“She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.Then she stopped having children.” (Genesis 29 v 35)
This time I will praise the Lord. This time, I will put down my problem.
It was as if the Lord was saying, “Well, I love you, will I do?”
Leah came to terms with her life. She stopped embracing the problem. God was pleased, and He chose Judah for special favour.
Psalm 78: 67-68 “he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.”
Psalm 114: 2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Judah had the special presence of God.
Leah chose to praise God rather than tell everyone how tough things were for her.
The result was that God came and placed His favour on her son.
The same favour, blessings and presence of God on Judah is available to us as we, even in difficulties, offer praise to God. God dwells in the people of praise.
The name in Hebrew is Yadah, and it means ‘God/Yahweh be praised.’
Alongside ‘to praise’, it also means ‘to revere or worship with extended hands’ or ‘to give thanks’.
Judah is the key to changing your environment. Judah is what attracts the presence of God to us. Judah is the pathway on which God will lead us through even immense difficulty. It would be very hard to be defeated, afraid, silent, grumbling or worse with a name like Judah!
Remember the Passover meal of Jesus, the last supper with his disciples before the cross? He and his disciples sang a hymn. It was called the Hallel, it was the whole of the Psalms 113-118, praise to God for his salvation from Egypt, and He being the eternal Saviour. So, hours before Jesus’ most dreadful and terrifying moment, the crucifixion and death, he sings!
The blessing of praise is this: “Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies” Genesis 49:8
“May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them— this is the glory of all his faithful people.” Psalm 149:6-8
Every time we praise, we are declaring to the spiritual powers that our hands are on the neck of an already defeated enemy. That is because of Jesus’ victory on the cross, where Satan was stripped of power and authority over us. Then I will praise my God and squeeze some more victory out of you that is rightfully mine.
There is a father of lies who is against you, trying to steal, kill and destroy you, and JUDAH is your greatest defence.
Those who don’t understand JUDAH are in fear of what the enemy can do as a “roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). But there is another LION, a far greater LION and people who JUDAH live in trust of the LION of the TRIBE OF JUDAH! (Revelation 5:8).
The Lion of the tribe of Praise has defeated and won every battle. We are called to press in, clear up, and take back what belongs to us.
Leah’s story isn’t finished, and eventually we will return to her.
Missions Paul 