Anyone Can Change Because God's Grace Is Real
Genesis 37–49
Anyone Can Change Because God's Grace Is Real
Text: Genesis 37–49
Introduction
I was about to touch this microphone until I saw the sign that said, do not touch the microphone. Very hopeful. Okay.
Good morning, friends. It's great to be here with you. Thank you for praying for my church and my family. Thank you for singing and ministering to me through your prayers and your songs. It's already been a full morning.
I'm happy to open God's word with you. My name is Alex Duke. I'm one of the pastors of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I work for a ministry called Nine Marks. Given who your pastor is, you may have heard of it.
I've served that ministry for a while. I know a few members of your church. Melissa and I served together with Ed Moore back a long time ago. And so, yeah, it's just a real privilege to be here. Let me just briefly pray, and then we'll start the sermon in earnest.
Opening Prayer
Father in heaven, thank you that your grace is real and that it changes people. Thank you that it is available to all of us in Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
Background and Main Idea: Anyone Can Change Because God's Grace Is Real
📖 Scripture: Genesis 1–11; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 12–36; Genesis 17; Genesis 37–50
So the difference between being famous and being infamous is more than just a mere two letters. So Abraham Lincoln, he is famous. John Wilkes Booth, he is infamous. A simple definition of infamous is someone who is known for something really bad. Another example.
Raise your hand if you've heard of Bill Buckner. Okay, a few of you, yeah. Okay, let's go back in time a little bit. Game six, 1986 World Series. The Red Sox are playing the Mets.
I tried to find a Phillies reference. I couldn't. It's the bottom of the 10th inning. The Red Sox are one out away from their first World Series in nearly 70 years. A fellow named Mookie Wilson hits a dribbler up the first baseline, and it goes right under Bill Buckner's legs.
Boston loses game six, loses game seven. Forty years later, Bill Buckner is infamous, at least to some of us. He's synonymous with losing the World Series because he messed up, which honestly is revisionist history. The game was already tied. I know I'm not supposed to talk about that.
If you want to hear more, I think that's my topic tonight for Sunday Night Theology. This morning, we're going to look at the story, really from beginning to end, of an infamous man named Judah, who is primarily known for something bad. Now, because I'm a guest preacher sort of just plopping down in the book of Genesis, let me just briefly give us some summary here. Genesis 1 to 11, Moses, who wrote Genesis, he narrates the creation of the world. He tells us about the invasion of sin.
He gives us the glorious promise of the resurrection that through the seed of the woman, the serpent's head will one day be crushed. And he tells us that even though sin has entered the world, the Lord has not left the world to itself. That's Genesis 1 to 11, sort of the prologue, you might say. Genesis 12 to 36, Moses starts to focus on one family. This family is the one through whom God promises to bless the world.
And the Lord even tells this fellow named Abraham that kings will come from your line, Genesis 17. So that promise goes from Abraham, goes to his son Isaac. I realize I'm skipping so much. Then it goes from Isaac to Jacob, not his older twin Esau, also skipping a lot. And so, yeah, it's just a real privilege to be here.
It's as if what Moses is doing from Genesis 12 to 36, it's like he's passing the blessing ball farther downfield. He's just sort of moving it downfield from generation to generation. And then we arrive to this last chunk of Genesis, Genesis 37 to 50, the fourth generation. But suddenly, we don't just have like a pair of sons. We have Jacob and his 12 sons, also known as the 12 tribes of Israel.
And suddenly, there are lots of options for like who this ball could go to. But Moses, I mean, he's kind of like Jalen Hurts, right? He's just staring at one receiver the whole time. You know he's going to throw to the one guy. And the guy you think he's going to throw the ball to is Joseph.
I mean, he is one of the most uncomplicatedly good characters in all of Scripture. He's a little naive, but like honestly, I can't think of like a single sinful thing he does. He goes from Jacob's favorite son to a foreign slave. He goes from the prisoner in Egypt to the prince of Egypt. It's a horrible title for a movie, The Prince of Egypt.
