Blessings … We all desire to be blessed. To be blessed means to be made happy. Who doesn’t want to be happy? Any takers? I thought so.
In Genesis 49 we read of the incident where Jacob was on his death bed. There he pronounced a blessing of sorts on each of his twelve sons. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob. But over time he had become the leader of the siblings. Because of this, his was the first blessing given. In the course of his blessing Jacob said in verse 10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between is feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him shall be the obedience of the people.” The word, “Shiloh” literally means “he to whom the ‘ruler’s staff’ belongs.” It is also interesting to note that in the original Hebrew the word appears twice, once as “shile” and again as “shilu”. It literally says, “not he-shallwithdraw scepter from Judah and statute maker’s staff from between feet of him until that he shall come Shiloh Shiloh and to him expectation of peoples.” They appear side by side and most modern versions simply say “Shiloh” only once.
The word appears in other passages in the Old Testament and all reference the town in Israel in which the tabernacle was located. But this particular prophetic verse, uttered by Jacob on his dying bed, is basically saying that the scepter of rulership will not be passed to another tribe other than Judah until the One to come appears. He will fulfill all the expectations of the people.
The Bible historically traces the ancestry of Jesus Christ back through Judah. He is the “Shiloh” of the prophecy. Ironic as the two appearances of the word “Shiloh” in the original language, Jesus is predicted to appear twice. He first came as a humble teacher, who was crucified as the final sacrifice for the sin of the world. He was resurrected as the first-fruits of the final resurrection. But He is coming again.
Our world is rapidly growing ripe for a world leader, one who can bring order to the chaos; one who can restore order to an otherwise out of control, order-less world. The Book of Revelation tells us of one who will pretend to do that; none other than he we call the anti-christ – the beast rising from the waters and from the abyss (bottomless pit). One day (and I think sooner than most of us might think) he will rise up and possibly claim to bring peace to all the turmoil of the world. He will proport to be able to unit Christians and Muslims as well as all the world’s religions. He will attempt to set up a world monetary system that will have our whole financial history (and possibly our complete history) somehow stored in our foreheads or right hands. But it will not be as peaceful and orderly as we might think. In order to participate in this peace, we will be required to deny Jesus Christ and commit our worship and allegiance solely to him. However, as you read the Revelation you will discover that Jesus Christ is coming again, this time as therealPeace-giver. Hewill destroy the kingdom of this anti-christ and bring the only true, lasting peace this world will ever know.
Even if you don’t agree with me and think me to be “out of my mind crazy,” remember these words. When the time comes, they could be your only hope for a lasting peace. You will see someday. You will realize what I am talking about is true. Shiloh came, and He is coming again.
Jerry D. Ousley is the author of Soul Challenge, Soul Journey, Ordeal, The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel The Shoe Tree.