rms the vanguard.
Judges xx. 18. The intentional identity of the expression used here and
in chap. i., leads us to the supposition that the words, "Judah shall
go up," have, in both passages, the same foundation.

From both of these events, we are led to expect that Judah may be
called to occupy a still more important position. The announcement of
Jacob regarding Judah, to which the words, "Judah shall go up," refer,
finds, in these events, evidently but a poor beginning of its complete
fulfilment. All, however, which was required in the meantime, was the
indication, by gentle touches, of the position which Judah was called
to occupy in future times. It is just God's way to take time in
carrying out [Pg 91] His elections; all human conditions must first
disappear. After these two intimations, at the end of the time of
Joshua (for Judges i. 1, 2, belongs to that period; the words, "And it
came to pass after the death of Joshua," do not refer to what follows
immediately after, but only to the contents of the book as a whole),
and at the beginning of the time of the Judges, Judah retires out of
view. During the whole period of the Judges, Ephraim held the
supremacy. Under David, the validity of the election suddenly appeared,
and the announcement of Jacob found a glorious fulfilment; but again,
such an one only as pointed to a still more glorious fulfilment in the
future. Before this took place, however,--before Shiloh came, to whom
the obedience of the people was promised, the lamp of Judah was once
more to be extinguished, so that, to human eyes, it should be invisible
for many centuries.

In 1 Chron. xxviii. 4, David says: "And the Lord God of Israel chose me
out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever; for
He hath chosen Judah to be the ruler, and in the house of Judah, the
house of my father, and in the house of my father. He liked me to make
me king over all Israel." David here points to an event by which Judah
was raised to be the ruling tribe; and such an election is nowhere else
to be found than in Gen. xlix. We cannot for a moment suppose that
Judah was elected only in, and with, the election of David. Against
such a supposition militates the fact, that even the election of
David's house is represented in history as being distinct from the
election of David himself; for in 1 Sam. xvi. the decree of God is
first made known, that one of Jesse's sons is to be king; and it is
only afterwards t