365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 23: Lion of the Tribe of Judah

Lion of the Tribe of Judah

"'Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed.'" (Revelation 5:4 NIV)

For several years, I've had the joy of doing Bible study alongside my mama and a beautiful group of friends from my home church and other local churches. Last year, I gained the added blessing of studying God's Word with my friend, cousin, and surrogate big sister, Karen. I love having Karen with me at the Bible study table for many reasons, including her depth of knowledge. The other day, she was sharing about the authority of Scripture: that God's great love letter proves itself trustworthy and believable over and over. 

One of the many ways it does this is by consistently weaving separate threads together into a tapestry of truth. Consider, for example, these verses from the book of Ruth, chapter 1: "In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi. Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one name Orpah and the other Ruth."

I tend to gloss over what I regard as peripheral details when I'm reading the Bible. But this detail—"a man from Bethlehem in Judah"—is no periphery. This is a front-and-center fact when you consider that it led to the fulfillment of this messianic prophecy: "From Judah will come the cornerstone" (Zechariah 10:4). This "man from the tribe of Judah" had a son who married a woman named Ruth who married a man named Boaz whose name appears on none other than the record of the genealogy of Jesus...the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

May He reign and rule and roar in righteousness forever.