them;"--and in 2 Sam. v. 2, when the ten tribes acknowledged [Pg 61] David as their king, they said: "Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel." David would never have succeeded in overcoming the jealousy and envy of the other tribes, unless the promise, "Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies," had been fulfilled in him.--_Before Judah shall how down the sons of his father._ I have already remarked, in my commentary on Rev. xix. 10, that there is very little ground for the common distinction between religious and civil προσκύνησις (bowing down, worship). The true distinction is between that προσκύνησις which is given to God, either directly or indirectly, in those who bear His image, in the representatives of His gifts and offices,--and that προσκύνησις which is exacted apart from, and against God. "The God of Scripture demands to be honoured in those who bear His image, who hold His offices,--in father and mother and old men (Lev. xix. 32), in princes (Exod. xxii. 28), in the office of the judge (Deut. i. 17; Exod. xxi. 6, xxii. 7, 8). It is wicked to refuse this honour, and its natural expression in the bowing of the body, under the pretext, that it is due to _God_ alone. It is to be refused only where there is some danger that, thereby, any independent honour would be ascribed to the mere vessel of the divine glory." In what the προσκύνησις consists, which Judah is to receive from his brethren, we see distinctly from Isa. xlv. 14, where the heathen, at the time of the salvation, fall down before Israel: "Thus saith the Lord, The labour of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and be thine: they shall go behind thee; in chains they shall walk; _and they shall fall down before thee, and they shall make supplication unto thee_ (saying). _Only in thee is God, and there is no God else._" The ground of Judah's adoration on the part of his brethren is this:--that God's glory is visibly upon him, that by glorious deeds and victories the seal is impressed upon him: "with us is God" (_Immanuel_). And this found its most glorious fulfilment in the Lion of the tribe of Judah, in Christ, of whom it is said in Phil. ii. 9-11: "Wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of all those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should [Pg 62] confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father." That, in its final accomplishment, this prophecy referred to Christ, was known to Jacob as certainly as he makes Judah centre in the Shiloh. This Solomon also knew, when, in Ps. lxxii. 11 (compare Ps. xlv. 12), he ascribes to his great Antitype what is here ascribed to Judah: "All kings shall worship Him, and all nations shall serve Him." The consequence of the worship "by kings and