The Messiah was a descendant of Abraham.

More than that, we considered last time how He was, in fact, promised within the covenant that God made with Abram (Gen. 12:1-3). According to the Apostle Paul in Gal. 3:16 and 19, He is the ultimate recipient of that covenant!

Our Savior Jesus Christ is finally the One through whom “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Paul also quoted and discussed that portion of the covenant in Gal. 3:8-9.

We ended last time with the realization that the promised Messiah would be the final Davidic king over Israel. As declared then, however, there are several intermediate steps, with accompanying prophecies, which are given between the times of Abraham and David and speak about His coming and the offices He would hold as the greatest prophet, priest, and king.

And there are also more ancestors named, each playing their roles in this prophetic drama.

One of the most pivotal individuals in the story is really quite an enigmatic character when you think about it. We don’t sing about him or even preach about him much—outside of the humility he showed to his father in one of the latter’s great acts of faith (see Gen. 22:1-19).

He never took a long journey of faith like his father had and did not set out on any of the extreme adventures—for good or for bad—that his sons would experience.

The story behind his birth still staggers hearers today—just as it did for his father and mother! (see Gen. 17:17; 18:12-15) The only other thing that stands out about him is his handling—mishandling?—of a major situation that occurred before his death (see Gen. 27:1-28:5).

In between, his whole existence seems like it could be summed up in the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thess. 4:11:

“That you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands.”

His parents had a bride selected for him, but not until he was 40 years old (see Gen. 24; 25:20). Before that, Scripture focuses mostly on his distinction from his half-brother. After that, it places the spotlight mostly on his two sons.

I am referring, of course, to Isaac, the man of laughter (see Gen. 21:6). I am sure he had a very affectionate relationship with his parents, and I am guessing that included many times of laughter—as he would later find joy in his wife and sons (see Gen. 24:67). He probably spent lots of time in his father’s fields also (see Gen. 24:63).

In Gen. 26, it appears that God really tested and stretched Isaac’s faith personally (see especially vv. 1-5 and 23-33). Amazingly, he made the Hall of Faith, in Heb. 11:20!

But even more astonishing is his place in the line of the Messiah and the promises the Lord gave in that regard. The assurances of the coming Messiah went directly through him!

“Then God said: ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him'” (Gen. 17:19).

Just as we saw last time, the hope of Messiah is contained in that word “descendants.” Think of it—all those years, the future nation of Israel, the future of the kingdom of God on the Earth, rested on Isaac as he walked, worked, played, and prayed. There wasn’t even another brother in his family who could pick up the slack if something happened to him. And once his father died, it was only him and his two teenage sons (see Gen. 25:7-11, 26). He lived much of his life trusting in the promise which was made to his parents, until he heard it directly in Gen. 26.

Yet God’s plan was clear: “In Isaac your seed shall be called” (Gen. 21:12; Rom. 9:7). “Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers” (Matt. 1:2).

The Messiah would be the son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—then Judah.

And we’ll begin with him next time, in the final installment for this season of Advent.

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Paul J. Scharf (M.A., M.Div., Faith Baptist Theological Seminary) is a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, based in Columbus, WI, and serving in the Midwest. For more information on his ministry, visit sermonaudio.com/pscharf or foi.org/scharf, or email pscharf@foi.org.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version.

We ended last time by thinking how the Messiah would be the son of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—and Judah (see Matt. 1:2-3; Lk. 3:33; Heb. 7:14; Rev. 5:5).

Jacob made an astounding and significant prophecy regarding his son Judah—and the greatest descendant who would come through his lineage—giving us one of the earliest glimpses into the Messiah’s future reign as king, “in the last days” (Gen. 49:1).

As Jacob was blessing his sons in Gen. 49:10, he stated regarding Leah’s fourth son:

“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.”

I cannot remember a time in my life when I had not memorized this verse. It was one of many that my classmates and I learned to say verbatim each year in Lutheran grade school in preparation for the annual Christmas Eve services.

