At the end of Jacob's life (also toward the end of Genesis) Jacob called all 12 of his sons to bless them. Customarily the first born received the best blessing, but in the case of the 12, Judah who was fourth oldest, got the best blessing. His children were to become the kings of Israel and through him the messiah was to be born.
How did this happen? If you read in past blogs you will discover why Reuben (the first born) was passed up - in anger he slept with one of his father Jacob's wife. It was not an act of love or desire, but an act of lashing out against his father for the father's unjust love for brother number 11 (Joseph). As I mentioned before, King David's son Absalom did the same thing to cut himself off from and attack the honor of his father. Because of that event Jacob did not give Reuben any blessing.
Jacob also passed up giving blessings to the next 2 for another reason - they slaughtered an entire village out of vigilante justice. Their sister had been raped by a local big shot prince who wanted then to marry her. The brothers convinced the prince to have his entire village circumcized, and when the men were all sore from their operations, the 2 brothers went from house to house slicing up every male and taking the females. When Jacob heard about this, he feared for his life and scolded the 2 brothers; but the brothers were convinced they had done the right thing.
In the end, Jacob passed them up for the blessing that belonged to the first born because of that event. So after 3 had been passed up, Judah who was born fourth and therefore next in line got the blessing that would cusomarily go to the first born.
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