"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, …
Before being ‘gathered to his people’ (Genesis 49:33), Jacob/Israel uttered his last prophetic outbursts. While he addressed his sons, Jacob/Israel prophesied of many things, especially of the return of the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. Already the tension between the House of Pharaoh and the Children of Israel was mounting. The famine was over for twelve years already. The Children of Israel had every right to return to their ancestral land; they were not Egyptians. Yet, they had to ask permission to leave Egypt and bury Jacob. It was granted but with the company of dignitaries who probably required a military battalion, and leaving their little one behind, a foreshadow of what another Pharaoh later imposed on the Children of Israel (Genesis 5).
The relationship between Pharaoh and Joseph is remarkable. Joseph is brought to Egypt as slave, first to Potiphar, went to prison, then to Pharaoh. We are never told that he was given his freedom. Joseph offers his gift of wisdom and prophecy to Pharaoh, and becomes a leader in Egypt. Egypt owes its survival to that slave, a non-Egyptian who insisted on being faithful to his God. This story repeats itself through Daniel and Queen Esther. We can even see it in King David who was brought to Israel’s courts as the servant of disobedient King Saul. As such, the world often values the gifts God’s people have to offer, so they bring the anointed to their courts, as captives. The problem is that the true Child of God cannot live in captivity. The Spirit of God cannot operate under the ruling of Man. It is like the story of the king who hears the beautiful song of a bird, but gets upset when the bird stops singing after he puts it in the captivity of a cage. It is also like trying to put a firefly in jar to enjoy its glow, eventually it stops shining.
God has a plan though, not through Joseph, but through Judah. Jacob/Israel prophecies, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Genesis 49:10). Judah is at the origin of the word ‘Jew’. Technically speaking, a Jew is a descendant of Judah, the others are Children of Israel/Jacob, and those before Jacob are called ‘Hebrews’, after Abraham, the first one ever called by that name (Genesis 14:13) To Judah then was prophesied a kingly scepter who would never depart from him, a scepter where the roles were reversed. Whereas in Egypt the nations attempted control over God’s people, (and throughout history the world has incessantly continued attempting domination on those who can only be ruled by God), the promise to Judah is of an eternal scepter that will this time dominate over the nations, as it is written, to him will be the obedience of the people, meaning, of the nations of the world..
The Davidic monarchy came to a stop with the Babylonian captivity, but through the Judean Jew Yeshua Judah’s scepter will be revived in the end of Days when Yeshua will come to reign over the whole world and establish His Kingdom when righteousness will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. May it be soon Abba, even in our days!