The Sceptre Shall Not Depart

An old man sits up in bed, his eyes almost blind. Twelve grown men crowd around him, sons, all of them. He tells them to come close. Before he dies, he has something to say about what will happen in days to come.

This is Jacob, now called Israel, the same Jacob who once slept on a stone at Bethel. He is a very old man, living in Egypt. A famine drove his family there, and his long-lost son Joseph, now a ruler in Egypt, has given them a home in the land of Goshen. Jacob knows his life is ending. So he calls his twelve sons to his bedside. Each of them will become the father of a tribe. Jacob's words to them are part blessing, part prophecy, a kind of poem about the future of each family. Some words are hard. Reuben, the eldest, hears that he has lost his place. Simeon and Levi hear about their violence. And then Jacob turns to his fourth son, Judah.

Judah, of all people. Years ago, it was Judah who suggested selling Joseph as a slave. But Judah had changed. When Joseph later tested his brothers in Egypt, it was Judah who stepped forward and offered himself as a slave in place of his youngest brother, Benjamin. Now Jacob says, “Judah, your brothers will praise you.” Judah's very name sounds like the Hebrew word for praise. “Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down before you.” Then Jacob paints a picture. “Judah is a lion's cub. You have gone up from the prey, my son. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness. Who will rouse him up?” A lion at rest, strong and unafraid. No one dares to wake him.

And then come the words people would ponder for thousands of years. “The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.” A sceptre is a king's staff, the sign of royal power. Jacob is saying that rulers will come from Judah's family, and that one day someone will come to whom the kingdom truly belongs. And not only Israel, but the peoples, the nations, will obey him.

Then the picture becomes rich and almost playful. “Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.” Imagine a land so full of vineyards that you could tie your donkey to a grapevine and not worry what it nibbles. A time of peace and plenty around this coming ruler. Centuries later, King David would come from the tribe of Judah. And the New Testament calls Jesus the son of David, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he came riding on a donkey's colt.

Judah's name has travelled further than Jacob could have imagined. After the twelve tribes divided, the southern kingdom was called Judah. Later, under Persia and Rome, the region was called Judea. And the Hebrew word for a person from Judah, Yehudi, is where the English word Jew comes from. The tribe of the lion gave its name to a whole people.

The sceptre shall not depart. You can read it in Genesis chapter forty-nine, verses eight to twelve. An old man's blessing on a changed son, pointing to a King who would come from Judah's line. So here is a question to carry with you. Judah changed from someone who sold his brother into someone who gave himself for his brother. Who could you stand up for this week?