The incarnation of Christ and what it meant to fulfill Jacob's prophecy in An Exposition of Deuteronomy 33

In the footnote beginning on page 752 and continuing through page 766, Parkinson discusses the incarnation of Christ and what it meant for him to fulfill Jacob’s prophecy concerning the Messiah, given in Gen. 49:10. In the opening portion of this note, he points out that “Ignorance of how the flesh of Christ was to be conceived, has, from the beginning, occasioned mistakes regarding the promised event.” Though Eve believed God’s promise of a Savior, she too misapprehended how that would come to pass. For she thought He would come immediately through natural generation and supposed that her first-born son Cain was the promised Seed. “How great her mistake!” exclaims Parkinson, “Cain, instead of being the Saviour, proved to be a murderer; ver. 8; compare 1 John 3:12. With him infidelity, at least contempt of the mediatorial sacrifice, originated. Gen. 4:3-5. God, however, would preserve a succession of such as should worship him in the faith of the promise; that through the lineage of such, He might grant the promised Seed.” Parkinson then traces the lineage of those who comprised the messianic line, demonstrating that “of the twelve land-holding tribes, none but Judah and Benjamin adhered to ‘the house of David;’ and these, with a few individuals of the other tribes, called ‘the remnant of the people,’ were styled ‘the house of Judah,’ after that distinguished tribe.” As Christ, “after the flesh,” was to be “a branch of David,” (Jer. 23:5-6), writes Parkinson, “it was certain that ‘the house of David,’ neither at that time, nor at any future time, could be cut off, till this predicted branch should have descended from it.” Parkinson concludes his discussion with a capable refutation of arguments from both the orthodox Jews and infidels regarding the fulfillment of the true Messiah and Savior in Jesus Christ.