It's not that Moses is not the prince. I mean, he kind of is, but Joseph was the first prince of Egypt. So as we're reading this last chunk of Genesis, which we're going to sort of hop through a little bit, it seems obvious that Joseph is the next link in the chain of blessing, that he is the receiver downfield who's going to receive this ball and sort of move God's promises along. I mean, he is literally a prince. His brothers literally bow down to him.
He has a dream about it, which he kind of stupidly tells them. He's like, hey guys, I dreamt that you're going to do this. And they're like, what? He's the youngest, well, second youngest son. But this sermon is not about Joseph.
It's about Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. So what we're going to do in the next few minutes is we're going to sort of trace his arc, how Moses tells us his life. And what I hope we'll see is that his life offers to us both a warning and an invitation. So here's, I don't know how Raymond does this or the folks who normally preach here. Some people talk about main ideas of sermons.
I appreciate that. Here's my version of that. Here is what I want to convince you of this morning. And if I'm doing this whole preaching thing right, what I'm trying to persuade you of is simply the burden of the biblical passage. Moses is not just writing this to fill our heads with information.
He wants to change our hearts, change our minds. And so what I want to persuade you of, God willing, this morning is very simple.
It's that anyone can change because God's grace is real. Anyone can change because God's grace is real. The sermon will have three points. The first one is much longer, so don't worry. They're not all equal length.
Three points, how it all started, how it all changed, how it all ends. That's the three things we're going to talk about.
I. How It All Started
📖 Scripture: Genesis 37:25–28; Genesis 38:1–2; Genesis 38:7; Deuteronomy 25:5–10; Genesis 38:11; Genesis 38:12–19; Genesis 38:15–18; Genesis 38:24–26
First point, how it all started. If you have a Bible, please open to Genesis chapter 37. We will get there eventually, Genesis chapter 37.
You know, first impressions are both illuminating and hard to forget. Star Wars, episode four, A New Hope. You know, laser blasters going off like crazy. It's chaos. There's smoke.
You know, there's these anonymous stormtroopers dying left and right.
And then who comes around the corner when the music changes? I'm not going to, you know, I think that's kind of how it goes. And the score gets ominous, and suddenly you hear this. Does that work? I don't even know.
Who comes around the corner? You can answer. It's okay. Darth Vader. And it is very obvious from like the first moment that this is a bad guy.
His first impression is ominous, illuminating, and hard to overcome. So how does Moses introduce Judah? Genesis 37. I told you we're going to skip a lot. We're just going to start in verse 25.
These guys have just chucked Joseph down a pit and left him to die because they hate him. They hate his fancy coat. They hate how much his dad loves them. They hate that he very stupidly told them about this dream in which he's obviously better than them. They hate him.
So they've just chucked him down a pit. Genesis chapter 37, verse 25.
What are these folks doing right after they commit what is essentially first-degree murder? They sat down to eat. Well, that's cold. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah, this is the first action ascribed to this man.
He's been mentioned sort of in passing, like Judah was born, but this is the first thing he does. Then Judah says to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not let our hand be on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers listened to him. And the Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up, lifted him up out of the pit.
And just friends, just stop for a second. Think how cruel this moment must have been for Joseph. He's like, all right, I guess I'm going to die down here. And then he, like, you know, I don't know how tall this thing was, but he's down there in the pit. He looks up, and he's like, oh, my brothers are coming back.
Maybe they changed their mind. And they drag him out of the pit. Come out of the pit, and they, we're about to read it, they sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. After that, they take his coat, sort of the emblem of their hatred of him, they cover it with blood, and trick Jacob that his favorite son is dead.
It breaks Jacob's heart. I think the text says in the ESV, it might be a different version, that he violently trembles when he hears the news. So that's how it all starts with Judah. He's a self-serving guy, and you notice, I mean, let's pay attention to the logic, kind of the emotional logic of what he's doing and why. He's a self-serving guy who wants to keep his hands and his conscience clean, even as he engages in absolute total wickedness.
