History of the Old Covenant. By J. H. Kurtz [pp. 451-486]

Kurtz on the Old Covenant.
Judah appears in this passage as a resistless warrior, a lion
capturing his prey, and whom none might venture to provoke.
He wins his victorious way through conflict and strife, to
universal empire and undisturbed repose. Then, when every foe
is vanquished or destroyed, he sits down to enjoy in peace the
fruits of victory. He rides upon the peaceful ass, and feeds on
wine and milk. These blessings, which he wins as the prince and
champion of his brethren, are for them as for himself; and
even over the nations now willingly subject to him must the
benefits of his peaceful dominion be expected to flow.
This blessing is Messianic in its character, but not exclusively
so; and it is Messianic only because that is true of the Messiah
alone in its full sense, which is here attributed to the tribe from
which he sprang. It hAd several imperfect fulfilments before
Christ came, as at various periods of the national history the
portrait here sketched of Judah corresponded more or less
with his actual character and condition. The part Judah took
in the conquest of the land, the elevation of David to the throne
of Israel, the extent of his dominion, and his victories over
surrounding nations, the peaceful reign of Solomon, all fall
legitimately within the range of this prediction, and are justly
to be regarded as its partial fulfilments. And yet neither these
nor any other events in the past fortunes of Judah are adequate
to the language here employed. It meets its full accomplishment only in him to whom we have the authority of the New
Testament for applying the symbol here given of the tribe, the
Lion of the tribe of Judah.
The following passage, relating to the accomplishment of this
prediction, we give almost in our author's own words: " In its
most immediate application, it has respect to the same time with
of all the writers of Scripture of the perpetuity of the kingdom of Judah, its
identity with the kingdom of the Messiah, and its elevation to the highest pitch of
glory and prosperity in his person, it would be extremely strange if in the passage
before us alone, the very one which we should expect to lie at the foundation
of all the others, and give character to them all, a contrary view prevailed, and
it was here declared that the sceptre of Judah should be of limited duration, and
should be abolished in favour of another which should rise up after it. This
view of the perpetuity of Judah's dominion, while it includes within itself the same
historical fulfilment which is claimed on behalf of the more restricted understanding
of the passage, includes likewise vastly more.
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