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of this common purpose. Expatria- tion, exile, captivity, confiscation, torture on the most ingenious and massacre on the most extensive scale, a curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws which would have broken the heart of another people, have been tried, and in vain. The Jews, after all this havoc, probably more numerous at this date than they were during the reign of Solomon the wise, are found in all lands, and prospering in most."

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      "Am Olam," the "everlasting people" (Isa. xliv. 7, Hebrew), and therefore the Jewish nation has proved indestructible.

      But the marvel of Israel's continued existence be- comes intensified if we examine the conditions under which they abide. Apart from the little word trans- lated "without," which in the Hebrew is repeated five times, there are but six words used by the pen of inspi- ration to portray the condition of Israel during the Interregnum, and these six words contain more than a whole volume that could be written by the most eloquent human pen.

      The six words are arranged in three couplets, or pairs of contrasts, which graphically describe a neutral state. The three pairs of contrasts, or opposites, are these :

      I. " Without a king and without a prince."

      II. " Without a sacrifice and without an image."

      III. " Without an ephod and without teraphim." Let us examine each one separately.

      " Without a king and without a prince" What this means is, without the king of God's appointment, and without a prince of their own choice. When Hosea uttered this prediction he could already almost hear the sound of the steps of the Assyrian army on its way finally to overthrow the kingdom of the ten tribes. Hosea's ministry, which commenced in the reign of Jeroboam II., extended into the reign of Hoshea, the last king who reigned in Israel a period of about sixty years so that the prophet may himself have witnessed the fulfilment of the threatening part of his prophecies, in the overthrow of Samaria, and the captivity of the ten tribes. But the prophecy with which we are dealing is not limited to the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, the term *' the children of

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      Israel " being, I believe, used in the proper and larger sense as embracing all the descendants of the one man who by the Divine authority was called " Israel."

      The geographical centre of prophecy, except when otherwise stated, is always Jerusalem, and in Divine forecasts of the chief outlines of Jewish history the schism between the ten tribes and the two, which was permitted by God as a punishment on the house of David, and was to be but temporary in its character, is overlooked. We know that Samaria was finally over- thrown in the year 721 B.C., when the history of the ten tribes as a separate kingdom terminated for ever. When the great restoration takes place God says, " I will make them one nation in the land upon the moun- tains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all : and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all" (Ezek. xxxvii. 22). The one king who shall be " king to them all " is the true David, " David's greater Son," who will raise up the tabernacle of David, and " close up the breaches thereof," caused by the defection of the ten tribes ; and He is " the Lion of the tribe of Judah."

      Judah continued as a kingdom about one hundred and thirty years longer after the captivity of the ten tribes, until the sceptre was finally plucked out of the hands of the house of David by Nebuchadnezzar, that " head of gold " of Daniel's great vision, the first king of the four great world-powers, whose united course makes up " the times of the Gentiles."

      Now, there is a point in connection with this subject which is of immense interest, showing also that prophecy does indeed emanate from the omniscient God who alone knows the end from the beginning. About the time of the final overthrow of Judah, in the reign of the last king who sat on the throne of David, another prophet

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      was sent by God with the following mysterious and startling message on this subject : " Thus saith the Lord God : Remove the mitre, and take off the crown : this shall not be " (or, " is no more it" I no longer recog- nise it) : " exalt the low, abase the high " (let anarchy and usurpation of the throne of David continue). " I will overturn, overturn, overturn it : this also " (whatever men may put up instead of Davidic rule on Mount Zion) " shall not be " (shall not be permitted to continue long) " until He come whose right it is ; to Him it shall be given " (Ezek. xxi. 25–27). And as God has spoken by the mouth of His prophet so it has been. Centuries elapsed between Ezekiel's prophecy and the coming of our Lord Jesus. Nineteen centuries have elapsed since, but there has been no restoration of the throne of David ; no one of the seed of David reigning over Israel on Mount Zion.

      Some might think of the Hasmonean and Herodian kings of Jerusalem as militating against the truth of this assertion, but these were but incidents in the process of the overturning and usurpation foretold in the above prophecy. The Hasmoneans were priests of the tribe of Levi, who, though heroes and martyrs For Israel's faith and worship, had no right to assume royalty, which dignity in Israel God promised and confirmed by oath as an everlasting possession to the house of David ; and as for Herod, he was an Idumaean and Roman vassal. " This also shall not be, until He come whose right it is ; to Him it shall be given." Who is it whose right it is ? Who is the true and lawful King of Israel ? Of course every Christian answers, " Jesus," He was born " King of the Jews " (Matt. ii. 2), and even on the cross on which He died was written " Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." This is truth, but not the whole truth. The rightful King of Israel is Jehovah* for the

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      uniqueness of Israel's high calling consisted more par- ticularly in this, that it was destined to be a theocracy that is, a people whose visible head and leader is God. If we want to know what is implied in a theocracy we find it expressed in one verse by the prophet Isaiah when speaking of a future time when it shall be fully realised : " For Jehovah is our judge, Jehovah is our law- giver (or war prince), Jehovah is our King; and He will bring us salvation," or " He also will be our Saviour" (Isa. xxxiii. 22). " Jehovah is our king " : hence at an early period of Israe'ls history when they came to Samuel saying : " Make us a king to judge us like all the nations " ; and Samuel, in not altogether unselfish displeasure, prayed to God about it, the Lord answered him saying, " Hearken to the voice of the people … for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them " (i Sam. viii. 7). Well, God " gave them a king in His anger, and took him away in His wrath." Saul, at the time of his election, was just such a one as answered to man's ideal of a leader and king, but although he was granted a fair trial, he proved a failure, and serves as an object-lesson that man's rule is not like God's. Eventually God Himself appointed a royal family in Israel ; but what was God's purpose in the establishment of the Davidic house ? Was it not that from that family there should ultimately spring one in whom the theocratic ideal would be fully realised ; one who, " although of their brethren," and " from the midst of them " (Deut. xviii. 15–18) should yet be Jehovah-Zidkenu the mighty God, whose reign would be the reign of God, and whose kingdom would be " the kingdom of heaven " on earth? In the interval the mere human kings of the house of David were regarded as types, and God's repre- sentatives. Thus we read that when Solomon com-

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      menced his rule " he sat on the throne of 'Jehovah as king instead of David his father (i Chron. xxix. 23). The throne was Jehovah's, and Solomon and his successors only occupied it until the real king, Jehovah's true representative should appear. Hence it is that even when Israel had kings they were always pointed onward to another king: " Behold a king shall reign in righteous- ness, and princes shall rule in judgment " ; or, in the words of Jeremiah, " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper." Did they not have kings at the time these prophecies were uttered ? Yes ; but those kings were mere shadows filling up the gap in time until the true king should be manifested, " He who is the blessed and only potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords." This also is the reason why in the Old Testament the coming of the Messiah is sometimes spoken of as the advent of God : " Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst

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