Messianic Prophecy –Abraham, Judah

The Messiah in the Old Testament –Abraham, Judah

            In his book The Messiah in the Old Testament, Walter Kaiser, of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, notes 8 promises God made to Abraham.[i]  The seventh of these was that through Abraham, God would bless all the peoples of the earth (Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18).  Kaiser feels this promise points to the heart of the Gospel.  Salvation comes as a gift given by God apart from human works.[ii]  In Galatians 3:8 & Romans 4:10-12, the Apostle Paul looks to this early expression of the Gospel in Abraham’s life.  The Messiah – Jesus – fulfills this promise by overcoming the divide between Jews (the Chosen People) and the gentiles (those without knowledge of God). 

            I find Kaiser’s identification of the anticipated Messiah in the promises made to Abraham to be very convincing.  The continuity from Genesis 3:15 and “the seed,” born of woman t0 Abraham to the promise to Jesus and then to Paul’s discourse on Jesus is easy for me to accept. 

I am not as inclined to follow Kaiser’s assertion that Abraham knew God would raise Isaac or provide a substitute when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son (Genesis 22).[iii] I think for our ancestors in the faith, things were not as settled as for us with the benefit of hindsight.  I don’t know what Abraham knew or believed when he took Isaac up Moriah to be a human sacrifice.  That story is problematic and I find that it is unhelpful to try to dampen the cruelty and the lack of moral clarity in that story.  But it is quite easy to see the birth of a Messianic hope in the promise to Abraham. 

            This Abrahamic promise is specified four generations later when his great, great grandson Joseph is giving blessing to his 12 sons.  Jacob reserves the most important blessing not for the oldest, but for the fourth son, Judah. 

             Genesis 49:8-12New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

⁸ 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.

⁹ Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,     like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?

¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.

¹¹ Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes; ¹² his eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

            The key word in this prophecy from Genesis 48 is in verse 10, ‘shiloh’ (translated ‘tribute’ in the NRSV).  This Hebrew word, based upon its usage in Ezekiel, means his ‘due,’ or that which is ‘rightfully his.’  Based on understanding ‘shiloh,’ this way, Kaiser understands Genesis 48:10 to mean Judah will govern until the Messiah comes at which point the Messiah (Jesus) will rule the world.[iv]  This is why we call Him King of Kings and Lord of the Lords.  The roots of this idea reach all the way back to Genesis and the constituting of the nation of Israel.

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[i] W. Kaiser (1995).  The Messiah in the Old Testament.  Zondervan Publishing (Grand Rapids), p.46.

[ii] Ibid, p.47.

[iii] Ibid, p.50.

[iv] Ibid, p. 53.

A Curious Observation about Satan and the Garden of Eden

It’s pretty common knowledge that Satan tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat the apple. Right? Of all the things in the Bible, that can be assumed and accepted without argument or debate. Can’t it? Well, just to be sure, we should go through Genesis 3 and circle all the references to Satan. It just takes a second. In fact, here’s the passage.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate (Genesis 3:1-7, NRSV).


Try as we might, there is no mention of Satan, Devil, Lucifer, Evil One, Dragon, or other title for the evil Fallen Angel. The simple fact is the narrative tradition that passed Genesis on from one generation to another until it was finally written down did not recognize some evil supernatural being. We are told of a talking serpent that tempted Eve with half-truths.


So where does the idea that serpent actually being a manifestation of Satan come from? Even with the evidence of Biblical content just cited, people would still say I am nuts to question the notion that the serpent was any other than Satan. Genesis doesn’t say it was Satan, but we’ve always assumed it was. We dare not question what we’ve always known. So someone who does question must be wrong (and blasphemous and heretical and anathema).

I submit to you that it is extremely important that we read the Bible critically; that is, we question everything as read for the purpose of being sound and sure in our understanding. We don’t just throw out commonly held assumptions about familiar stories, like Adam and Eve. We think on those stories thoroughly so that our belief is informed, well formed, and we know why we believe it.

To find the source for our theological assertion that the Eden serpent from the very first book of Bible is Satan at work, we turn to the 12th chapter of the last book, Revelation. Revelation 12:7-9:


7And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, 8but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Verse 9 is pretty clear – the serpent and Satan were one. Did believers always understand this connection? I don’t think so. The idea of Satan is one that evolved through the different eras of Israel’s history and relationship with God. In the book Job, Satan is one of God’s council members. His is an official role – the adversary. By the time the prophet Zechariah is at work, Satan is clearly running against the purposes of God (Zechariah 3:1-4). In the days of Jesus, Satan is an enemy who has access – he is able to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. However, the demons of Hell cower in fear before Jesus in every encounter they have with him.

In Revelation, it’s all out warfare and it is not fought here, but in Heaven (12:7). Moreover, God is not a participant. Rather the archangel Michael leads a brigade of angels who defeat the Dragon, Satan, who also has an angel army. There is no word on how long or how violent this conflict is. The important note is that as the warfare in Heaven is also played out on earth, the battle is not won with swords or spears (or weapons of modern warfare). Rather sacrifice and martyrdom win the day.

“But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death” (Rev. 12:11).

The metaphor for Jesus crushing the evil one is not a mighty lion, but rather a slaughtered lamb, and the uncompromising testimony of the church that has sworn allegiance to Jesus. There have been thousands of pages of Bible interpretation written just on Revelation chapter 12. My words here simply offer up the foundational truth of that chapter, and one of the basic essentials of Christianity. Evil is defeated by faithfulness – the faithfulness and love of Jesus to die for our sins; and, the faithfulness of His church, including us, to testify to the truth about Him and His gospel to the world no matter what that testimony will cost us.