Bedrock Theology – Part 76: Israel’s Testament, Part 1

Genesis 49:1-12

Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

            ²          “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father.           ³            “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.     ⁴Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!

            ⁵          “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.     ⁶          Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. ⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

            ⁸          “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. ⁹ Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? ¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. ¹¹Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,      he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. ¹²His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. ^[1]

At 147 years old, Jacob/Israel’s death was no shock. He had been in failing health since he had been carted down to Egypt 17 years earlier (44:30-31; 45:26). The past 17 years in Egypt’s land of Goshen where his beloved Joseph, the presumed-dead-but-resurrected and ascended savior, reigned as vizier had been an unexpected mercy for the elderly patriarch. But now he could sense the last of his vitality slipping away. He knew he was rising above the material plane and about to ascend through the doorway to heaven. He summoned his son the vizier and made him swear to return his bones to Abraham’s cave at Machpelah (47:29-31).

The vizier brought his sons, Manasseh, and Ephraim, with him for what turned out to be a totally unexpected adoption ceremony and upside-down, cross-handed blessing of the younger son above the older. Joseph had to re-learn that grace comes only and unexpectedly to the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead. The adoption and special blessing of Joseph’s sons is followed by blessings on the rest of his sons, introduced here in verse 1. “Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.”

The nearly-expired patriarch looked up at the distorted faces that came in and out of his failing sight as his sons expectantly waited for their prophetic blessings. There were Leah’s six oldest: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, and Issachar. There were the sons of Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. There were the sons of Leah’s handmaid Zilpah: Gad and Asher. And there were his beloved Rachel’s late-in-life sons: Joseph, in his royal linens and gold, and Benjamin, the youngest. Their expectation was that their father, God’s prophet, would bless them with an oracle that would provide a glimpse into their futures as Noah had done for his sons (9:18-27).

Jacob/Israel’s oracle was a blessing, as the narrator emphasizes three times in his conclusion of verse 28, “²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.” This blessing is the first sustained poem of any length in scripture. The purpose is “the identification of the twelve tribes of Israel and of their individual blessings prophesying their unique destinies within their common destiny as a nation. These summaries certify that the blessings are intended for the tribes that descend from the twelve sons, not just for the sons.”^[2]

What the narrator calls “blessings” (49:28) are often anti-blessings, in the case of Reuben, Simeon, and (to a lesser degree) Levi. But, in terms of the nation’s destiny these anti-blessings are a blessing. By demoting Reuben for his turbulence and uncontrolled appetites, Jacob saves Israel from reckless leadership. Likewise, by cursing the cruelty of Simeon and Levi, he restricts their cruel rashness from dominating the national culture. The prophecies of praise or blame are skillfully built on word plays with the names of the sons or comparisons to animals. The names and/or actions of the twelve sons foreshadow the destiny of the tribes. Some oracles are linked by catchwords, for instance, “brothers” of Simeon, Levi, and Judah (Gen. 49:5, 8; cf. 49:26), “lies down” of Judah and Issachar (49:9, 14; cf. 49:25), “heels” of Dan and Gad (49:17, 19), “doe” and “archers” of Naphtali and Joseph (49:21, 23).^[3]

The power of blessing and divine pronouncement has shaped the entire Genesis narrative. Jacob’s life began and now ends with inspired prophecies. An oracle announced his destiny, and now he announces the future of his descendants. Unlike Isaac, who transferred the divine blessing behind closed doors, creating rivalry and conniving between parents and siblings, Jacob gives his blessing openly, summoning all his sons to gather round. The narrative of Genesis, which began with God’s blessing of creation, now ends with Jacob conveying divine blessing on his children. Genesis opened with the creative power of the divine word now closes with the inspired prophetic words of the covenant patriarch. The blessings of creation now focus on the chosen nation, particularly Joseph and Judah (with 10 of the 25 verses being about them). ^[4]

OLDER BROTHERS DISQUALIFIED (2-7)

Jacob/Israel began his prophetic blessing-song by calling an assembly. “²Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father.” No one likely listened more intently than Reuben, the eldest, who lived with the knowledge that he had tried to usurp his father’s power and position by sleeping with his Jacob’s concubine, Bilhah (35:22). Jacob sets up Reuben for the fall to come, “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.” Jacob heaped praises upon Reuben to convey the hope he once had in his firstborn son and to punctuate the disappointment that followed in one of the fiercest denunciations in Genesis. From his deathbed, Israel cursed the rebellious man. “⁴Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!”

