwed up his life by fornicating
and even a worse kind of fornication because it was one who had been his father's concubine.
Let's move on to the next two sons, Simeon and Levi.
The Bible says in verse 5, Simeon and Levi are brethren, instruments of cruelty are in
their habitations.
Oh my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly.
Mine honor, be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man and in their self will
they dig down a wall.
Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
So these two sons are receiving a curse as well, Simeon and Levi.
What was these guys problem?
Well, if you would, go back to Genesis chapter 34 and we'll see how these guys messed up
their lives and received a curse from their father.
It says in Genesis 34 verse 1, and Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto
Jacob went out to see the daughters of the land.
And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite prince of the country saw her, he took her
and lay with her and defiled her.
And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob and he loved the damsel and spake
kindly unto the damsel and Shechem spake unto his father Hamor saying, get me this damsel
to wife.
So here's what happened.
This girl Dinah, who is their younger sister, she goes out to see the daughters of the land.
She's not going out to try to commit fornication.
She's not going out to try to meet guys.
In the process of going out to see the daughters of the land, she's out there, she's unsupervised,
she's hanging around with a bunch of heathen girls, and what's the result?
She ends up getting into fornication.
Many people have wrongfully preached this chapter that she was forced by him.
There's no evidence of that in this passage, number one.
This is not a force thing.
It just says that he took her and lied with her, but it says that he spake kindly unto
her, and then a few verses later, it says that he was more honorable than the house
of his brother.
God's not going to call a rapist more honorable.
Obviously what happened is, this is a heathen, worldly guy, and probably amongst his friends
and his family, fornication wasn't a big deal.
They might not have even thought that fornication was wrong.
Think about how many people today in America, they think fornication is okay.
They just say, well, just as long as you love each other.
And he spake kindly to her, and his heart claved to her in love.
So according to America 2018, what he did was perfectly moral and right.
But according to God's word, it's sin, it's wrong.
So that's what we see happening.
He ends up meeting her, and they commit fornication, and then he comes to his father Hamor, and
says, dad, will you get me this woman to wife?
I want to marry this girl, right?
Well here's what happened.
Simeon and Levi were just enraged by this.
And you can understand why they'd be angry that their virgin younger sister goes out
into town and ends up fornicating with this guy.
This guy ends up seducing her, enticing her, and ruining her virginity.
So obviously they're angry about this.
They're very mad.
Now being angry at such a thing is natural.
But the Bible tells us that we need to give place unto wrath.
Don't let the sun go down on your wrath.
And he also says, vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord, I will repay.
When people do us wrong, when people harm us, or people around us, we are supposed to
pray to the Lord for vengeance and not take things into our own hands and get violent.
Now in this particular situation, according to God's law, what should have happened here,
the punishment for fornication in the Bible, that if a man entices a maid and lies with
her, she's a virgin and he lies with her, then basically the punishment is that he has
to marry the girl.
He has to be at least willing to marry the girl.
Now if the girl doesn't want to marry him, she doesn't have to.
And if the girl's dad refuses him and says, no, I don't want you marrying my daughter,
he has the right to refuse him.
But that young man is obligated, since he took her virginity, he has to marry her.
He has to at least offer to marry her and be willing to marry her.
And if he doesn't marry her and the dad refuses him, then he has to pay a fine.
He has to pay a monetary recompense to the family for having defiled their daughter.
That's the biblical response here.
So therefore, was it right then to get violent with this man who had done this?
No, because what should have happened was that this man should have been told, hey,
you have to marry her now.
And then if they decide, if Jacob decides, hey, I don't want my daughter marrying this
heathen guy, then the answer would have been, okay, you have to pay the shekels or whatever
that you've incurred here.
Now look, that's not going to fix it.
Obviously, that's not going to make it right.
But here's the thing, folks.
Bad things are going to happen to you in your life.
Bad things are going to happen to other people around you in your life.
You can't just resort to violence to solve it.
You can't, I'm just going to go beat that guy, I'm just going to go kill that guy.
No, no, no.
You have to have the faith to realize that God will recompense, God will repay.
Now, people have often criticized me for sermons that I've preached where I would preach from
the book of Psalms, what are known as the imprecatory Psalms or Psalms where David or
other men of God are praying for evil to befall their enemies.
You know what?
The reason why imprecatory prayer is important is that it stops us from being violent because
we realize that vengeance belongs to the Lord.
