Reigns of the Kings / Paul Thomas Smith

Excerpt from Birth of the Messiah by Paul Thomas Smith. 
(reading only)

 Some 1,700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament patriarch Jacob blessed his son Judah that his would be a posterity of kings. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah," Jacob prophesied, "nor a law—giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be" (Gen. 49: 10). Years after Judah's blessing, his brother Joseph explained that the Messiah (Jesus Christ) would be called Shiloh (see JST, Gen. 50:24), possibly meaning "to be at peace" or "the longed for one."¹ As a descendant of David, who had been promised that his would be the line of royalty (see 2 Sam. 7:12—16), Jesus Christ indeed would be a king of the kingdom of God.