The change of a man’s inheritance in the ancient Near East was never subject to a father’s arbitrary choice but was brought about in every instance by serious offenses against one’s own family.^[5] Jacob’s prophecy came true. When Reuben’s descendants settled in the Transjordan, they soon disappeared from biblical history. Not one prophet, or judge, or king ever came from Reuben’s tribe. The only time the tribe of Reuben exercised any kind of leadership, it was a rebellion against Moses led by Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16:1) who themselves led the way into the pit which opened up to swallow them and their fellow rebels. We can imagine the other brothers’ eyes widened with interest as the patriarch turned to the next oldest two, Simeon and Levi.

Perhaps they expected with Reuben’s disqualification, leadership of the young nation would fall upon Simeon or Levi. But their genocidal slaughter of the people of Shechem and their rejection of their father’s rebuke of their conduct (34:30-31) was about to rear its ugly head again. Jacob’s rejection of these two sons was no shock.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. ⁶Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. ⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

Hamstringing oxen “is an image of senseless brutality. The incident of cutting the oxen’s leg tendons is not recorded in Gen. 34:28. Actually, the Israelites seized the flocks of the Hivites because they were shepherds and destroyed their oxen because they were neither …farmers nor cattlemen.” ^[6]

Both tribes were scattered. Simeon’s tribe virtually disappeared after the time of Joshua’s conquest of the land, receiving no portion in which to settle. They are absorbed into the territory of Judah (Josh. 19:1, 9). With the duty of priesthood falling to the Levites, they were prohibited from owning a territory and were divided among the tribes to serve as teachers of the Law, as well as priests and custodians of the tabernacle. They are apportioned forty-eight towns and pasturelands among the twelve tribes, including Ephraim and Manasseh (Num. 35:1–5; Josh. 14:4; 21:41).

Dispersal signifies a loss of power. The brothers who exercised their power to further their own interests or slake their thirst for vengeance are made powerless by God’s decree from the mouth of his prophet, Jacob/Israel. In the same way, God’s prophets will warn the later rebellious people of Israel and Judah that their dispersal among the nations is coming (Deut. 4:27; 28:64; Jer. 9:16 [Heb. 15]; Ezek. 11:16; 12:15; 20:23; 22:15; 36:19).

Now, it is son number four’s turn to receive his prophetic word. Judah, the man who unknowingly slept with his twice-widowed daughter-in-law, thinking her to be a fertility cult prostitute – the man who unwittingly gave her the son of inheritance he had refused to provide. His refusal to give her another of his sons to maintain her covenant inheritance forced her to take desperate action that deeply humiliated Judah and forced him to proclaim, “She is more righteous than I” (38:26). Judah’s public sins and humiliation seemed to precipitate spiritual change. Judah would later plead before the vizier for his brother Benjamin’s life and offer himself as a substitute (44:18-34) in a prophetic shadow of the coming work of the Promised Seed.

JUDAH’S ELEVATION (8-12)

Having heard his brothers’ anti-blessings, we wonder what Judah must have been expecting given his humiliating past and his participation in Joseph’s enslavement. Judah was as deserving of anti-blessing as his brothers. He surely had no idea of the astonishing oracle his father was about to pronounce – establishing him as the tribe of kings and the coming Promised Seed. His father prophesied a lion-like dominance:

⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. ⁹Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

The image is one of a young lion seizing its prey by the neck and dragging it back to the den to guard and consume. No one would dare get between a lion and its hard-earned kill. Judah’s descendants would seize their enemies by their necks. In Israel’s wilderness wanderings, Judah is by far the largest tribe (Num. 2:3–4; 10:14). In the story of Judges, both in the settlement of the land after the conquest and in the civil war against Benjamin, God appoints Judah to lead the tribes (Judg. 1:1–19; 20:18). The book of Samuel celebrates David and Judah’s dominion over the other tribes. In the book of Kings, the lamp of David remains lit.^[7]

