Genesis chapter 49

8 Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down to you.

9 You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness— who dares to rouse him?

10 The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.

12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

Jacob is dying and calls together all his sons, so he can tell them what will happen to them in the days to come. These are prophetic words to each son, and I love the words he speaks to Judah, foretelling of the coming of Jesus.

Judah has changed so much from the man who came up with the idea of selling his own brother into slavery, the man who slept with a his own daughter in law thinking she was a prostitute, into a man who is prepared to sacrifice everything to avoid hurting his father, one who outs others first not last.

When God is at work in our lives, we can experience changes like these too. It is a case of allowing the Holy Spirit to change us from within, to make us more Christ like. This can be something that literally happens overnight, or can take days, weeks, months, even years. But it will only happen if we allow it as God has given us free will and will not enforce change on us.

Judah took years to be the man he is here, the one who offers his own life as a slave in place of his younger brother, Benjamin. And the fact that he is the one that had Joseph sold into slavery is forgotten by God (Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us) which I think is just wonderful. To know that when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, God puts out of his mind all the bad things we have done and turns us into the people we were always meant to be.