He's like, well, we shouldn't kill this guy, he's our brother after all, so we can just sell him. Moses' camera lingers on Judah a bit longer, and in Genesis 38, the man of action whom we just met becomes, at least for one chapter, the main figure of his attention. We're not going to read all of Genesis 38, but I'll read parts of it. So let's start Genesis 38, beginning in verse 1. It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adulamite, whose name was Hira.
Probably one of the worst people in all of Scripture, frankly. So if you want a lesson on friendship, just find someone who's the opposite of Hira. Keep going. There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went into her.
All right, let's stop. Already we have an illuminating comparison. Of course, we've been walking through Genesis, you probably know it, so I'll just tell you. He's taking a foreign wife, and in doing so, he's acting just like his uncle and his great-uncle, Esau and Ishmael. He's acting like these sons who have popped up so far in Genesis, but have been sort of the rejected lines, the guys who the Lord will not sort of throw the ball downfield, as it were.
And he is absorbed not just into their region, Canaan, but into their religion. That's what's going on here. Moses then tells us that Judah has three sons, Ur, Onan, and Shelah. Ur marries a woman named Tamar. Scripture tells us that Ur dies.
Why? Verse 7, we're not going to read it, but just he's wicked. We don't know anything more about it. Whoever this guy is, Ur, he's wicked. The Lord just, he dispatches him.
He kills him. So this leaves Ur's wife, Tamar, in a little bit of a predicament. She is alone, her husband's dead, and she's childless, which makes her vulnerable. Alone, childless, vulnerable, but not hopeless. Because in these situations, the Lord actually gives instructions for what should happen.
He gives a duty to brothers of the deceased man, the deceased husband. So what we have here in Genesis 38, it's like the expectation of a social custom that's not written down. So it's like when you walk in somebody's house, and you take the first step, and you realize everybody's looking at your feet. And you're like, oh no, what did I do? It's like, oh, they definitely wanted me to take my shoes off, right?
So there's not like a, there's no, this sign is very helpful. There's no sign, like when you go into these people's houses, that say, if you don't take your shoe off, we're going to all judge you. But it's the unstated custom of the situation. The same thing is happening here in Genesis 38. But the custom gets written down, thankfully, generations later, in Deuteronomy chapter 25.
So if you're sort of quick with it, you can flip to Deuteronomy 25 for a minute. I'm going to read you, because this is the logic, the undergirding logic that sets the expectations for the actions to come. Do you understand what I mean? Deuteronomy chapter 25, beginning in verse 5. If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, like Ur, who we just read about, the wife of the dead man, in this case that would be Tamar, shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.
Her husband's brother, which in this case would be Onan, or Onan, shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, in this case Ur, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man, the brother, Onan, does not wish to take his brother's wife, listen, I love this next part, this is just glorious, then his brother's wife, and again in this case Tamar, shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. Then the elders of this city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, I don't wish to take her, then his brother's wife, again in this case Tamar, shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, and this is some ancient Near Eastern justice right here, pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face.
She shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house, and the name of his house shall be called in Israel the house of him who had his sandal pulled off. I mean this, again, this is just glorious. This is like ancient Near East Shakespearean, like a pox on your house. If you do what Onan is doing, shame on you.
It is weird, I get it, but it is not hard to understand. Onan had a duty to Tamar to give her a son that would be biologically his, but legally hers and his dead brother Ur's. Why? So that that son could grow up and take care of his mom, so that she would not be alone and vulnerable and hopeless.
The goal of laws like these is to protect widows. Now, there's a problem, because we're sinners, these folks are sinners, and so what this law does is it provokes our sinful creativity, and it also creates a conflict of interest for selfish people like Onan, who think that they're wiser than the Lord. I mean, he's thinking to himself, well, if I do this, I'm cutting into my wife and my own family's future inheritance by sort of creating this branch that's not connected to me. It's a drain on the family resources. Why would I do this?
And so what does Onan do? Let me summarize. He doesn't want to be shamed and spat on, hit in the face with a sandal and forever called, whatever it said at the end, I can't remember off the top of my head. He doesn't want all that. I mean, that's embarrassing, right?
Nobody wants to be spit on and slapped in the face with a sandal.