All his brothers’ descendants would bow down to the tribe of Judah as he and his brothers had bowed before Joseph the vizier. The image of Judah as a lion runs throughout biblical literature (e.g. Numbers 24:9; Micah 5:8; Ezekiel 19:1-7). King David’s victories caused him to sing “you gave me my enemies’ necks” (2 Sam. 22:41; Ps. 18:40). David’s deeds gave him the messianic title, “The Lion of Judah.” The Old Covenant sees the coming Promised Seed as a lion. The New Covenant pictures him as the Lamb. John the Revelator hears of the lion, but sees this lamb:

…I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵And 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.” ⁶And 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 with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.^[8]

With this vivid lion metaphor ringing in his ears, Judah heard his father’s oracle move into the distant future:

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him [until he possess that which belongs to him – Hamilton]; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

Ancient Jewish and Christian scholars are almost all in agreement that this verse is messianic. The only real dispute is the meaning of the phrase rendered in the ESV as, “until tribute comes to him.” The KJV favors the literal translation, “until Shiloh comes.” The meaning is unclear and the literal interpretation unlikely. The almost verbatim expression in Ezekiel 21:26 is rendered “until he comes whose right it is to judge [as king].” Yet while there is no consensus as to what the exact wording should be, there is a unified understanding that the “scepter” and “ruler’s staff” are symbolic of a kingship that would remain with Judah until the Messiah comes – “and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (the nations of the world). As the fourth-century A.D. Jewish Targum Onkelos had it, “until the Messiah comes, whose is the kingdom, and him shall the nations obey.”[9]

The scepter would not leave from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until the Lion’s coming. And when the Lion comes, he will bring a golden age of extravagance and abundance and celebration in which wine – the symbol of prosperity and blessing – will be as common as water. So, Jacob/Israel prophesies of the reign of the Promised Seed:

¹¹Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

The grape harvest is pictured as being so abundant that Messiah can tether his donkey to a vine without fear the animal will consume all the grapes and hurt the harvest. This is the ancient equivalent to lighting a cigar with a $100 bill. There will be such a surplus of wine that people can use it like wash water. The picture is one of incalculable joy and unending over-the-top celebration. It’s an extravagant happy hour! Except, there is a hint of vengeance for those who incur Messiah’s anger in the phrase, “blood of grapes.” There may be both a laundering of robes in wine and a laundering of robes in the blood of judgment. As Derek Kidner writes of this imagery, “In its own material terms it bids adieu to the pinched régime of thorns and sweat for ‘the shout of them that triumph, the song of them that feast’. Jesus announced the age to come in just this imagery in his first ‘sign’ at Cana of Galilee.”^[10]

As John records it:

For a shimmering golden moment, donkeys were hitched to grape vines, and wine was as abundant as wash water. In fact, water was turned into wine! The abundance of wine signaled to Israel that the Messiah was present. Everyone knew that the scepter-bearing Messiah would come out of Judah. And at this initial sign, his disciples believed in him.[12]

The first gospel promise of a deliverer from the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent – in Genesis 3:15 – was preserved by Adam’s son Seth, then through the flood by righteous Noah, and then through Noah’s son Shem (9:26), and then through Shem’s son Abraham (12:3), and then through Abraham’s son Isaac (21:12), and then through Isaac’s son Jacob (25:23), and then through Jacob’s son Judah (49:10). And then, beyond the history of Genesis, God chose a descendant of Judah, King David, to be the line through which Messiah would come (2 Samuel 7:12-16). When the Lion of the tribe of Judah came, he was born in Judah (his tribal territory) in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). No one but Jesus had these credentials. And when he changed the water to wine, his disciples knew that the Messiah was present! It was a day of intoxicating, exuberant abundance— and a taste of the eternal day when wine will be as common as water.[13]

Our sure and certain anchor for our souls – our trust into the perfect life and sacrificial blood-shedding death of the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, the Promised Seed of the woman who came to crush the dragon-serpent’s head – is not manufactured from our imaginations. Every story of Genesis is shot through with his type and shadow and the promise of his person and work. Messiah was not a mere first-century notion. He is promised in Genesis and every person from Adam and Eve to Judah wondered if they would be blessed to see the Promised Seed come in the flesh. The Promised Seed is the unifying theme of Old Testament history, just as he is the unifying factor of all that lives and moves and has its being in this entire universe.

