Judah

Exile is a common theme within the history of Israel. This theme continues until the final days, when God will establish His kingdom forever. The Jewish people today are scattered over the whole earth, living among many nations and cultures. A primary condition of being the Messiah is to gather all Jews from exile back to the land of their ancestors. God promised this using His prophet Ezekiel: “24I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you back to your own land.” (Ezekiel 36:24) God’s final plans involve Israelites returning to the beginning. The gathering of all exiled Jews is considered a chief sign that the Messiah is truly among us. Jewish liturgy gives precedence to this appeal within the Amidah: “Sound the great shofar for our redemption, raise a banner to gather our exiles; gather us from the four corners of the earth to our land...” Just as Judaism is linked to the people of Israel, so to is Israel linked to the land of its’ birth. One of the first steps the Messiah will be concerned with, is to convince every Jew to return to the land God promised to Abraham. Just as with the Davidic dynasty, the Messiah will be God’s instrument in fulfilling His promises to the people of Israel.

Consequently it is fair to say that to the Jewish people of Jesus’ time the term ‘Kingdom of God’ was interpreted as a time when God’s rule would be restored through a descendant of David and things would be good again. Macquarrie sums their view precisely when he states, “The coming of the Kingdom would mean the judgement of the existing order, the overthrow of all evil and demonic powers and a new order in which God’s perfect reign would be manifested.”

On the contrary, Dispensationalism splits Israel from the Church, and does not depict the accurate future Jesus Christ is to establish. Ezekiel demonstrates the Messiah's dual authority in the Order of Melchizedek when He says the two sticks join and become one. This is a prophesy of Jesus Christ returning with both sticks as He joins Israel and the Church, and they become one in His hand. At this time, the world will finally see Jesus Christ as the single, most significant, sacrifice and that the Lamb who is now the King.

tribe of Judah. It states that David’s kingdom would last and stand the test of time forever. The

That among those who will be thus the faithful representatives and visible governors of the world will be David, who was once King over Israel; and Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jepthai, and Joseph, formerly ruler of Egypt, and Samuel the prophet and other faithful men named with approval in the Bible at Hebrews

The inability of the three great powers of the time, Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, to exert influence over lesser entities such as the philistines greatly contributed to their rise in power. The culmination of these events lead to a desire and almost obligation of political unification under a monarch for the tribes of Israel because their internal weakness threatened their very existence. Nevertheless, contrary to the depiction in the Hebrew Bible, the tribes appear to maintain a significant amount of autonomy during the monarchy, which leads to the demise of the small unified monarchy and the development of two split kingdoms, Israel and Judah, that is found in I Kings 12. This is a result of increased demands and pressure from King Solomon that would have escalated if his son Rehoboam came to power over the lands of Israel. However, many scholars such as Beth Alpert Nakhai, attest that hints of disunity between Judah and other tribes were present through rebellions in David and Solomon’s reigns. Therefore, leaders of the various tribes elected to anoint a new king over their lands that would politically unite them enough to protect them from outside threats, while still maintaining their relative autonomy over their own tribes, making the kingdom of Israel a dispersed state with various religious and political centers. On the other hand, the kingdom of Judah maintained not only unity

In Judaism, the messiah is a person who will be the Jews’ leader when they attain their goal of universal peace on earth. The word “Messiah” is an English version of the Hebrew word “Mashiach”, describing a future anointed person to come. There are many passages in the Hebrew Bible that speak of a descendant of King David who will rule Israel during the age of perfection.The Abrahamic Covenant finds its ultimate fulfillment in connection with the return of Messiah. It is through Israel that God promised in Genesis 12:1–3 to bless the nations of the world. That ultimate blessing will issue in the forgiveness of sins and Messiah’s reign on

Isaiah prophesies of this in so many places, calling Him the Arm of the Lord, the Branch, Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Elect of God, Everlasting Father, Wonderful, the Glory of the Lord, God, the Holy One of Israel, Immanuel, Jehovah, Lawgiver, Man of Sorrows, and many other names. He prophesies of the coming Messiah over 20 times, speaking about exact things that would happen to Jesus Christ. Jeremiah, on the other hand, prophesies of the Messiah only once really. In Chapter 23, verses 5 and 6, he says that the Lord will raise up a Branch out of David, a King who will reign forever, executing judgment on all the earth. In those days, Israel will be saved and dwell in safety.

