Gen 49:10, "The scepter shall 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. 
	We continue today with the blessing that was given to Judah by his father, Jacob. We are looking at it with an eye to how it foretold of the blessing and the person of Jesus Christ. There is so much wrapped up within this pronouncement upon Judah that heralds the magnitude of what God would accomplish in the Promised One, His Only Begotten Son. It is in this light that we want to celebrate the fullness of what scripture relates concerning our Lord and Savior. We are to relish the vast plan and purpose of God so indicated within this blessing of the lineage of Judah. 
	It was from this heritage that both King David and King Solomon were descended. While these two kings were important, the key fact is that it was from the line of Judah that the King of kings came forth. He is the Altogether Sovereign and Lord declared as the hope of all mankind Who has come forth from the tribe of Judah. "The scepter shall 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. This is the One so joyously foretold by the Prophets of the Old Testament.
We continue here with the Psalmist’s proclamation as recorded in Ps 72:1-19. Please follow along as we read it together. Ps 72:1-19, Give the king Thy judgments, O God, And Thy righteousness to the king's son. May he judge Thy people with righteousness, And Thine afflicted with justice. Let the mountains bring peace to the people, And the hills in righteousness. May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, Save the children of the needy, And crush the oppressor. Let them fear Thee while the sun endures, And as long as the moon, throughout all generations. May he come down like rain upon the mown grass, Like showers that water the earth. In his days may the righteous flourish, And abundance of peace till the moon is no more. May he also rule from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. Let the nomads of the desert bow before him; And his enemies lick the dust. Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. And let all kings bow down before him, All nations serve him. For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help, The afflicted also, and him who has no helper. He will have compassion on the poor and needy, And the lives of the needy he will save. He will rescue their life from oppression and violence; And their blood will be precious in his sight; So may he live; and may the gold of Sheba be given to him; And let them pray for him continually; Let them bless him all day long. May there be abundance of grain in the earth on top of the mountains; Its fruit will wave like the cedars of Lebanon; And may those from the city flourish like vegetation of the earth. May his name endure forever; May his name increase as long as the sun shines; And let men bless themselves by him; Let all nations call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone works wonders. And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen. 
	I fully realize that some of what we are about to cover has been stated and stressed previously. However, it is with tremendous thanksgiving and awe and wonderment at all that God has done in the establishment of Jesus Christ upon the throne of all creation that we should find it utterly essential and indispensible to again declare some of the characteristics of His Lordship. 
	May he judge Thy people with righteousness, And Thine afflicted with justice. The Lordship of Christ is fully righteous altogether. There are no ulterior motivations, no personal vendettas or plans of self-aggrandizement. Everything He does, every decision He makes, every course He undertakes is righteous and just.
	 Let the mountains bring peace to the people, And the hills in righteousness. His rule will be that of peace and security for His people. There will be peace with God and peace with man, as we considered last week. All disputes and anger and frustration and jealousy will be done away with in the righteous manner in which He reigns over the lives of those in His kingdom. 
	There is a truth, at this point, which should flavor the whole of this consideration. His dominion is not something that is solely set in the future. His kingdom is eternal and it is in place right now. These truths are ours this very moment, today, this instant! All that we are discussing is ours in Him to experience as the very course of our daily walk in obedience to Him. 
All anger and frustration and jealousy and disputes are to be done away with in our lives right now as we trust and obey Him and count on Him to rule and to overrule in our every interaction with others. We can know Him in all His righteousness and peace and justice as we recognize that everything we have and want and need is supplied in Him. As well, His reign is to be seen in all our interactions. His kingdom is established today in the lives of those who so choose to see Him high and lifted up and seated st the right hand of Our Heavenly Father. 
	May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, Save the children of the needy, And crush the oppressor. In Christ is eternal salvation. This is not just limited to life after death on this earth. It involves the every day to day struggle that we face as we stand against the final onslaughts of the doomed and defeated power of this age. In the death throes of this enemy, we are targeted as an act of spite against Christ, Who rules forever and forever. Our Victorious Lord is our daily deliverance and rescue from all the residual attacks of this culture and society in its rebellion against the inevitable submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
	 May he come down like rain upon the mown grass, Like showers that water the earth. In his days may the righteous flourish, And abundance of peace till the moon is no more. In this pastoral description, we are given a glimpse at the manner in which the kingship of Christ will affect the lives of the inhabitants of His kingdom. This symbolism evokes the very sense that all will be right with the world. There will be the fragrant aroma of the freshly mown and wet grass, the gentle showers of rain cleansing and refreshing and nurturing the fields and pastures. Flourishing and abundance and peace will be the characteristics of the lives of those in His domain. These are all written in order to evoke that complete sense of His Sovereignty maintaining the realm of His kingdom forever and forever. 