So he decides to superficially participate in the marital process, but to make sure that it cannot possibly result in children. This superficial obedience provokes the Lord's wrath, and I hope you see he is so much like his father, Judah, isn't he? Interested in superficial obedience. I told you the story of Judah has a warning and invitation. There's several we could choose from.
Here's one warning to us, those of us who are parents. Our sins disciple our kids. You might say they anti-disciple our kids. Oh, we need help. So what does the Lord do?
Well, he kills Onan too. Two wicked sons. Two swift killings. If only the story stopped there. Genesis 38, verse 11.
Then Judah, now that Onan's dead, said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow in your father's house till Shelah, my son, grows up. For he, that's Judah, feared that he, that is Shelah, would die like his brothers. Which Moses is already kind of tipping his hand. Judah's like, maybe this lady's a witch or something. Like all these people keep dying around her.
So Tamar went and remained in her father's house. Fast forward, in the course of time, the wife of Judah, Shewa's daughter, died. So now Judah's wife's dead. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheep shearers, he and his friend Hira the Adulamite.
And when Tamar was told, hey, your father-in-law's going up to Timnah to shear his sheep, she took off her widow's garments, she covered herself with a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat at the entrance to Anahim, which is on the road to Timnah. Probably an anonymous spot on the road. For she saw that Shelah was grown up. She had not been given to him in marriage. In other words, she saw that her father-in-law Judah, because many years have passed, she saw that her father-in-law Judah was a liar.
He said, yeah, stay in your father's house until this kid grows up, and then I'll give him to you like Deuteronomy 25 will in the future tell me to do, like I know I'm supposed to do.
She knew exactly where to go and exactly how to get his attention. Go to an anonymous spot on the road, dress a certain way. Verse 15, when Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Genesis is a glorious book. Moses is an amazing storyteller.
I mean, it's so ironic that he is now being tricked by someone's clothing, right? Verse 16, he turned to her at the roadside and said, come, let me come into you, for he didn't know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, what will you give me that you may come into me? He answered, I'll send you a young goat from the flock. Again, she doesn't trust this guy.
She said, if you give me a pledge until you send the goat, he said, what pledge shall I give to you?
She replied, your signet and your cord and your staff that's in your hand. So he gave them to her, went into her. She conceived by him, and she arose and went away. And taking off her veil, she put on the garments of her widowhood. Fast forward a little bit.
Basically what happens next is that Hiram goes to sort of get his friend's stuff back, give her the goat that he promised Tamar. But again, Hiram, awful guy, gets there. He realizes that nobody knows who this woman is. He can't give the goat because we don't know who she is. So he's like, well, I guess we'll just let her keep that stuff that she stole from us.
Again, they think they've been swindled. Verse 24, about three months later, Judah was told, Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has been immoral. Moreover, she's pregnant by immorality. Judah said, bring her out and let her be burned. As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law.
By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant. She said, please identify whose these are, the signet, the cord, and the staff. Stop right there for a second. I mean, she has caught him. He is guilty.
He is stuck. I'm going to ask a question, and I want you to answer it in your mind. What kind of man is Judah? What adjectives fill your mind? He's conniving.
He's self-righteous. He is heartless. He is puritanical. I mean, man, he knows exactly what to do when Tamar, his daughter-in-law, is caught in sin. Let her be burned.
Doesn't seem to care much about what the Scriptures say about his own behavior. He's a hypocrite. He's terrible. I mean, there's so many horrible adjectives that are rightly attached to this man. What do we make of Tamar?
That's a tough question. My best answer, sort of in looking at the evidence, is, of course, she is desperate. Of course, she has her back against the wall.
Again, she has been let down by scores of men. I'd add another word. I think Tamar is righteous. I mean, notice verse 19. Look back up there.
She rose and went away. She takes off her veil and puts on the garments of widowhood. In other words, she's not trying to live a life of prostitution. I think we're supposed to agree with what we're going to read next. Verse 26.
Judah identified his items and said, She's more righteous than I, since I didn't give her my son. And he did not know her again. This is how it all started. Judah is all bad.
