Judah {יְהוּדָ֑ה} Means Praise!

Genesis 29:35
"35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing."

Poor Leah.  All she wanted was for her husband to love her. But she knew that her sister, Rachel, was the favorite.  The LORD saw what was happening and opened her womb.  Rachel, however, was barren.

She gave birth to three sons:  Reuben, Simeon and Levi thinking that this might win favor with her husband. Nope.  Didn't happen.  He still preferred her sister.  By the time Judah came along, she who had tried so desperately to get her husband's attention by giving him the other three, finally stopped obsessing.  She decided to PRAISE THE LORD instead!  That's why she named him "Yehudah," which means "Praise."

As Jacob was near death, he spoke blessings over his sons which are all recorded for us in Genesis 49.  Part of Judah's blessing was, "Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise." Gen. 49:8.  The message is this:  "When we finally give up all our striving, all our sweating, straining and struggling and just praise the Lord, He'll work everything out for our benefit."

   

Judah himself is more than ample proof of this.  From this son of Leah would come THE ONE Who would save the whole world.  He is THE MOST important person of all time, our Jesus, came from the tribe of Judah.

The Hebrew spelling of Judah's name reveals something beautiful about Jesus. It is spelled like this in Hebrew:
              [יהודה]

The letters from right to left are "Yod-hei-vav-dalet-hei."

Hebrew reads from right to left and is a form of picture writing like Chinese.  The letters that God uses to form words give us a glimpse from God's point of view and reveal things you'd never get in any definition.

These are the "pictures" that spell "Judah:"
 [י] Yod= open hand
 [ה] Hei= grace
 [ו]  Vav= nail
[ד] Dalet= door
 [ה] Hei= grace

God's name, Yahweh, is spelled "yod-hei-vav-hei [יהוה]"  The letter "dalet [ד]" is added to spell, "Yehudah."

The letters of Yahweh's name paint this picture:
"Hand of grace, nailed in Grace."
It's a picture of Jesus nailed to the cross!  (For more nuggets hidden in the Hebrew letters of the Name of God, follow this link:  http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-name-of-god-yahweh.html)

These 4 letters of the Name of God plus the letter "dalet [ד]" which means "door," paint a different word picture:  His name tell us "PRAISE OPEN THE DOOR TO GOD!"  And Who is the door to God? JESUS!!!  He is the door of the sheep fold through Whom we can safely go in and out safely and find pasture. 

As if that weren't awesome enough, there's more. The root word for "Yehuda (Judah)" is this word:

 [ידה] YADA.  

It also means, "praise." From right to left, the letters are:

[י] yod [ד] dalet [ה] hei: "Hand opening the door to grace."

So, Jesus is the door to God, praise opens the door to grace, and what, or more to the point, Who is Grace?  JESUS!!!

When we feel like it, when we don't feel like it, when there's nothing else we can do, or even if there is, in everything and at all times what does Our Father say?  PRAISE THE LORD!