Shiloh – Paying Tribute to the Ruler from Judah

Although there have been many things I’ve learned over the past year and a half of reading the weekly Torah portions, one of the coolest has been the following…

Every week I’ve been able to learn how to step back and view the week’s portion as a window, through which I can begin to see the story of God and His people Israel playing out. This helps take a somewhat small portion of scripture and turn it into a sandbox to play in and experience the grandeur of the story of scripture.

Here’s a little bit of that from this week’s portion in Genesis 49, where Jacob is blessing his sons. Let’s focus on Judah’s blessing. (49.10)

10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

There is an interesting word in the hebrew that only occurs here in the text. The word is ‘shiloh’ and it derrives from the hebrew shai (tribute) and loh (him). Rabbis have played with this word and related it to shalom, making this statement also mean ‘until the time of peace comes.’ Rashi specifically has turned this into a statement about the messianic era, when peace will reign and all will worship a ruler from the people of Judah.

A few thousand years later, we have someone born from the people of Judah.

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
- Matt. 1

Matthew links Jesus’ geneology to the tribe of Judah. Here we have the peacemaking ruler from the tribe of Judah.

Seeing these threads weave through out scripture excite my soul very much.

As followers of the Master, may we participate in the blessing of Judah and continue to be peacemakers, obeying His commands, bringing shalom with us everywhere we go.

Have a blessed day!