Genesis 49:10

Genesis 49:10

I. Using the word prophecy in its predictive sense, this is the language of unquestionable prophecy.

II. This prophecy contains a revelation of Christ.

III. This revelation of Christ was connected with the announcement of the particular time when He was to appear.

IV. This announcement is connected with a statement showing in what way His people will come to Him. It is at once predictive and descriptive.

V. This statement suggests an inquiry into the design of Christ in gathering the people to Himself. In harmony with His title as "the Peaceful One," his grand design is to give them rest. (1) Rest, by reconciling them to God. (2) Rest, by effecting the spiritual union of man with man. (3) Rest, by leading us to perfect rest in another world.

C. Stanford, Symbols of Christ,p. 35.

In the prediction now before us, we have three new points: a name for the seed of the woman; an approximate date of His coming; and an important effect of it.

I. The word Shiloh is the name either of a person or a place. In all other passages of Scripture it denotes the place where the tabernacle was set up after the conquest of the promised land; and in this sense it appears for the first time in Joshua 18:1. It was situated in Ephraim, about twenty miles north of Jerusalem. The obvious reference would be that it denotes the same place here. But (1) the person often gives name to the place; (2) the place is not mentioned till two hundred and forty years after the benediction was pronounced; (3) the sentence, if referred to the place, is neither important in itself, nor accordant with history. Shiloh means the safe the safe-maker the Saviour.

II. The date. The existence of Judah as a tribe continued only till the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Shiloh must have come in the period from the death of Herod the Great, 3 B.C., to that of Herod Agrippa, a.d. 44.

III. The gathering of the people unto Shiloh. The word here rendered gathering is in the Septuagint expectation. It means the gathering in faith and hope of all people to the Shiloh. He is to be the seed of Abraham and the source of all blessing. He is to come while Judah continues to have a corporate form and a native prince, and unto Him are the nations to gather once more into one.

J. G. Murphy, Book of Daniel,p. 15.

References: Genesis 49:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xx., No. 1157; J. Burns, Sketches of Sermons on Special Occasions,p. 232.Genesis 49:13. F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes,p. 117. Genesis 49:15. A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiv., p. 104.Genesis 49:16. F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes,p. 137.