Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; and as a lion, who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him will be the obedience of the people. He tethers his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine; he washes his garments in wine, his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be a haven of ships. His border shall be at Sidon. Issachar a is a strong donkey, lying down between two burdens;
— Genesis 49:9–14
Jesus Fulfilled Old Testament Prophecies
Jesus is foretold in Jacob’s blessing to Judah in this passage. Jesus is the Lion from the tribe of Judah, and He will be King. There are hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold His coming and ministry. Someone has said, “Well, the way this worked out is that Christ arranged to fulfill all of these prophecies”—which, of course, is absurd. He was going to have to go to a great deal of trouble to arrange to have Himself tortured to death. But what kind of trouble?
- First of all, He would have to make sure He came from the seed of David (2 Samuel 7:12–13).
- He would come through Isaac (Genesis 21:12).
- He would come through Jacob, not from anyone else, and from the particular tribe of Judah.
- He would come at a particular date (Genesis 49:10). Daniel 9 lets us know to the exact year when Jesus Christ would come and begin His ministry.
- He would also have to arrange for the place of His birth. And, of course, since His parents were in Nazareth until a couple of days before His birth, He would have to arrange to make sure His mother and father arrived in Bethlehem in time for the blessed event.
- Then, of course, He would also have to arrange that He really didn’t have any earthly father because the prophets are very clear: “The virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14, emphasis added).
The fact that Christ’s coming was foretold hundreds of years before He came provides strong evidence that God wrote the Bible, because only God knows the future.