He'll repay.
And, you know, when something horrible happens, we can pray to the Lord and say, God, you
need to deal with this, please, because, you know, I'm not going to.
I'm not going to take things into my own hands.
I'm going to pray for the Lord to take care of me.
That's a good way to put off anger would be to take those burdens to the Lord and not
to just let the anger fester and devour us and not that we would get violent and attack
people or kill people.
Now, look, I believe in self-defense if someone's attacking you right then and there, and I
believe also in defending someone else, if someone else is being attacked and you step
in and use force to stop a person from being assaulted or to stop yourself from being assaulted.
You know, using force is appropriate, and that's totally legal.
In Arizona, it's completely legal to use force if someone's being violated or attacked or
harmed to either protect yourself or them, even to use deadly force if the situation
calls for it.
That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about after the fact, going and hunting somebody down and killing them
or harming them because of what they've done in the past.
That is not biblical.
We should leave that to the powers that be.
We should leave that, if somebody's done something worthy of death, then leave that
to the police.
Leave that to the proper authorities, and you say, well, the police aren't going to
do anything about it.
You know, the authorities aren't going to do anything about it.
They're ineffective.
They bungled the case, but you know what?
There's a judge that's higher than them, and you have to have the faith to say, you know
what?
God's going to punish these people.
God's going to destroy these people, and they're going to get what's coming to them because
God didn't say, I might repay.
He said, vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord, I will repay.
And you see, a lot of people, they get confused between hard preaching and physical violence.
Big difference.
And this is the saying that I want to constantly tell people.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
Has anybody ever heard that saying before?
Wasn't that something that our parents would tell us and teachers would tell us?
On the playground, you come in, hey, he called me this and that, and they'd say, hey, sticks
and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.
Now look, I wish that somebody would explain that to this generation that we're living
in right now.
Where were those counselors on the playground for this generation?
Because this is what happens.
You'll preach hard against sin.
You'll rebuke fornication.
You'll rebuke adultery, and here's what they'll say.
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.
And I'm like, when did I throw a stone?
They think preaching equals throwing a stone.
And I'm like, okay, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.
I haven't cast any stones yet.
This is me talking.
This is words coming out of my mouth.
I mean, look, the only time I've ever known of someone saying words that actually knocked
somebody over is when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and they said, we're looking
for Jesus.
He said, I'm he, and they all fell over backward.
I don't have the power to do that with my voice.
So I don't think my words are going to hurt anybody.
But today, we have preachers today, we have pastors today, who their wife leaves them
or they leave their wife while the pastor of a local church, and they just keep on pastoring
like nothing happened.
Even though what did the Bible say?
That the pastor has to rule his house and be the husband of one wife.
But now pastors, the norm now is for pastors to just neglect their wife, neglect their
family, then their wife gets sick of them and leaves them, or they get sick of her and
want to trade up for a newer model.
And then what happens?
They just keep on pastoring, going along like nothing happened.
And then another preacher calls them out and says, hey, that's wrong.
Hey, you're a bad example.
Hey, you can't be the bishop of a local church if you're doing that.
You can't still be the deacon if you're doing that.
You're setting a bad example.
Then everybody's going to go out and get divorced, you know, because you're the leader.
Everybody's going to put their wife on the back burner like you.
And then, oh, I can't control that she left me.
But you know what?
The guy who preaches against it is told, well, he that's without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone.
And who said anything about stoning anyone?
You know, you preach hard against drunkenness, adultery, fornication, theft, and it's just,
you're just constantly hit with, he that's without sin.
It's like sticks and stones.
May break his bones, but my words are not harming him.
My words are not violent, okay?
Unless you have that power that Jesus had in the garden of Gethsemane, my words will
never get a knockout or let alone a technical knockout of actually injuring someone.
Okay.
So, you know, isn't that silly, though?
How people confuse?
Like, look, we have to preach hard, friend.
And it's not going to hurt anything except your pride.
That's the only thing that's going to get hurt by hard preaching, your pride.
And your pride could stand a few body blows.
And so I wouldn't worry about it.
So here we see a bad example, though, where these guys, they took it into their own hands.
They got violent.
And not only did they take it into their own hands and get violent with the perpetrator,
they ended up killing this guy's whole family.
I mean, these guys just went full mafia-style retribution here.
And they killed the whole town.