II. How It All Changed
📖 Scripture: Genesis 41–44; Genesis 44:32–34; Romans 11:35; Romans 8:1; 1 John 1:9; Ephesians 4:32
Two decades pass. Jacob and his sons endure famine. So Jacob sends them to Egypt to get some help.
They arrive, and what do you know? Who do they come across? Their brother, Joseph. He's alive. The one that sold him to slavery.
He is now sort of second right-hand man to Pharaoh. Now, here's the story. It's so lovely, but again, we don't have time to read it all. He recognizes them. They don't recognize him.
Because later elsewhere, Moses tells us that he basically looks like an Egyptian. So Genesis 41 to 44. Again, summarizing so much stuff. Joseph puts his brothers through a bunch of tests before he reveals who he is. Because he wants to know if they've changed.
So what he does is he basically frames Jacob's new favorite son. He thinks Joseph's dead. His new favorite son is a guy named Benjamin.
And he creates a situation where basically he's going to put Benjamin's life seemingly at stake to see if his brothers are going to leave him behind and for dead just like they left him behind all those years before. Flip in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 44. We're going to sort of plop down in the middle of a tense conversation between Judah and Joseph. Again, Joseph is trying to keep Benjamin behind in Egypt. But there's a problem.
Judah has already promised his dad, Jacob, that whatever happens, he will bring his beloved son back. Genesis 44, beginning in verse 32. Judah's talking. He says, For your servant, that's Judah talking about himself, became a pledge of safety for the boy, Benjamin, to my father, saying, If I don't bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life. Now, therefore, Joseph, please let your servant, that's again talking about himself, remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord.
And let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? In other words, how can I break my word? Which, like, literally all he's done the whole time is break his word. And here he is, 20 years later, telling his brother, Joseph, who he doesn't know is his brother, I can't do this.
How can I break my word? I fear to see the evil that would find my father. Again, how can I break my father's heart? The man who masterminded the plot to sell Joseph into slavery while keeping his conscience intact. The man who broke his father's heart.
The man who was happy to sign his daughter-in-law's death warrant with one hand, even as she held proof of his own crimes in her own hands. A wicked, terrible, conniving, morally bankrupt, superficially obedient Judah at this tense moment speaks up and from the heart says, I have to keep my word. No longer superficial. He appears to be sacrificial. Like, he doesn't know that this is his brother.
Like, he's saying, hey, I'll stay behind in Egypt. It's not like a nice vacation. He's like, I'll basically stay behind as your prisoner if you can let my brother go. Anyone can change because God's grace is real. I think the way we're supposed to understand all of this is that Judah experienced God's grace on that day 20 years prior.
On his lowest day. When his daughter-in-law, pregnant with his child, turns out to be children, holds up proof not only of like a day of a bad decision, but a lifetime full of rebellion. She holds up that proof to him. And he doesn't see her and run. He doesn't use his powerful position to concoct a story or to accuse her of lying.
He doesn't downplay its seriousness. No, he sees that she is righteous and he is not. I think, to use a kind of anachronistic word, I think that's Judah's conversion. Anyone can change because God's grace is real and it changes people. And sometimes it shows up in our lowest moments.
It arrests us in our worst time.
You know, we all need this kind of grace, don't we? It's fuel for the finish line. The songs we sang, the prayers we prayed, the confessions we read, the Lord's Supper that we're about to take, all of it are means of grace that gives us fuel for the finish line. Here's a statistic. As of last year, the global debt stands at $324 trillion.
It's a trillion with a T. I assume, based on the nature of this, it's probably gone up in the last year. Here's another stat. That number, $324 trillion, is more than three times the global GDP, the gross domestic product, which is about $106 trillion. This means if you add all the economies in the world, you get $106 trillion.
Now, I just want to be honest with you. I'm not an economist. In fact, I don't even like math. I study creative writing, for goodness sake. But I do know that $324 trillion greater than, or greater than, I'm not sure which way, is greater than $106 trillion.
In other words, we, as a human race, owe more than we can produce. So much so that we could give all we had three times over for three years. I mean, that's impossible, but you understand. And all we would be is almost back to even, almost back to give back what we originally took and borrowed. I'm not an economist, but I am a Christian.
