Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, Vol. 1Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm
Religion
Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, Vol. 1
Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm
Bible. Old Testament -- Prophecies; Messiah -- Prophecies
As the words with which the Saviour is first introduced into the world
allude to Gen. xlix., so the Lord Himself, before His departure,
alludes to this fundamental Messianic prophecy in John xiv. 27: "Peace
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you;" and in xvi. 33: "These
things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace." So
also, after His resurrection, Christ says, in the circle of His
disciples, "Peace be unto you," John xx. 19, 21, 26.
The last book of the entire Holy Scripture--the Apocalypse [Pg
98]--likewise points back to the remarkable prophecy of Christ at the
close of its first book. In Rev. v. 5, we read: "And one of the elders
saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David, hath prevailed." "The designation of Christ as the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, rests on Gen. xlix. 9. Judah appears there as a
lion, in order to denote his warlike and victorious powers. But Judah
himself, according to the blessing of dying Jacob, is at some future
period to centre in the Messiah. As a type, he had formerly centred
already in David, in whom the lion-nature of the tribe of Judah was
manifested." This allusion shows that even what Is said in vers. 8, 9,
found its complete fulfilment only in Christ, and that vers. 8, 9, are
parallel to the entire ver. 10, and not to its first half only.
_Bengel_ remarks on Rev. v. 6: "The elder had pointed John to a Lion,
and yet John beheld a Lamb. The Lord Jesus is called a Lion only once
in this prophecy, and that, at the very beginning, before the
appellation Lamb appears. This indicates that as often as the Lamb is
remembered, we should also remember Him as the Lion of the tribe of
Judah."
As the designation of Christ as the Lion refers to what, in the
blessing of Jacob, is said of the lion-nature of the tribe of Judah,
so, in the "Lamb"--the emblem of innocence, justice, silent patience
and gentleness--the name Shiloh is embodied.
Footnote 1: _Luther_ says: "No doubt the sons of Jacob will have waited
with anxious desire, and with weeping and groaning, for what their
father had yet to say; for, after having heard curses so hard and
severe, they were very much confounded and afraid. And Judah, too, will
certainly not have been able to refrain from weeping, and will have
been afraid, when thinking of what should now become of him. There will
have arisen in his heart very sad recollections of his sins, of his
whoredom with Thamar, and of the advice which he had given to sell
Joseph. Certainly, I should have died with sorrow and tears. But there
soon follow a fine dew and a lovely balm, refreshing the heart again."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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