I'm not kidding.
There was a whole settlement.
They killed this guy, his whole family, and the whole town.
And the way that they, you say, how could two guys accomplish that?
Well, they tricked them.
They told them, hey, listen, we want to join up with you guys and become one people.
We don't want you to just marry Dinah.
We're going to give all of our daughters to your sons, and we're going to take all of
your sons for our daughters, and we're going to become one people.
Well, because Jacob's family was so wealthy, these people are thinking, like, this is going
to be great because we would love to hook up with these people.
It's going to make our town a lot more prosperous.
This is going to really stimulate the economy.
So Simeon and Levi told them, you know, there's only one catch.
You all have to get circumcised.
And they're like, OK, no problem.
Let's do it.
So they all get circumcised.
And just on the day when they're the most sore from that procedure, so they're not really
in their best fighting condition.
They're sore from that.
The Bible says in, are you there in Genesis 34, verse 25, it came to pass on the third
day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon, and Levi, Dinah's brethren
took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly.
So I mean, they're totally not expecting it, not ready for it.
They're totally unarmed.
They just got circumcised, for crying out loud.
And they just come in boldly upon the city with the sword.
And what do they do?
They slew Hamor and Shechem, verse 26, his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah
out of Shechem's house.
Because she's still there.
She's living with the guy.
They took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went out.
The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled
their sister.
They took their sheep and their oxen and their asses and that which was in the city and that
which was in the field.
And all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives took they captive and
spoiled even all that was in the house.
And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you've troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants
of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
And I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me.
And I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
And they said, well, should he deal with our sister as with the harlot?
Well, no, but that doesn't excuse you to go in and kill a bunch of men and take their
wives and children as captivity and to take all the spoil and to take all the goods.
So these guys, they got violent.
They took things into their own hands, right?
So now with that in mind, let's go back to Genesis 49.
While you're turning there, I'll read for you some scriptures.
It says in Romans 12 verse 18, if it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with
all men.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath for it is written
vengeance is mine.
I will repay, sayeth the Lord.
The Bible says the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
So we need to make sure that we don't just have this out of control anger that would
cause us to get violent or to always feel like we have to retaliate.
And look, even if we get off of violence for a moment, and let's just stop and think about
this.
What if somebody just does you dirty at work?
They lie to the boss about you.
They steal your stapler.
They steal your lunch out of the lunch room.
I mean, you don't have to go retaliate, even in a way short of violence.
You don't need to retaliate at all.
And in fact, for small infractions like that, do good to that person and overcome evil with
good.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
If your enemy hunger, give him to eat, even though he already stole your lunch a while
back.
Give him to drink, even though he stole your soda pop.
You're trying to cut back anyway for the new year anyway, right?
So the point is that we don't need to retaliate.
I remember my mom, she used to work at JCPenney.
And she worked in a mall that had kind of seen better days.
So there were certain rough elements around this mall.
And she kept getting her lunch stolen.
Almost every week, her lunch would get stolen.
And she's got this brown bag lunch with this feminine handwriting, Susan.
And it's just constantly being stolen out of the fridge, and it made her mad.
So then she said, I've got an idea.
So we started writing, we made it a game, where we would write a different name on her
lunch every day, but we just tried to make it sound like the baddest dude ever.
So she would start, so for years she would just write on her lunch, Jamal.
She wrote like, butch.
Tyrone.
So we would put like, Spike.
We would just come up with the funniest name.
So we did that for years, and I kid you not, her lunch was never stolen again.
Never.
Because stealing Susan's lunch doesn't take as much guts as messing with Jamal's lunch.
So the point is, there are other ways to solve problems without violence.
You can just intimidate.
But people make this mistake with their neighbors, where they just keep escalating things with
their neighbors.
Escalating force with their co-workers.
Look, it's better to just get away from strife before, it's like a dam that bursts sometimes.
When there's just that little crack in the dam, don't aggravate the situation.
A soft answer, turn it the way wrapped.
It's better if you can diffuse the situation, or just find a work around.
Just write Jamal on your lunch, or whatever.
Just work around it.
You don't have to get violent, and lie in wait, watching the fridge, so that when that
guy takes a lunch, you can just get in there and assault the guy.
So let's move on to the next sentence.
So we've looked at Reuben, we've looked at Simeon and Levi.
Let's look at the words toward Judah.
