A Coming King – Foundations of a Worldview

A Coming King
Foundations of a Worldview

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.” Genesis 49:10

The Hebrew word “Shiloh” is a contraction of the relative pronoun asher (“which” or “who”) and a prepositional phrase loh (“to him”). Literally, it could be translated, “which to him,” or, from the Hebrew idiom, “him whose it is.”

When He comes, for whom the scepter and Kingdom have been prepared, the dynasty begun with David will cease to be passed down among the descendants of Judah. Rather, “Shiloh” will rule until He brings about the obedience of all the peoples, until all His enemies are placed under His feet and all His faithful people have been gathered unto Him (Gen. 49:8; cf. Ps. 110). He will wield the scepter of uprightness as He advances His rule on earth unto the meekness, goodness, truth, and righteousness of God (Ps. 45:6).

Shiloh will be like a lion. Note how Jacob uses all the names for a lion to describe the tribe of Judah—a lion, a lioness, and a lion cub. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is the King, not merely of the forest, but of the earth. He comes on a donkey’s colt (Gen. 49:11) with his garments stained with the color of blood. He has wine in His eyes and purity in His mouth (v. 12), and to Him, to Shiloh, will be the obedience of all the peoples of the earth.

The guidelines for a king to rule over Israel, set forth in Deuteronomy 17, provide a temporal foreshadowing of the coming Shiloh. His rule will be according to God’s Law (as understood in its entire revelational setting), and His purpose will be, not to aggrandize Himself, but to serve His people for the sake of the promises God has for them.

The Law points forward to a coming King, the King of Nations. Only in His hand, according to His Word, can we truly understand, obey, and teach the Law of God unto the fullness of God’s blessings (2 Pet. 1:4; Matt. 5:17-19).

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes have been prepared for personal or group use. They are available at no charge in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click here to download all 13 studies in this series.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).