The passages presented are divisive in the way that they are interpreted. They create a debate as to who is the “real Jews,” and those that believe that they are the real Jews claiming authority over others. This view includes self-identifying Christians claiming that they are the ones that are the “favoured by God.” The various passages presented allow for this interpretation.

We will examine the contents of the Olivet Discourse during Christ’s earthly ministry. There are two views with evangelical Christians about this discourse. Either Jesus was speaking about the end of mankind’s history or beginning of a new era in the life of Jews. As a matter of fact, this sermon has been titled “Christ’s Eschatological Discourse” or “Discourse on the Last Things”.

On the journey one night he dreams of a stairway from heaven to earth and God speaks to him. Jacob bargains with God, for food, clothes and safe travel, he will worship God henceforth. Jacob’s first wife Leah gives birth to six sons and a daughter who will found half the tribes of Israel. Jacob has another four sons by his wives’ maids and his second wife Rachel gives him two sons. This leaves him with twelve sons who later became forefathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob wanted to reunite with his family so he sent Esau a message asking for a kind welcome home, however Esau is heading towards them with a small army. Jacob divided up his family so that some may escape and begged God for protection. All night he wrestled with someone- a dark angel or his fear of death. The one wrestling with Jacob gave him the name ‘Israel’

The Nationalist party of Israel longed for this kingdom in a political sense but not a spiritual one. Even Pontius Pilate when he interviewed Jesus understood the Jews were looking for a king and asked Jesus the question, “art thou than a king?”. Jesus answered the question by stating that his kingdom is not of this world for if it were his servants would fight (John 18:33 – 37).

The warning in Isaiah 6, issued specifically to the kingdom of Judah during Isaiah’s ministry can also be applied to what will likely happen at the end of the age. In fact, hardening of hearts to the message of the gospel is happening already. Regardless of what is to come, God commissioned Isaiah to proclaim His forthcoming judgment. In addition to proclaiming judgment, God’s words through the prophet would further harden the hearts of the people and otherwise make them ignorant to any good news that Isaiah had to offer. Fortunately, and in spite of God’s judgment, there was hope as a remnant of Israel would survive the judgment and be saved by God’s grace. Thus, the remnant of people that would survive would be the heirs of God’s promises to Abraham. Without survivors, the Abrahamic Covenant would have been null and void, and all hope would of have been completely lost (Dennis & Grudem, 2008)

The people of Judah were faced with many difficult decisions as the Babylonians gathered outside the gates of Jerusalem. Their existence had been threatened before by the Assyrians and God had saved them before. But this time seemed different. The city of Jerusalem is corrupt and dirty and the people of Judah are unfaithful and misguided. The help of God which destroyed the much larger Assyrian army will not be so forthcoming this time. As the people search for a solution, they are presented with various opinions and predictions from different people. There are prophets, priests, and kings who all claim to know the truth and claim to be the help that the people of Judah so desire. The Judahites need to navigate all of these predictions and all of the forecasts. They can let history be their guide, they can participate in critical arguments, and they can consider each point carefully. But in the end each Judahite must decide where their allegiance will lie and if it will help keep them alive.

That’s why Judah is the main character in all stories of J. For example: in Gen.37:26-27 he proposes to sell Joseph, then in Gen.43:3-10 Judah persuades Israel to send Benjamin with him and guarantees his safety. And one more interesting thing is that although Judah was only the fourth son, in Gen.49:8 Israel says that his brothers “will praise” and “bow down” to him. So in such a way he gets a birthright. Also Jerusalem and Ark of the Covenant (a sign to the people that God is with them) are very important for J (2 Samuel 5,6).