God’s Word Is to Be Trusted

Despite being a follower of God for over fifty years, I haven’t really studied Biblical prophecy that much. This has changed recently, and I am astonished how accurate the Bible is through the words of prophets long ago. I mean I knew it was highly reliable, just not as phenomally accurate as it really is. The verse in Genesis 49:10 is a very good case in point. It is talking about the promised Messiah – referred to as Shiloh (a title of the Messiah). ‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people’ (Genesis 49:10, NKJV).

The scepter, the right for a descendant of the line of Judah to reign as king over Israel lasted until AD 70, when King Herod's son and successor, Herod Archelaus, was dethroned and banished. He was replaced by a Roman procurator named Caponius.  From that moment part of the prophecy was now taking place and rabbis understood that the power of dominion would not be removed from Judah, or the Jewish people, until the coming of the Messiah.

The scepter had, indeed, been removed from Judah, but Shiloh had come. While the Jews wept in the streets of Jerusalem, a young son of a carpenter was growing up in Nazareth. The Lawgiver, or ruler’s staff, was the ability to completely rule over the people by the Jews themselves. When did this change? According to the Book of the Sanhedrin in the Talmud, a compilation of ancient teachings regarded as sacred by Jews, this happened forty years before the destruction of the Temple in AD 40.

At this date, the Sanhedrin required the permission of the Roman procurator of Judea before they could punish anyone by death. This makes the date AD 30, which just happens to be the very time in human history when a man appears in Israel that would change the course of human history and be know throughout the world as Messiah – Jesus. The rabbis wrote in the Book of Sanhedrin, ‘Woe to us, for the scepter has departed from Judah and Messiah has not come.’ Yet He was among them!

What is the message today? That the Bible is to be trusted completely in terms of what it says about God’s people, about world events, and what God thinks about you too. God doesn’t make mistakes with His people, and He didn’t make a mistake when He made you. You can be certain of that.