Now we're going to get into something positive, right?
He got the negative stuff out of the way with the first three kids.
Then Genesis 49 verse 8 says, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies.
Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
Now this is actually prophetic of Jesus Christ.
Judah foreshadows or pictures Jesus, because Jesus was of what tribe?
He's of the tribe of Judah.
So these prophecies, if you remember what Jacob said at the beginning, he mentioned
that there was going to be some end times connections with what he said, because he
said, I will tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
So some of this has some latter day tie-ins.
So this is referring to Jesus.
Now the first thing it says is, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies.
Thy father's children shall bow down before you.
Now how does this tie in with Jesus?
Well, if you would, flip over to Psalm chapter 2.
Psalm 2, and while you're turning there, I'll read for you Philippians 2, where it says,
wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, Jesus, and given him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things
on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So when the Bible says here, thy father's children shall bow down before thee, you know,
this could refer to Jesus Christ's father's children in the sense of his brethren, or
you could even think of it as the nation of Israel itself.
He came unto his own and his own received him not.
But the Bible says that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Look at Psalm 2 and we'll see the aspect of Christ destroying his enemies.
Verse 7 of Psalm 2, I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son
this day of my begotten thee.
Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts
of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Be wise now therefore, oh ye kings.
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but
a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
So with that in mind, back in Genesis, if you would, 49 verse 8, it said, Judah, thou
art he whom thy brethren shall praise, thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies.
And that's a picture of Jesus Christ one day destroying all his enemies, breaking them
with a rod of iron.
I mean just imagine that picture of him just having his hand at their throat.
I mean if you see one man holding the throat of another man, you pretty much know who's
in charge in that situation.
You pretty much know who's winning right there in that battle.
And so Christ will one day destroy his enemies and every knee shall bow unto him.
Look at verse 9.
It says Judah is a lion's whelp.
Now what's interesting, what's a lion's whelp?
What does that mean?
That's referring to a young lion, right?
It says Judah is a lion's whelp from the prey my son, thou art gone up.
He stooped down, he couched as a lion and as an old lion who shall rouse him up.
So the reason that a lion is used to picture Jesus Christ is because the lion is the king
of the jungle.
The Bible says that a lion is strongest among beasts and turneth not away for any, according
to Proverbs 30, right?
And the adult male lion has no natural predators.
So once it's an adult, I mean it's the top of the food chain, right?
Except man with a gun.
But other than that, I mean it's the king of the jungle.
And so lions are very powerful creatures, they're the king and Jesus Christ is the king
of kings and the lord of lords.
But it's interesting how it calls him the young lion and the old lion because in a sense
he's both young and old because of the fact that physically he was young, right?
Physically even when he died on the cross he was only 33 years old.
That's still young, right?
I mean I'm 36, I hope that's still young, right?
But anyway, the point is that when Jesus was on this earth, they talked down to him
for being young.
They said, well you're not even 50 years old, you're not even 50.
Have you seen Abraham?
But then what did he say?
Before Abraham was, I am.
He's like the old lion because he's from everlasting.
He was in the beginning with God and he was God, right?
But he was born obviously as a child.
He's born as a baby.
He's that young lion's whelp but he's also like an old lion in another sense.
So this stuff is prophetic of Jesus Christ.
It says in verse 10, the scepter, what is the scepter?
That has to do with ruling, being the king.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Now I don't have time to explain it but Shiloh is a reference to the Messiah.
And I did a whole sermon on this called the Messiah and the Old Testament where I went
into this in great detail.
But what the Bible is saying here is that the scepter will not depart from Judah until
the Messiah comes.
Until Christ comes.
And unto him, unto that Messiah, shall the gathering of the people be.
Now what's interesting about this is that there's kind of a double meaning here because
Christ has his first coming and his second coming.
So when we talk about Shiloh coming there's two different occasions.
Now on the first occasion what's interesting is that the kings always descended from David
until Christ came.
And so all those rulers and descendants would be of the tribe of Judah until the coming
of the Messiah.
And then where it said, unto him shall the gathering of the people be, that's a spiritual
gathering.
Go if you would to John 11, I'll show you that.
John chapter 11.
Now here's what I want to know from the Jews.
Because the Jews, they think the Messiah is still coming.
Okay.
Well the Bible says that the scepter is not going to depart from Judah until Shiloh become.
