In His Kingship Christ Comes as the Peace Bringer: We Enjoy Him as our Rest in Peace

Jacob’s prophesying with blessing concerning Judah speaks of the victory of Christ, the kingdom of Christ, and the enjoyment and rest in Christ.

In likening Judah to a lion that catches the prey and goes up to his place, resting and not being disturbed by anyone, Jacob actually spoke of Christ as the unique and ultimate overcomer who was incarnated and who through death caught a large prey, and then in His resurrection and ascension, He is victorious, enjoying the prey.

We all were Satan’s captives in an illegal way by being usurped and cheated by him, and when Christ as a young lion from the tribe of Judah came, He took us as His prey – and He defeated Satan, sin, the world, and death. Now we are captives of Christ, scattering His fragrance wherever we go and preaching the gospel of Christ in victory.

Jacob prophesied with blessing concerning Judah that he would be the ruler until Shiloh comes, and to Him, all the nations will submit and obey (Gen. 49:10). In His second coming, Christ will be Shiloh, the peace-bringer, and all nations will submit to Him and obey Him.

Today we need to enthrone Christ in our being and live a daily life under the divine rule, and when He will return we will share with Him in His kingship to rule over all.

Because Christ has won the victory and He has the kingship in God’s kingdom, He now can be enjoyed by us to be our rest, our perfect peace, and our full satisfaction.

We simply need to “bind our donkey to the vine” by ceasing from striving and abiding in Christ as the vine, our only destination. Hallelujah, we have reached our destination – Christ is our destination, and we are branches in Him as the vine.

We simply need to soak our behaviour and daily walk in the enjoyment of the riches of Christ’s life, and we will be transformed to take in God’s word as food and utter His word to others in a proper way and at the right time for them to be nourished.

This is absolutely marvellous and stupendous! When Jacob prophesied with blessing concerning Judah and he actually spoke concerning Christ and also concerning our Christian experience and enjoyment.

In His Authority and Kingship, Christ will Return as the Peace Bringer and All Nations will Obey Him

Gen. 49:10, source: Biblia.com

Gen. 49:10 says, The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

In his prophesying with blessing concerning Judah, Jacob blessed him with the kingship, the authority to rule over his brothers. But, even more, Jacob spoke concerning Christ, whom he called “Shiloh”, the peace-bringer, who will come and all peoples will obey Him.

The fact that the scepter will never depart from Judah means that the kingship will never depart from Christ: He is the King forever and ever (2 Sam. 7:12-13; Dan. 2:44-45; 7:13-14; Rev. 11:15; 22:1, 3)!

In His second coming, Christ will be the real “Shiloh”, the peace bringer; He will come as the Prince of Peace, the One who brings peace, and the whole earth will be filled with peace. As seen in Isa. 2:1-3 and 11:10, all nations will obey Christ and the whole earth will enjoy peace.

When Christ came the first time He came as the heavenly King of God’s kingdom, and whoever receives Him receives the divine life and becomes part of the kingdom of God. Christ Himself is our peace: He broke down the middle wall of partition and made peace between us through His body on the cross (Eph. 2:14-15).

As kingdom people we need to allow Christ to rule in us; we must be under the ruling of Christ to reign for Christ over Satan, sin, and death (Col. 2:19; Rom. 5:17).

We need to be under the ruling of Christ, under the rulership of the Spirit in our spirit, under the limitation and restriction of the Spirit in our spirit by holding Christ as the Head and staying intimately connected to Him as the Head.

We need to allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our heart; we need to enthrone His peace in us as the ruler a decider of everything, and we will have no more complaints but rather forgive others and seek to be forgiven (Col. 3:15).

We need to spend more time privately with the Lord and be one with the Lord in order to carry out and build up the reality of the kingdom of heavens. When we spend time personally with the Lord and pray privately to Him, we enjoy the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts.

Don’t look at the strong wind or at the storm: look to Christ, take Him in your boat, and the storm will be over. Remember: fear is the enemy’s calling card; fear doesn’t come from the Lord but it comes from the devil. We need to reject any fear: we have nothing to fear because we have Christ as our peace!

