Another definition of the word Advent is “the arrival of something momentous,” according to Webster’s College Dictionary... During the Advent season, we anticipate the arrival of Christmas, and reflect on that time when the arrival of the Messiah was anticipated by his people as we, in turn, anticipate the return of Jesus Christ…
1,700 years before the birth of Christ, Jacob – the son of Isaac, and the brother of Esau – anticipated the arrival of the Messiah when he spoke the following words found in Genesis 49:10 -
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
The term SHILOH is found in the Scriptures approximately 33 times, and in 32 of these instances, it is identified as a place…
You may have heard of a town called SHILOH in cowboy novels or cowboy movies, but Jacob was not referring to a place when he made this statement on his deathbed. He was referring to a person…the Messiah, long anticipated by his people. He was being quite specific about specific characteristics of the Messiah as well. Many feel that when Christ fulfilled these characteristics, there could no longer be any further argument against the fact that Jesus was, indeed, the Shiloh…the Messiah.
One theologian remarked that “perhaps there is no part of the Old Testament scriptures which [Hebrews] find so difficult to reconcile with their unbelief in Jesus as this. [It is a very graphic and explicit reminder of the Redeemer, [and] it stands forth to the Christian as one of those solid proofs of the authority and divinity of our holy religion.”
But what does the term Shiloh, as used by Jacob in Genesis 49, mean?
1. A Messenger, or ‘one who is sent.’
· The Gospels tell us that Jesus was “sent of the Father” as the messenger of God’s love and mercy to our lost world…
· “For this we know, and testify, that the Father sent the Son.” (1 John 4:14)
· Christ repeatedly referred to himself in the Gospels as being one who was “sent by the Father”: “This is the will of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29)
· “For I came heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38)
· As the Messenger, or Sent One of God, he covenanted with the Father for the redemption of the world. In the fullness of time, God sent him forth, and he was anointed to the great work by the descent of the Holy Spirit. After this event, he entered his public ministry by proclaiming, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
2. A Peace-Maker.
· Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be the “Prince of Peace,” and when Christ was born on that first Christmas morning, the angels sang, “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”
· As one theologian once wrote, “[The inhabitants of] Earth had rebelled against heaven; man against his God. Sin exposed our guilty race to the wrath of Deity. Jesus came to set up an honorable system of mediation He undertook to render perfect satisfaction to the insulted justice and holiness of God; he came to ‘magnify the Law,’ and through him all believers have peace with God. The gospel of peace is freely procured, and a spiritual empire of peace and holiness [has been] set up in our world.”
3. A Prosperous Savior.
· Jesus was sent of God to be the Savior of the world. He became a Savior through making peace for us. But as a Savior he is prosperous in that he possesses every qualification for saving souls.
· In the Old Testament Messianic prophecy of Isaiah, we read, “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.” (Isaiah 53:10)
· The Kingdom of the Shiloh is to be an everlasting Kingdom and his dominion shall be forever and ever. His reign of mercy is to be universal, and shall encompass every nation, people, and tongue. And portions of all people in the world will gather before him…
1,700 years before the birth of Christ, Jacob – the son of Isaac, and the brother of Esau – anticipated the arrival of the Messiah when he spoke the following words found in Genesis 49:10 -
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
The term SHILOH is found in the Scriptures approximately 33 times, and in 32 of these instances, it is identified as a place…
You may have heard of a town called SHILOH in cowboy novels or cowboy movies, but Jacob was not referring to a place when he made this statement on his deathbed. He was referring to a person…the Messiah, long anticipated by his people. He was being quite specific about specific characteristics of the Messiah as well. Many feel that when Christ fulfilled these characteristics, there could no longer be any further argument against the fact that Jesus was, indeed, the Shiloh…the Messiah.
One theologian remarked that “perhaps there is no part of the Old Testament scriptures which [Hebrews] find so difficult to reconcile with their unbelief in Jesus as this. [It is a very graphic and explicit reminder of the Redeemer, [and] it stands forth to the Christian as one of those solid proofs of the authority and divinity of our holy religion.”
But what does the term Shiloh, as used by Jacob in Genesis 49, mean?
1. A Messenger, or ‘one who is sent.’
· The Gospels tell us that Jesus was “sent of the Father” as the messenger of God’s love and mercy to our lost world…
· “For this we know, and testify, that the Father sent the Son.” (1 John 4:14)
· Christ repeatedly referred to himself in the Gospels as being one who was “sent by the Father”: “This is the will of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29)
· “For I came heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38)
· As the Messenger, or Sent One of God, he covenanted with the Father for the redemption of the world. In the fullness of time, God sent him forth, and he was anointed to the great work by the descent of the Holy Spirit. After this event, he entered his public ministry by proclaiming, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
2. A Peace-Maker.
· Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be the “Prince of Peace,” and when Christ was born on that first Christmas morning, the angels sang, “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”
· As one theologian once wrote, “[The inhabitants of] Earth had rebelled against heaven; man against his God. Sin exposed our guilty race to the wrath of Deity. Jesus came to set up an honorable system of mediation He undertook to render perfect satisfaction to the insulted justice and holiness of God; he came to ‘magnify the Law,’ and through him all believers have peace with God. The gospel of peace is freely procured, and a spiritual empire of peace and holiness [has been] set up in our world.”
3. A Prosperous Savior.
· Jesus was sent of God to be the Savior of the world. He became a Savior through making peace for us. But as a Savior he is prosperous in that he possesses every qualification for saving souls.
· In the Old Testament Messianic prophecy of Isaiah, we read, “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.” (Isaiah 53:10)
· The Kingdom of the Shiloh is to be an everlasting Kingdom and his dominion shall be forever and ever. His reign of mercy is to be universal, and shall encompass every nation, people, and tongue. And portions of all people in the world will gather before him…
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