Well here we are, right?
Thousands of years later, according to them Shiloh still hasn't come.
So thousands of years later, let me ask you this.
Has the scepter departed from Judah?
Yeah.
I mean for centuries, even more than a millennium, they had no king or governor or leader whatsoever.
They're scattered throughout the whole world.
That's the scepter departing.
Okay.
If you study the Old Testament, the sons of David just kept sitting on that throne, didn't
they?
They kept sitting on the throne.
There was always a descendant of David on that throne.
And then even after they went into captivity into Babylon, when they got back, guess who's
in charge?
Zerubbabel.
And guess who Zerubbabel is?
Son of David.
Right?
And so the sons of David continued to be the rulers and the leaders until Christ came.
So if you believe in the New Testament, you believe in the Bible, this is fulfilled perfectly.
But according to the Jews, this doesn't make any sense because Judah stopped raining a
long time ago.
So there you go.
But the spiritual gathering of the people because it said until Shiloh come unto him
shall the gathering of the people be.
Look at John chapter 11 verse 49 and one of them named Caiaphas being the high priest
that year said unto them, ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not.
And this spake he not of himself, meaning that he was not the source of these words.
It didn't come from him.
It actually came from the Lord.
It said, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that
nation.
And this is interesting because this is an unsaved man who before, during, and after
this he actually did not believe on Christ, but the Spirit of the Lord still used him
to speak these words.
So God could even use unsaved people to fulfill his will.
It's a pretty interesting case of that.
And so he spoke this as the high priest that year.
He prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.
And not for that nation only verse 52, but that also he should gather together in one
the children of God that were scattered abroad.
So he's going to gather in one.
That's not a physical gathering, but that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, there's
a spiritual gathering where the Gentiles are brought nigh unto the nation of Israel by
the blood of Christ.
And there's no more Jew or Gentile, but we're all one in Christ Jesus.
And he has gathered us together in various churches with spiritually gathering together
is what he's saying there.
Okay, but there's a second meaning.
So he said, the law giver is not going to depart from Judah until Shiloh come and unto
him shall the gathering of the people be.
But then think about how Christ's second coming is a literal gathering of the people, right?
Go if you would to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Second Thessalonians 2 in chapter 2 verse 1 says, now we beseech you brethren by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, right?
So when Christ comes, there's going to be a gathering together unto him.
That's the rapture.
It says in 1 Thessalonians 4, if you want to flip back a few pages to verse 15 for this,
we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming
of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
People often wrongfully call Armageddon the second coming of Christ.
That is not what the Bible calls the second coming of Christ in Revelation 19.
Actually the rapture when Christ comes in the clouds with the trumpet sounding, that's
what is consistently referred to as the coming of Christ, which would be the second coming
if I'm counting properly once in Bethlehem, second when he comes in the cloud.
They claim that Armageddon is the second coming.
No biblical evidence for the use of that term.
It's all about 1 Thessalonians 4 calling it the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel
and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
That's a gathering together unto Christ.
Okay let's go back to Genesis 49 and finish up here.
Genesis 49, we'll finish up.
The next thing it says in verse 11 is binding his foal unto the vine and his ass his colt
unto the choice vine.
He washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk.
Now I want you to pay attention to three words in verse 11, foal, ass, and colt.
Do you see those three words?
These are also prophetic of Jesus.
Why?
You don't have to turn there but Zechariah 9 says, rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion,
shout O daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy king cometh unto thee, he is just and having
salvation lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
So we have all three words there, colt, foal, and ass.
Matthew 21 5, tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold thy king cometh unto thee, meek and
sitting upon an ass and a colt the foal of an ass.
So that's being fulfilled right there.
And then of course we know that when Jesus Christ returns at Armageddon in Revelation
19, the Bible says that his eyes were as a flame of fire, which has to do with the red
eyes, and it also says he was clothed in a vesture, vesture means clothing or garment,
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God.
So that right there fits in perfectly where it says, his eyes shall be red with wine and
where it says he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes.
So there's a lot about Christ here being prophesied in Genesis 49 under Judah.
Just a quick review on Judah is that he's the lion of the tribe of Judah, that's what
Christ is called in Revelation, referring back to this, the lion of the tribe of Judah.
He's the one who has the scepter, he's the king of kings, the lord of lords, right?