Lord Jesus, we enthrone You in our being. We allow Your peace to arbitrate in our hearts: enthrone Your peace as the ruler and decider of everything! Lord, You are our peace. We fix our eyes on You and we take You into our boat. We don’t look at the storm or at the strong winds; we set our eyes on You, stand on Your word, and stay intimately connected to You as our Lord and our Head. Lord Jesus, rule in us and bring peace in our being and in all our situations. We reject any fear and doubt and we enthrone Christ as our peace in our heart!

Enjoying Christ as our Rest by “Binding our Donkey to the Vine” and “Washing our Garments in Wine”

In Gen. 49:11-12 Jacob continues to prophesy with blessing concerning Judah saying, Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine, and his robe in the blood of grapes. Dark are his eyes with wine, and white are his teeth with milk.

If you take this literally it may not make much sense, but if you apply this spiritually it makes a lot of sense. Due to His kingship and victory, Christ today can be enjoyed by us to be our rest – our perfect peace and full satisfaction.

What does it mean to “bind our donkey to the vine”? A donkey is used for travelling toward a goal, carrying burdens, and for labouring. People would bind a donkey to a millstone and the donkey would walk in circles rolling the millstone to grind the grain.

To bind our donkey to the vine indicates that our journey is over and our destination has been reached. The vine to which the donkey should be bound typifies the living Christ who is full of life.

Our destination has been reached: Christ is our destination, and we have been grafted into Him as branches in the vine (John 15:1, 5); we should simply abide in the Lord.

People in the world strive and struggle, toil and labor, and walk around doing many things aimlessly; we as believers in Christ have reached the destination: we are in Christ! We need to stop our journeying, cease our struggling, give up our goal, and forget about our destination because we are already here: we are in Christ!

Human life is like the donkey tied to the millstone – it is going nowhere; we should simply cease from toil and struggling in our natural life and just come to Christ to enjoy rest and satisfaction!

Garments signify our behaviour in our daily living and wine signifies life (John 2:3); to wash our garments in wine and our robe in the blood of grapes signifies to soak our behaviour and our daily walk in the enjoyment of the riches of Christ’s life (see Matt. 9:17 and footnote 1 in Recovery Version Bible).

We need to enjoy the Lord and be saturated with the enjoyment of all the riches of His life in our daily living, and the result will be that we will be transformed: our eyes will be “dark/red with wine” and our teeth will be “white with milk”.

If we enjoy the riches of Christ’s life in our daily living we will be properly nourished, our eyes will express this, and our mouth will speak the word of God to others.

Our teeth being white with milk means that we have enjoyed the milk of God’s word so much that we have a sound, healthy function to take in God’s word as food and to utter His word so that others may be nourished (Eph. 6:19).

We should encourage one another with this: Brother, tie your donkey to the vine! Wash your garments in wine! – and continue to fellowship on what this means and how this can be applied to our Christian life.

Hallelujah, due to His victory and kingship, our rich Christ can be enjoyed by us as our rest, our perfect peace, and our full satisfaction!

Lord Jesus, we bind our donkey to the vine – we cease from our labor and our striving in our natural life and enjoy rest in Christ! Hallelujah, we have reached our destination: we are now branches in Christ as the vine. Lord Jesus, You have won the victory and have gained the kingdom, and You are the rich vine for our enjoyment, rest, and satisfaction. Lord, we want to soak our behavior and our daily walk in the enjoyment of the riches of Christ until we are transformed from death to life and have a healthy function of taking in God’s word as food and uttering His word for others’ nourishment!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 99), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3),  week 10 / msg 10, Jacob’s Prophesying with Blessing (1).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Christ my very peace is / And my life within; / Sharing in the spirit / I unite with Him. / Following the Spirit, / Living in the Lord, / Life He doth supply me / And His peace afford. (Hymns #594)
  # I take Thee for my peace, O Lord. / My heart to keep and fill / Thine own great calm, amid earth’s storms / Shall keep me always still; / And as Thy kingdom doth increase, / So shall Thine ever-deep’ning peace. (Hymns #521)
  # No more in vain need we struggle, / Trying the way in to find. / Praise God—we’re in Him already, / Hallelujah, abiding in the vine. (Hymns #1162)
  # It is not by struggling, / But by yielding all, / I may rest from labor, / All my burden fall. / It is not resolving, / But Thyself to heed, / I’m from sin delivered / And from bondage freed. (Hymns #751)