Until Shiloh Comes

UNTIL SHILOH COMES

The quavering, cracked voice rose and fell like a gossamer web on a breath of wind. An old man lay dying, propped on sheepskin pillows, as two female family members hovered nearby. Daughter, Dinah, offered him sips of water, while Rodah, one of many granddaughters gently smoothed the wispy white hair back from his wrinkled forehead.

Jacob’s twelve sons had gathered at his bedside, and as many others of the burgeoning family as could, crowded into the tent. Jacob was giving them his final blessings, which for some, amounted to a rebuke. Smoky oil lamps hung from the tent poles, and the flickering light cast shadows on the sombre faces surrounding Jacob’s bed. A desert breeze stirred the tent flaps but the air inside the tent was heavy and close.

Jacob struggled to raise himself and the two women hurried to help him. “Judah…Judah,” Jacob whispered hoarsely. Pushing through those standing closest to the ancient patriarch, Judah responded, “I am here, Father.”

“You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son…..the scepter will not depart from Judah….” And here Jacob’s voice faded; he gasped a few times, then continued, haltingly. His voice was raspy, yet the unmistakable authority as patriarch of the clan was clearly evident. “Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Judah unconsciously squared his shoulders and stood straighter, as a thrill went through the crowd. “Until Shiloh comes….” It was repeated through the ranks from one to another in soft voices as they looked at each other with wonder-filled eyes. “Until Shiloh comes!” It seemed to carry a sense of enigma and mystery, of an Event in the distant future, far off down the corridors of centuries. Who was Shiloh and what did it mean?

Jacob continued his final words, naming his remaining sons, pronouncing prophetic blessing and warnings over each. All the while, Judah, transfixed in his own thoughts asked himself: “Ruler’s staff? Scepter? Would this ‘Shiloh’ be one of my own descendants—a prince? Maybe even a King?”

He could not have known that some 250 years later, another prophecy would be given by a renegade prophet, Balaam: “There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel….”

Nor could Judah have foreseen that more than a thousand years later one of his progeny, Possessor of Judah’s own DNA, would be the Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and that the government would be upon His shoulders. If Judah had only known…perhaps certain aspects of his life would have been different. Or maybe nothing would have changed, who knows?

No one can know the future. It stretches out into the vast, unrevealed reaches of time. God will, at times, give hints—-glimpses, even—-to potential and opportunity. If I knew that one of MY descendants would be the Son of God, would I have committed some of the sinful, even heinous, acts that Judah did?

We have no say in our destiny and portion, but we DO have control over how this comes about, and in what time-frame, in our own life-time. Our choices and decisions can delay or even alter the outcome, not only for ourselves, but for our descendants and the heritage we leave them. Fortunately for hopelessly-lost humankind, in God’s sovereignty the Messiah, Shiloh came....inexorably on schedule—-in the fullness of time.