Word of Encouragement (03/14/2023)
And this he said of Judah: "Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him in to his people. With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries." (Deut. 33:7)
This is Moses’ benediction on the tribe of Judah. It is made up of two parts: 1) for the LORD to hear his prayer; 2) for the LORD to contend for him.
The first part of the benediction is about prayer: “Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah....” This benediction seems to have a particular petition in mind: “and bring him in to his people.” This is a puzzling statement. Was there any time the tribe of Judah was separated from the rest of Israel that he should be brought in? This happened when the ten northern tribes separated themselves from Judah during the reign of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, due to his foolish policies. Even though Rehoboam failed to be a wise king, he was still from the house of David, the royal line the LORD had chosen for Israel. If anybody had to be brought in, it was the ten northern tribes. In rebelling against David’s descendant, they rebelled against the LORD. This was shown in their practice of worshipping the golden calves that Jeroboam, the first king of the northern tribes (which took the name, Israel), established at Bethel and Dan as the substitutes for Solomon’s temple. Israel’s kings went on to worship the pagan idols of surrounding countries. So, it doesn’t make sense that Judah should be brought in to the northern kingdom of Israel to join the renegade tribes.
Others suggest that this petition was about Judah coming back to Israel in safety after going out to battle. The military angle of this suggestion seems to go well with the other benediction that followed: “With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries.” But when did Judah go out to battle alone for the rest of Israel? Something that came close to this idea was when Judah was told to be the first to go up against the Canaanites to finish the conquest of the land (Judg. 1:2). Even then, Judah asked Simeon to go with him, and other tribes followed the suit and went up against the Canaanites of their respective allotted territories. And once Judah went out, he was not “brought in”; rather, he settled in his territory.
But the key may be in Jacob’s previous benediction on Judah in Gen. 49. Jacob’s benediction is much more extensive: it took up five (longer) verses (Gen. 49:8-12) as opposed to just one (short) verse here. But there are some similarities. Judah’s future military success was foretold through the imagery of the lion: “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him” (Gen. 49:8-9)? Here, we also get a hint of Judah’s dominance over the other tribes: “Judah, your brothers shall praise you...; your father’s sons shall bow down before you.” And we have the royal promise: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet...” (v. 10).
It may be that Moses was building on Jacob’s blessing on Judah. If so, Judah’s prayer to the LORD that He should bring him in to his people was not about being reunited with the rest of Israel after separation; rather, it was about the LORD bringing Judah to his people as their divinely appointed leader. This was fulfilled when David from the tribe of Judah became Israel’s king (replacing Saul from the tribe of Benjamin). But this was ultimately fulfilled in the coming of David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ.
This is another instance of Jesus being the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises to His people (2 Cor. 1:20). Whatever blessings we enjoy in this world (and in the world to come) show this truth by their imperfections and inferiority to Christ—Jesus is the true Husband, for example. Let us not allow God’s blessings to lead us away from Christ but to Christ!