He is the Messiah, he's the lawgiver, he's the one unto whom the people will gather and
he is the one who would ride in on the colt the foal of an ass with his vesture dipped
in blood and his eyes as a flame of fire and just teeth white as milk into the bargain.
So that's Jesus Christ being prophesied.
So what's the moral of the story here?
What can we learn from this passage?
Here's the conclusion, look at verse 8, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow before thee.
So how can you be a great son or a great brother or be the one who succeeds in the family or
be the one who's righteous or does right?
You do it by being like Christ.
Be like Jesus Christ.
By being Christian, by being Christ-like, you will excel.
Now Rubens not going to excel, you know why?
Because he's not like Christ.
Christ, for the joy that was set before him, endured.
He endured, right?
For the joy that was set before him.
Ruben was like one that could not see afar off.
He wanted the pleasure now.
He's willing to sell his birthright just for a one-night stand with an older woman, Bilhah,
right?
You know, I don't know how much older she was than him, but she was probably dramatically
older than him.
You know, it's hard to do the exact math, but we're talking she's over 20 years older
than him.
That was a pretty weird thing to do, okay?
He needs to be hanging around with women his own age, and he needs to get married before
fornicating.
I mean, she's way, way, she might have been 30 years older than him.
You know, she's dramatically older, and she'd been with his dad, it doesn't make any sense
why he did that.
But you know what?
You know, people do things that don't make sense all the time.
I mean, you see people committing adultery, and it's like they don't even realize what
they, the woman that they committed adultery with is not even as beautiful as the woman
that they're married to.
You know, I remember that one of these politicians got caught in a scandal, and they showed the
woman that he committed adultery with, and she was hard to even look at.
I was like, what in the world?
Like this is who you're committing adultery with?
But you know what?
That's what it always looks like to God.
Adultery is always ugly, from a spiritual standpoint.
It's always nasty, it's always ugly.
But it's just people just doing stupid things.
Look, the Bible tells us to flee fornication.
And I don't care if they're beautiful or ugly in the sight of God, it's all ugly.
And you know what?
You can ruin your whole life in one day, according to this, because that, I mean, I
don't think he had some ongoing relationship with Bilhah.
It pretty much just says he just, they basically went there for Rachel's funeral.
Rachel dies, they're there, and he lay with her.
You know, he just, whatever.
It just was something that happened.
It was probably something that he immediately regretted.
If he had any sense, he regretted it.
But you can ruin your life in just a day.
So we don't want to be like Reuben, we don't want to be a fornicator, or an adulterer,
or a profane person, or a carnal person.
But number two, we don't want to be like Simeon and Levi.
We don't want to be violent, and just angry people, or just seething with rage all the
time.
You know, sometimes people accuse me of being an angry person, they just don't know me.
They don't realize that the only time I usually get angry is while I'm preaching.
I spend the whole week being happy, and then I go, RAHHH!
No?
Why?
Because I'm getting angry about spiritual things.
Okay, it's not like I'm just up here mad that somebody dinged my car in the parking
lot, and I'm just mad that I got, you know.
That's a foolish anger.
Mad that you got cut off and trapped.
Mad that somebody took your parking spot.
Mad that somebody, you know, cut in front of you in line, or whatever.
I mean, just put off all that.
Don't be like, don't be a hothead like Simeon and Levi.
Don't be violent like Simeon and Levi.
Don't let anger and bitterness just seethe in you.
Be a forgiving person that doesn't let the sun go down in your eyes.
And don't be like Reuben, where you just give in to the lust of the flesh, and mess up your
whole life for some momentary pleasure that's probably not even worth it.
It's never worth it, but even in the most sinful person's mind probably wouldn't even
be worth it.
Be like Christ.
The one who his brethren will praise is Judah, because he's Christ-like.
And if we want to excel, we must be Christ-like.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and we thank you so much for your words
that still ring true thousands of years later.
Even in the last days, they're still relevant, Lord.
And Lord, we know that the devil's a deceiver, and that he makes adultery and fornication
look so cool, but how many times in the Bible, as soon as someone had done those things,
they immediately regretted it.
And Lord, help us not to be so stupid as to be like that bull running toward that red
blanket as if there's something behind it, Lord, when really what's behind it is a sword
that's ready to slay us.
Lord, help us never to go down that path and not to be like Reuben or Simeon and Levi.
Help us to be like a Judah who can be compared unto Christ.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.