The Joseph Story Ep. 5

The Roaring Lion

At the end of the Joseph story the elderly patriarch Jacob gathers his sons around him to deliver last words to each of them. It is Judah (along with Joseph) that receives the most positive (and lengthiest) words. This helps us to pay closer attention to the important role that Judah plays in the Joseph narrative. He is one of the heroes of the story.

Jacob’s blessing of Judah in Gen. 49 gives us insight into Judah’s role:

8 Judah, you, shall your brothers shall praise you;

your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

your father’s sons shall bow down before you.

9 Judah is a lion’s whelp [cub];

from the prey, my son, you have risen up.

He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,

like the king of beasts—who dares arouse him?

All of this carries distinctly Davidic overtones because David is from the tribe of Judah. This also means that these words carry messianic overtones. From the beginning Christians have read these words addressed to Judah as being in some mysterious way about Jesus of Nazareth—the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Jacob’s words to Judah are primarily about his military prowess. This, again, is obviously an homage to David. But within the Genesis narrative itself Judah is not a military warrior. So, what exactly is it that makes Judah a lion?

In at least one reading of the story it is his words. He delivers two of the key speeches in the story (one to Jacob and one to Joseph) that both have the effect of reconciling and saving the family. As Avivah Zornberg points out, it is the force of Judah’s words that show the “kingly power” he brings to bear.

So—to play with the image a little—what makes Judah a lion is his roar, his word.

The speech Judah delivers to Joseph in Egypt is, “one of the most remarkable speeches in all the Bible.” In that speech, Judah does not know that he is speaking to Joseph. Judah thinks Joseph is an Egyptian ruler who is about to take his youngest brother, Benjamin, as a slave. So, Judah “went up to” Joseph to make his plea.

Judah’s speech breaks through Joseph’s disguise. Joseph begins to weep. His heart is opened. He orders all of his Egyptian servants out of the room and reveals his true identity to the brothers: “I am Joseph.”

One ancient rabbinic Midrash beautifully summarizes the kingly power of Judah’s speech as a rope that can reach down to the deep well of Joseph’s heart:

“Then Judah went up to him”: “The designs in a man’s mind are deep waters, but a man of understanding can draw them out” [Proverbs 20:5].

“The designs in a man’s mind are deep waters” refers to Joseph. But as much as Joseph was wise, Judah came and defeated him, as it is said, ‘Then Judah went up to him.’

What does this resemble? A deep pit into which no one could climb down. Then a clever person came and brought a long rope that reached down to the water so he could draw from it. So was Joseph deep, and Judah came to draw from him.

Judah’s speech is the rope that draws the deep waters up from Joseph. Judah doesn’t know this Egyptian lord, but he can see that as he is speaking something is stirring deep within him. Judah realizes there is water down deep in the well of this man’s heart and it is cool and clean water. It is drinkable water. The problem is no one can reach it.

Judah’s speech is the rope that brings forth the deep waters from Joseph’s heart. And this is what makes him fit to be the father of kings, the father of David, the father of Jesus.

Judah’s power is the power the psalms refer to as “deep calling out to deep.” It is the lion’s roar which shakes everything false leaving behind only what is firm and true.

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah: A Theology of Preaching?

The book of Revelation makes the connection of Judah the lion to Jesus explicit:

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered.”

(Revelation 5:5–6)

What makes Jesus the lion of the tribe of Judah? According to John’s vision he is the lion of Judah as a slain lamb. Like Judah, Jesus’ words pierce through to peoples’ hearts and reach the tender place—the place where there is cool, clear, drinkable water.

Isn’t this what happens over and over again in the gospels? When people gather around Jesus we are told that he knows what is in every person’s heart. He discerns the depths. And he speaks to peoples’ depths from his own depths. Jesus never speaks superficially or shallowly from his throat but only ever from his heart.

This is at least part of the reason why no one understands Jesus when he speaks in the gospels.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes that when Jesus converses with the Pharisees, “he seems to answer a completely different question from the one he was asked. He seems to speak past the question, but in this very act he completely addresses the questioner.” Jesus’ word pierces to the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow.

When Jacob delivers his last words to Judah he says, “Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have risen up.”

The great medieval Rabbi Rashi, in a typical midrashic (mis)reading, says that “the prey” that Jacob is referring to is Joseph. The word for prey is teref which rhymes with Jacob’s words that Joseph has been torn to pieces (tarof toraf Yosef). Judah was the wild animal that tore Joseph to pieces.

But Rashi makes one other surprising move. When Jacob says, “From prey, my son, you have risen up” Rashi says that by “my son” Jacob is not speaking about Judah but referring to Joseph. In other words, Jacob is saying to Judah, “from the prey, my son Joseph, you have risen up.” It is by Judah’s speech that Joseph is metaphorically brought back to life.

This is precisely what the words of Jesus do. Standing at the grave of his friend Lazarus Jesus weeps. He instructs them to roll away the stone from the grave. Then, Luke tells us, “he cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’” The Greek word used for “cried out” can be translated as “screamed.” This is the roaring Lion of Judah whose speech raises the dead.

We could begin to piece together a whole theology of preaching from this story of Judah’s roar.

When the preacher preaches he or she is not offering their opinion or advice. The preacher is delivering the Word of God. Jesus himself promises to speak through the humble human words of the preacher. The Lion of the tribe of Judah roars in our preaching. Just as milk does not come from the mother, says St. Augustine, the Word of God does not come from the preacher.

But, of course, preaching hardly ever appears to be raising the dead. Most sermons do not sound like a “lion’s roar.” But this is the folly of preaching. Yes, the Lion roars when his word is preached, but usually (if not always) it sounds like a whimper.

The Apostle Paul dealt with this. His preaching was foolishness and presented itself as weakness. Paul’s sermons did not sound like a lion’s roar, but a tender, weak, slain lamb’s bleating.

This is the promise in the foolishness of preaching. The voice of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the resurrected one, Jesus Christ, speaks to us today by his Spirit when the Word is preached. He draws up the clean, cold water out of the depths of our hearts. Bringing us back to life with his own life.

But his roar sounds like a bleat.

As Karl Barth said, when the word is preached “[Christ] speaks for Himself…It is not He that needs proclamation but proclamation that needs Him. He…makes it possible.”

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