Often, as I have referenced this verse in teaching and preaching, I have described it as a promise that we regularly share during the Christmas season. What I found, however, was that I received a lot of blank stares in return, so I no longer speak about it that way. Sadly, I include it here as a “little-known” prophecy.

As we proclaimed this verse together back in grade school, however, I really did not understand all that it meant. I had several questions about it—especially in the King James English in which we memorized it. Perhaps my greatest challenge was understanding why it seemed to refer to Christ as Shiloh.

Shiloh was a village contained in the land of the tribe of Ephraim and the location of the tabernacle (see 1 Sam. 1:3). This name is used 32 times in the Old Testament, including the text under consideration. But is Gen. 49:10 teaching that such a village will move toward an appearance within history?

No, but it wasn’t until seminary that I really came to understand this passage. Dr. John Whitcomb unlocked the puzzle for me when he explained—rather ingeniously, I thought—that Ezekiel supplied the answer to the conundrum centuries after Jacob prophesied, in Ezek. 21:26-27:[i]

“Thus says the Lord God:

‘Remove the turban, and take off the crown;
Nothing shall remain the same.
Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.
Overthrown, overthrown,
I will make it overthrown!
It shall be no longer,
Until He comes whose right it is,
And I will give it to Him.’”

Dr. Whitcomb taught us that those words, “whose right it is” (which, in part, sound similar to “Shiloh” in Hebrew) offer the key that unlocks the meaning of the cryptogram found in Gen. 49:10.[ii]

Ezekiel, by way of predictive prophecy, was describing the forthcoming suspension of the theocracy of Israel, and the halting of the kingly line in Judah. It would not resume until its rightful owner—Shiloh—would appear and reestablish the kingdom.[iii]

Here, then, we see two interwoven prophecies. The latter one builds on the former, which could not be fully understood without the progress of revelation. In the end, we recognize Jacob to be announcing Jesus’ future reign as king.

Christmas is made richer by a right understanding of such hidden gems of prophetic truth, which rest just below our sight, all throughout the Hebrew Bible. It is my hope that the light reflecting off of these gems has served to illuminate your Christmas.

We have unearthed just four of them—all in the book of Genesis. As God enables, I hope to write about more of them during Advent seasons to come.

Unless “Shiloh comes” first.

Merry Christmas!
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Paul J. Scharf (M.A., M.Div., Faith Baptist Theological Seminary) is a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, based in Columbus, WI, and serving in the Midwest. For more information on his ministry, visit sermonaudio.com/pscharf or foi.org/scharf, or email pscharf@foi.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version).

[i] Dr. Whitcomb discussed these issues on his Encounter God’s Truth radio program on Nov. 9, 2013. Listen to his teaching on SermonAudio.com/Whitcomb, under the title “The Coming King,” at https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=117131417116. John MacArthur describes the terminology used by Jacob as “Shiloh, the cryptogram for the Messiah.” See the note on Gen. 49:8-12 in The MacArthur Study Bible, 2^nd Edition, ESV (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2021), p. 68. The ESV footnote on the same page states: “a slight emendation yields … until he comes to whom it belongs.” The ESV text does not contain the word “Shiloh,” but states in v. 10: “until tribute comes to him.” David Jeremiah writes, “Shiloh means ‘To Whom It Belongs.’” See the note on Gen. 49:8-12 in The Jeremiah Study Bible, NKJV (Franklin, TN: Worthy Publishing, 2013), p. 68.

[ii] Eugene H. Merrill concurs, seeing “a direct allusion to Gen. 49:10” in Ezek. 21:27. See “Genesis 49:8-12: The Lion of Judah” (pp. 271-284). In Michael Rydelnik and Edwin Blum (Gen. Eds.), The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2019), p. 282. Merrill also states on p. 284, in footnote 46: “Ezekiel 21:27 uses the same phrase as Gn 49:10, however it is the full expression of the phrase, not the contracted word used in Genesis.”

[iii] For more occurrences of that blessed word until (where it is used with dispensational significance, showing that God still has a future for Israel), see Matt. 26:29; Lk. 13:35; 21:24; 22:16, 18; and Acts 3:21.