	May he also rule from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. Let the nomads of the desert bow before him; And his enemies lick the dust. Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. And let all kings bow down before him, All nations serve him. The breadth and depth of His rule will cover all the earth, in fact the totality of creation. All mankind will have to come face-to-face, in a very personal manner with the King of kings and Lord of lords. 
Each man, woman, and child will bow down and admit before all of the created beings that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father as we read in Phil 2:9-11. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,  of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
	This will be the requisite proclamation of every mouth from the beginning of creation until the Day of Judgment. On that day all will see the reality of His Eternal Lordship. The freedom to choose to see Christ in that high and exalted position as Lord and as Savior will be forever closed. Everyone will acknowledge and accede to the full glory of God vested in His Only Begotten Son.  
	Then the Psalmist makes the assertion as to why all creation will be forever and forever declaring His glory and praise. For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help, The afflicted also, and him who has no helper. He will have compassion on the poor and needy, And the lives of the needy he will save. He will rescue their life from oppression and violence; And their blood will be precious in his sight; So may he live; and may the gold of Sheba be given to him; And let them pray for him continually; Let them bless him all day long. The hearts and minds and voices of the redeemed of the Lord will be forever offering Him praise and adoration and worship for all that He has done. It will be a joyous ringing forth of the tribute of those who have been purchased from the despotism of sin and death.
	Again, the Psalmist cannot refrain from the announcement of the abundance and the fruit and the flourishing of the people of God Who are made to be the heirs of all the bounty of God’s grace and mercy in His Christ, the Eternal King. May there be abundance of grain in the earth on top of the mountains; Its fruit will wave like the cedars of Lebanon; And may those from the city flourish like vegetation of the earth.
	And finally, in this passage, is the call to give honor and glory to God for the Kingdom that the Christ, the Lion of Judah, the Promised One will usher in for each one of His own, chosen and delivered ones. May his name endure forever; May his name increase as long as the sun shines; And let men bless themselves by him; Let all nations call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone works wonders. And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen.
	Such should be the daily remembrance and chorus of our hearts and minds and souls as we consider the One Whom God has placed on the throne for all of eternity. There should be that testimony as we gather together in His Name to worship as His people, as His family, as His witnesses of all that He has done for the sake of mankind. There must be instilled in each one of us the unshakable knowledge that as Jesus Christ reigns right now, this very moment, so is He deserving of all praise and adoration and honor and thanksgiving and obedience and joy in our communal declaration that we belong to Him, now and evermore. He is to be blessed and all of creation is to be filled with His glory. 
	Our final passage for this morning begins our consideration of what the Prophet Isaiah saw concerning the Kingdom of God and His peace which is established in His Christ on this earth. Please turn to Isa 2:1-4. Isa 2:1-4, The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that In the last days, The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. 
	Once again we are brought to the place in which the peace that is ours in Jesus Christ is not only with God but with mankind. It is not something that we can bring about in any fashion. It is not a method of placating those who are arrayed against us. It is a complete trust in God to deal with all the difficulties and the strife and the abuse and the attacks that we face. Rather than learning the art of war, with its inherent goal of self-preservation and eventual domination of others, we learn to rely on God to be our teacher after His heart. We seek Him to judge and to guide and to protect and to rule in these lives that we freely offer to Him. We are to seek to be instructed in the ways that we should walk on this earth. Our hearts and homes are to be those places where He has the complete freedom and finds the desire to learn from His Word and His Holy Spirit. 
	Lord willing, we will continue with the characteristics that are pronounced upon this Promised King of the ages brought forth from the lineage of Judah. This is such a detailed and manifested assertion of all that God has fully accomplished in His Christ and we should not be too eager to pass over it in only a cursory manner. To dwell on the goodness of the Lord is to give honor and glory and blessing to God for all that He has done, is doing, and will continue to do unto the perfection of Jesus Christ in our lives. So be it!
"The scepter shall 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. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Rev 4:11. "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created." Amen.