On Sunday, we sing about the “Lion of Judah” in church. If you don’t know where that term comes from, it occurs three times in scripture.
The first mention comes from a quote from Jacob giving his final blessing and prophecy over his each of his twelve sons at the end of his life.
Jacob, is the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham of the Bible. These are the men in the Bible that God spoke with. Gods in other places were associated with power of nature or authority over human life they could influence. Egyptians had their gods of the sun, river or the afterlife. Likewise the Greeks had gods of the sky, sea and war. The God of the Bible is most often referred to in scripture as the God of “Abraham, Isacc and Jacob.”
The other name for Jacob is Israel. Israel today is a country on the globe. Before that, there was actual person named Israel who had twelve sons by four wives. Over the centuries, their descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel. They are also known as the Jewish people. They get that name from Israel’s son, Judah.
Judah is the fourth child of Leah, which is Jacob‘s first wife who he was tricked to marrying when he intended to marry her younger sister Rachel. That story becomes relevant because it fueled the family conflict.
Within his own life, Judah was not that remarkable of a person. He was jealous of his younger brother Joseph because Joseph was the preferred son of the preferred wife who got to wear a fancy coat with lots of colors. To get rid of Joseph, Judah sells his brother into slavery. Nice guy.
Later, Judah has three sons. The first two who are unalived because of disobedience to God. Instead of giving his third son to his first son’s wife in order to give her a child and restore her inheritance and family connection, Judah refuses. In a very uncomfortable incident, Tamar tricks Judah, literally, into having twins with her.
What is remarkable about Judah is that his father gives him a prophecy calling him a lion’s cub, and tells him a scepter will not depart from him until peace comes. (Gen 49:9) Then Israel dies. Judah doesn’t anything after that either. He dies too. That prophecy is for his descendants.
Ten generations later, a man named David is born into the tribe of Judah. David goes on to the most influential king of Israel and his lineage is the one that defines all future kings.
After that, “the House of Judah” becomes a shorthand for the entire people group. God tells the prophet Hosea that he will be a young lion to the House of Judah. (Hos 5:14) And the whole group goes into subjugation by several different powerful groups over the next several centuries. Again, the prophecy is for future generations.
In the New Testament both Matthew and Luke go through the lineage of Judah in leading to birth Jesus. Jesus’s significant actions are healing sick people, telling people to love one another and then dying on a cross for everyone’s sins. He rises from the dead then leaves, promising his followers he will return at some undisclosed time.
Finally, Jesus is referred to as the Lion of Judah in Revelation, in a vision of the future shared by the apostle John. (Rev 5:5) There, he tells believers to weep no more because the Lion of Judah has conquered and is able to open scroll and it’s seven seals, which is the end of all the old things and the start of new.