And so this particular problem sounds very familiar to me, that we owe more than we could ever produce. One theologian said, reflecting on this, even if they were perfect in all things, men would only give God what is due.
Or Paul, Romans 11, 35, who has given to God that he might be repaid? In other words, who can put God in his debt? Friends, I hope you see, and I hope you see that it is actually good news, that our sin, whether it's all-out rebellion like Esau and Ishmael earlier in Genesis, or whether it's sort of conniving superficial obedience like Judah, it puts us all in inescapable debt. In other words, we can't earn our way back into God's good graces by being good enough, by being better, even by being perfect. It would simply be like God said, yes, that's exactly how you should live.
You know, Christianity tells a story that it sounds too good to be true, but it's not. It's not do better, try harder. No, it's not like I was walking here this morning from the hotel, and there was like 150 people doing yoga in the streets. And I'm not trying to say they all have some Eastern worldview, but part of me wondered, what are you guys trying to do? Is the point of life to empty ourselves and be filled up with some kind of vague consciousness?
I'm not sure. The message of Christianity is not do better. It's not try harder.
It's not empty your mind. It's not like, listen, this whole thing, this whole thing, existence, it's just a crapshoot. It's like a cosmic slot machine. So you're just going to pull it and hope that whenever you get extinguished, something not horrible happens. I know people who that's their worldview.
Friends, the message of Christianity, it's summarized in verses like Romans 8, verse 1. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Or 1 John 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. In other words, he will keep his promises, but he's also just to cleanse us of our sins from all unrighteousness.
How can it be that God is just to forgive sinners? I mean, we've answered that question so many times in our service already this morning. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And so what this means is that our lowest moments do not have to stick. I mean, they are real.
They have consequences.
I mean, Judah's life is not perfect. My goodness. Jacob's life, his father, his life has all sorts of consequences for the sins of his life. But they don't determine who we are. They don't determine our destiny.
Anyone can change because God's grace is real. I just want a simple application. Our vertical reconciliation, that is the forgiveness that God has shown us, fuels our forgiveness of others. Think of Ephesians 4, verse 32. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Now, I'm not offering like a full taxonomy of forgiveness, right? But I do think it would be a wonderful, wonderful thing to talk about over lunch.
Questions like this. How in the world did Joseph forgive his brothers? How could he do that? I mean, if there's anyone who would not forgive Judah, it would be Joseph. But he forgives them.
Who do you need to forgive in your life? And you say, well, they haven't changed. Okay, fair. Judah has changed. But I'm not sure.
Again, I'm not trying to offer a full taxonomy of forgiveness. It can be complicated. But I think that would be a wonderful thing to talk about over lunch.
III. How It All Ends
📖 Scripture: Genesis 49:8–10; Matthew 1:1–3; Revelation 5:1–10; Genesis 49:8–10
Third point. Third and final point, briefly. Flip to Genesis 49. We're going to look at how it will all end. At the end of his life, as is often the case with the patriarchs, Jacob offers a blessing, a parting word for all 12 of his sons. Most of them just get a verse. They're pretty enigmatic verses, honestly.
Most of them are kind of sad. But Judah, he gets six verses. We're going to read the first three. Genesis 49, beginning in verse 8. This is, again, Jacob near the end of his life talking to Judah.
And he says, Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Sounds a lot like your foot being on the head of a serpent. Your father's sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's cub.
For my prey, my son, you've gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who dares rouse him? The scepter.
Who holds the scepter? Kings. Shall not depart from Judah or the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Even in those three verses, you kind of have an expanding perspective of what's going to happen with Judah.
Your brothers are going to bow down to you. But then two verses later, you're going to actually have the obedience of all the peoples. Again, the whole time you're reading Genesis 37 to 50, you think, we think that the next link in the chain, the next receiver downfield is Joseph. It's got to be him. But I told you a moment ago, Moses is such a masterful storyteller.
He's hiding the ball. Joseph is a hero. But from the perspective of eternity, he's not the one who was promised. The primary enduring hero of Genesis' longest section is Judah. Infamous, wicked, awful Judah.