His perfect work is pictured in the lives of his glorified saints. John the Revelator wrote:

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” ^[14]

OLDER BROTHERS DISQUALIFIED (2-7)

The change of a man’s inheritance in the ancient Near East was never subject to a father’s arbitrary choice but was brought about in every instance by serious offenses against one’s own family.^[4] Jacob’s prophecy came true. When Reuben’s descendants settled in the Transjordan, they soon disappeared from biblical history. Not one prophet, or judge, or king ever came from Reuben’s tribe. The only time the tribe of Reuben exercised any kind of leadership, it was a rebellion against Moses led by Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16:1) who themselves led the way into the pit which opened up to swallow them and their fellow rebels. We can imagine the other brothers’ eyes widened with interest as the patriarch turned to the next oldest two, Simeon and Levi.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. ⁶Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. ⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

JUDAH’S ELEVATION (8-12)

⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. ⁹Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

…I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵And 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.” ⁶And 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 with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.^[7]

With this vivid lion metaphor ringing in his ears, Judah heard his father’s oracle move into the distant future:

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him [until he possess that which belongs to him – Hamilton]; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

¹¹Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

As John records it:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” ⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ⁹When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” ¹¹This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. ^[10]

His perfect work is pictured in the lives of his glorified saints. John the Revelator wrote:

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” ^[13]

OLDER BROTHERS DISQUALIFIED (2-7)

The change of a man’s inheritance in the ancient Near East was never subject to a father’s arbitrary choice but was brought about in every instance by serious offenses against one’s own family.^[18] Jacob’s prophecy came true. When Reuben’s descendants settled in the Transjordan, they soon disappeared from biblical history. Not one prophet, or judge, or king ever came from Reuben’s tribe. The only time the tribe of Reuben exercised any kind of leadership, it was a rebellion against Moses led by Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16:1) who themselves led the way into the pit which opened up to swallow them and their fellow rebels. We can imagine the other brothers’ eyes widened with interest as the patriarch turned to the next oldest two, Simeon and Levi.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. ⁶Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. ⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

JUDAH’S ELEVATION (8-12)

⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. ⁹Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

…I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵And 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.” ⁶And 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 with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.^[21]

With this vivid lion metaphor ringing in his ears, Judah heard his father’s oracle move into the distant future:

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him [until he possess that which belongs to him – Hamilton]; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

¹¹Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

As John records it:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” ⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ⁹When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” ¹¹This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. ^[24]

His perfect work is pictured in the lives of his glorified saints. John the Revelator wrote:

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” ^[27]

^[1] Waltke and Fredricks, 603.

^[2]Id., 604.

^[3] Id.

^[4] Id., 605.

^[5] Waltke and Fredricks, 606.

^[6] Id., 607.

^[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:4–6.

[8] Hughes, 552. Kindle Edition.

^[9] Kidner, 1:230.

^[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 2:1–11.

[11] Hughes, 553. Kindle Edition.

[12] Id., 534.

^[13] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 7:13–17.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 49:1–12.

^[2] Waltke and Fredricks, 603.

^[3]Id., 604.

^[4] Id.

^[5] Id., 605.

^[6] Waltke and Fredricks, 606.

^[7] Id., 607.

^[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:4–6.

[9] Hughes, 552. Kindle Edition.

^[10] Kidner, 1:230.

^[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 2:1–11.

[12] Hughes, 553. Kindle Edition.

[13] Id., 534.

^[14] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 7:13–17.

^[15] Waltke and Fredricks, 603.

^[16]Id., 604.

^[17] Id.

^[18] Id., 605.

^[19] Waltke and Fredricks, 606.

^[20] Id., 607.

^[21] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 5:4–6.

[22] Hughes, 552. Kindle Edition.

^[23] Kidner, 1:230.

^[24] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 2:1–11.

[25] Hughes, 553. Kindle Edition.

[26] Id., 534.

^[27] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 7:13–17.

Bedrock Theology – Part 76: Israel’s Testament, Part 1