THE LION

 

I used to be sad that Christ came through the lineage of Judah. After all, Judah didn’t seem exemplary enough as a man, not like Joseph. He forfeited the birthright through immorality (see Genesis 38).

I understood Nephi’s explanation of the Saviour’s lineage in saying that ‘there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God’ (2 Nephi 10:3) but this too left me with a negative impression of Judah. Whereas the Jews had indeed become a stiff-necked people by the time that Jesus came on the scene, it is important to see His death in a proper perspective.

Jesus gave up His life willingly. He attested to this when He said: “….I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down myself” (John 10:17,18). The Jews of His day might have pointed the finger and facilitated His death but in actuality, we are the ones that sent Him to the cross. He died to atone for our sins and not for any drummed- up charge that Jews could put Him to death for. No one else had the power to put Him on that cross, not the Jews and not the Romans (see Matthew 26:51-53).

Yesterday I read something about Judah that redeemed him in my eyes. I was reading the “Jewish Antiquities” by Josephus, a Jewish historian, which offers a more comprehensive outline of Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers and I saw in him the foreshadowing of the Lion of Judah.

When Benjamin was brought before Joseph for the punishment of stealing the golden cup which was concealed in his sack, all the brothers were beside themselves but none more so than Judah. The Bible records that he offered himself to stay in Egypt as a slave to Joseph (Genesis 44:32-34) but his lengthy plea for Benjamin’s life recorded by Josephus brought me to tears. Judah ended his pleading with offer of his life for Benjamin’s:

“If, therefore, you resolve to slay him, I desire you will slay me in his stead, and send him back to his father…..”  (“Jewish Antiquities”, The New Complete Works of Josephus, p 91).

I saw in Judah the protection he offered for his brother to the point of death. I saw: “I will die instead of him, I will die so Benjamin can live”. Does this remind you of someone? I saw the foreshadowing of the redemptive power of Christ in the ancestor the Saviour came from.

There is something else I saw. Judah was determined to prevent his father’s sorrow and pain (see vs 22 and 34). This too reminded me of Christ’s biggest motivation for His sacrifice….to save us for the sake of the Father He loved and would spare the agony of His loss. The Saviour was groomed to save His siblings from the beginning.

When Jacob gave Judah his blessing, he promised him a kingly posterity until “Shiloh” come (Genesis 49:10). Shiloh is Christ ‘unto whom shall the gathering of the people be’ (v10).

Why a lion to represent the Saviour as the head of the House of Israel? Because a lion symbolizes His role as a powerful, royal, and victorious Messiah. A lion is the king of the jungle…..The Lion of Judah connects Jesus to the lineage of King David, representing his authority and protection of his people.

The Lion of Judah…..the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

 

He, in whose hand is the scepter of kings

Who spanned the heavens above

And laid the foundations of the earth below

Upon whose surface He once achingly trod

Before whom we now bow and call,

The Holy One of God.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In God's Care by Greg Collins)