He is the one whose heir will be an everlasting king. That's what it means when it says the scepter shall not depart. He is the one who will receive obedience from all the peoples. Genesis 49 is a promise made. Matthew 1, if you're fast, you can flip there.
Matthew 1 is a promise kept. I mean, the first verse of the New Testament. This is the genealogy. You might summarize this phrase as King Jesus. Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob.
Jacob, the father of Judah. Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Tamar. I mean, even if you knew that was coming, let yourself be wowed by it again.
The Lord has used every bit of what we read and a lot of what we skipped over to set the backdrop for the most glorious news in the universe, which is that Jesus the King is born through the line, not of Joseph, but of Judah and Tamar. You know, his story, which starts with really two incidents of unspeakable horror, it ends with glory.
I mean, we got to read it, don't we? Open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 5. Who knows how much of this chapter I'll read. I don't even know. There's no clock anywhere, so I don't know how long I've been preaching.
I was told Rodney went over an hour recently, so I know I'm not over an hour. Revelation chapter 5. We'll see how this goes. Revelation chapter 5. We started with the first mention of Judah.
Let's end with the last. Revelation chapter 5, verse 1. The apostle John is given a vision. Then I saw the right hand of him who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who's worthy to open the scroll and break the seals?
In other words, if there's one last pass to be completed, if we're really just trying to get this ball into the end zone, I'm definitely using a metaphor here, but you understand the point. Who can do it? Who can do this one last thing? No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And John, I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and he took the scroll from the hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and 24 elders, oh man, this sounds a lot like Genesis 49, fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you, lion of the tribe of Judah, to take the scroll to open its seals for you were slain.
And by your people, you ransomed people for God and from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
Conclusion and Application
I mean, I could keep going, but it's obvious, but let yourself be wowed by it again, my friends. So that the story that started how we started ends in such incredible glory. I bet some of you came in here this morning thinking that whatever you've done in your life, it's too much to be redeemed by God if he even exists.
And what I want to tell you is don't believe that lie. I could have chosen hundreds of examples to stiff arm that lie. We chose just one. Because that's what Satan does, doesn't he, right? On the front end of temptation, before we've committed sin, he wants to tell us that, you know, God's grace is cheap.
It's okay. Just do it. He'll forgive you. And we sin. And then he suddenly, he switches arguments.
And he says, you could never, man, you can never get back in his good graces. Do you know what you did? My friends, the story of the scriptures, the message of the gospel gives hope for sinners. The story of Judah offers a warning and an invitation. The invitation is, do you believe that God really is this gracious?
You know, we started with Bill Buckner. That guy, he died a few years ago. And when he died, here's what, you know, when something happens, you know, when like Joel Embiid is out again, and they'll say it on the bottom, on the ticker, right? When he died, here's what the ESPN ticker said at the bottom. It said, all-star slugger, best known for his World Series error, dead at 69.
I mean, what a bummer. I mean, even in death, his lowest moment sticks. He played for the Cubs for a long time, a local Chicago paper. They framed his life a little more positively. Their headline on the newspaper was, Bill Buckner, who won a National League batting title and was an all-star with the Cubs, dead at 69.
Okay, that's better. But my favorite headline came from a small newspaper in New England, the Lowell Sun. Here's what their headline said. Bill Buckner, forgiven by many fans, dead at 69. Friends, if you're in Christ, you know that you're not defined by the worst moments, the ones that stick in your mind.
Friends, if you're in Christ, you're defined by his righteousness forever. Because God's grace is real, and anyone can change. And I gotta think we're all kind of proof of that, aren't we? The church is supposed to help us remind each other of that. And the best news, of course, is that we're forgiven.
Closing Prayer
Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for the story of the life of Judah. It is not just a story, it is real life. And God, we pray that it would give us hope. We pray that it would give us comfort.
And Father in heaven, if there are men and women here this morning who don't believe that you are as gracious as your scriptures say, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would change their minds. And that this church would be a wonderful place for people with questions and doubts and fears to be brought in and to be cared for and loved. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Transcript processed June 30, 2026