Though promised in his blessing under the hand of Jacob that the 'scepter' or rule would not pass from between his feet, which is taken to mean the dynasty of the Davidic kings, Judah was not worthy of the Covenant of Abraham to be passed to him. That covenant is well established as having passed to Joseph and thence to Ephraim. Judah had led the comspiracy against his brother Joseph which resulted in young Joseph being sold into slavery. Judah sold his brother then and would later sell the Christ. It was Reuben who had ended the death threat against Joseph as Reuben had the intent of later retrievng Joseph from the pit to return him to his father Jacob. But while Reuben was gone, Judah further contrived to sell Joseph if they were not going to be allowed to kill him.

Further it was Judah who was known to carry the guilt of having arrested Christ, tried Christ illegally before the Sanhedrin's Pharisees and the temple Priests, and then to have demanded his death upon the cross. Judah was to reject the Savior. And then after his rejection and murder, it would be Judah who was to further demand that the child, or the Messiah be divided in two. So How then does the Christ become the promised seed of such an unworthy parent as Judah? Or is Judah in fact the legal and rightful ancestor of Christ under the Law of Moses? Judah never was stipulated as the 'firstborn'. Judah never did receive the covenant blessings of the 'birthright'. So by what right in Israel did Judah lay claim to the ancestry of the Messiah?

A careful reading of Judah's blessing in Genesis chapter 49 reveals that Judah was never promised that the 'shepherd and stone of Israel' would come thence from him as was Joseph in that same chapter. It only becomes apparent that the bloodline of Judah would be the ancestor of Christ at the time of King David. That is when David was promised that the promised Savior of the Covenant of Abraham and the 'fathers' would be his son meaning his descendant, David's descendant—David already being the legal and rightful heir of Elimelech and Mahlon, Ephraimites of the Covenant. David may have presumed or initially desired that Savior to be Solomon through his wishfulness, but it was not so and David did come to realize that. It was many generations later that Christ was born to Mary, a descendant of David through Mary and adoptively the son of her husband Joseph, who was also of the same lineage. This adoptive process was legally binding as Joseph the carpenter would raise the child and teach him his trade of carpentry, which legally made Jesus the son of Joseph though literally the Son of God.

But it was not Judah's blessings which were being fulfilled through King David. As presented throughout this document, Jesus was the legal heir of Mahlon and Boaz was but the vicarious performer under the Law of Moses which did raise Obed to be the seed of the dead Mahlon and the family of Elimelech.

Judah, himself was quite notoriously wicked. As stated, Judah was the author of the notoriously Satanic plot of bring his brother Joseph to his demise and when he contrived to sell him into slavery, he was but getting gain and personal profit through his brother's demise. This is exactly the same as which Judas did with the later Lord Jesus Christ. And then Judas was the Jew and Christ was the legal heir of Joseph and Ephraim as explained in this work. But this satanic plot has but a familiar ring to devise the murder of thy brother to get gain as did Cain upon Abel. And while not actually having committing the evil act of murder himself, if not the chiefly leader to the plot of death against Joseph, which he may have been, he was a party to and an accessory to the crime and events which normally ends in a person's eventual early death by such enslavement as Joseph was sold into. Further, as Satan would have desired, Joseph, the rightful heir, was taken from an environment which is condusive to the exercise of free agency and placed into an environment where Joseph's agency would be withheld from him in various degrees and ways.

Judah was also guilty of sexual sin which is said to be next unto murder. And it was sexual sin which did preclude Reuben from receiving the blessings of the covenant, the birthright as the firstborn of Israel. So Judah also with full intent went into the tent of a supposed whore and had relations with her. How many times Judah may have or may have not done such before is not given. Judah was also a well confirmed liar as he had falsely represented to Jacob that Joseph was dead when he had been sold into slavery and also to Tamar he lied in his stated intent of providing her with a husband, which he did not do and which led Tamar into the actions she took against him.

To what extend Judah did repent of his sins, is not given. But what is evident is that Judah was not worthy to obtain the promised birthright and covenant promises of the fathers as was Joseph. And Judah did not. Joseph was the son of the promise, which included all of the responsibilities and blessings of the Covenant of Abraham which has been presented from the Bible Dictionary it was stated that the Covenant of Abraham did include the responsibility and blessing to be the legal and rightful ancestor of Christ, bring salvation and exaltation to the world. Christ was to be counted as the seed of the promised birthright blessings of Abraham to Isaac, thence to Jacob, thence to Joseph and thence through the line of Ephraim. And this line of Ephraim we must conclude is the legal seed of Mahlon the son of Elimelech the Ephrathite or Ephraimite of Bethlehem. And it was but Boaz who did raise seed of his first born son Obed to be of the house of the dead or the house of Mahlon and his father Elimelech.

Blessings and covenant are predicated upon worthiness and obedience to the laws of God. Judah's image never was of one such to be so worthy to receive such a blessing. Joseph of Egypt was and we presume that Ephraim was also. Elimelech, whose name means 'God is King' or 'God is My King' seemw worthy and if not for his family not living to produce seed, Boaz would not have entered the picture. And Boaz only enters because he is willing to raise up seed to the dead through Ruth to the house of Mahlon and Elimelech. That house, whose particular ancestry is not given by the Jewish compilers of the Book of Ruth but to state them as being Ephrathites, is the legal and rightful temporal and mortal ancestry of the Lord Messiah. And we are left to presume that thereby comes the rights of the covenant of the fathers of the firstborn as it did not come by way of Judah.

And while the Jews intimate that through the seed of David, the Messiah would be of the tribe of Judah, and that 'Judah had prevailed above his brethren', either by outlasting them in the lands of Jerusalem or bring about their demises and disadvantage; it is in and through the promises of the fathers which did remain through Joseph which would rather benefit his brethren by bring to them the blessings of gathering and salvation both in the latter days, and this also through the rightful heir of the covenant, the Messiah, who was his legal and rightful heir of that covenant, the very 'seed' of the covenant.