JUDAH'S SCEPTRE AND JOSEPH'S BIRTHRIGHT #18
by J.H. Allen (published in 1917)
THE "PRINCE OF THE SCARLET THREAD" AND "THE ROYAL REMNANT" UNITED
In connection with the record of the fact that the "high,"
or ruling, Prince of Judah has been uncrowned and dethroned, and
that the "low" has been crowned and placed on the throne, we find
that a royal prince, a royal princess and the ten-tribed kingdom
of Israel are all together in the same country, also that this
royal pair are united and placed on a throne, and are ruling over
the kingdom of Israel.
A RIDDLE AND PARABLE
These facts are recorded in the seventeenth chapter of
Ezekiel in the form of a riddle and a parable, which, together
with their explanation, make up the subject matter of the entire
chapter, which opens as follows "And the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, Son of man put forth a riddle, and speak a
parable unto the house of Israel; and say, Thus saith the Lord
God, etc." The Hebrew word which is here translated riddle is
defined as "A puzzle; hence a trick, conundrum, dark saying, hard
question," etc. These definitions correspond to our English
thought of an enigma, or something proposed which is to be solved
by conjecture; a puzzling question; or an ambiguous proposition.
A parable, on the other hand, is more like a fable or an
allegorical representation of something which is real in its
relation to human life and thought, and is represented by
something real in nature.
Thus the prophet in his introduction prepares us to expect
that the words which follow shall be enigmatical; and, since the
Lord commanded him to use this veiled language, we must adjust
ourselves accordingly, remembering that "it is the glory of God
to conceal a thing; but the honor of kings to search out a
matter." So, then, let us, it a spirit that shall be worthy of
kings, search out the matter of this riddle, which we will notice
is put forth unto the house of Israel, and not to the Jewish
people.
THE GREAT EAGLE
The first part of the riddle is given, as follows: "Thus
saith the Lord God: A great eagle with great wings, long-winged,
full of feathers, which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and
took the highest branch of the cedar; he cropped off the top of
his young twigs, and carried it to a land of traffick; he set it
in a city of merchants."
A few moments reflection will convince us that, whatever
else it may mean, the great eagle is intended to represent a
means of transportation; for the declaration is that "it came" to
a certain place, "and took" something which was in that place to
which it came, and "carried it into" some other "land."
We are also told that this means of transportation came to
Lebanon. Since Lebanon is a mountain range in Palestine, then the
place to which it came, and from which it departed is, most
certainly, Palestine.
YOUNG TWIGS
That which was taken away is declared to be "young twigs,"
which were taken from "the highest branch o f the cedar" of
Lebanon. Since the personal pronoun "his" is used, having "the
cedar" for its antecedent, it must represent a person. This
person is of the masculine gender, and father of the "young
twigs"; hence, these young scions are also persons.
Furthermore, it is a well authenticated fact that the cedar
of Lebanon is a symbol of royalty. Since the riddle contains
within itself such abundant evidence of this fact, which will be
made clear as we proceed, we will not need to go elsewhere for
proof.
SET IN A LAND OF TRAFFIC BY GREAT WATERS
Again, inasmuch as it is true of twigs that they must be
set, grafted, or planted, in order that they may grow and bear
fruit, or increase, so also it is declared of these young royal
scions that they were "set." The place also where they were set
was certainly well adapted for increase of population, or
subjects; that is, "a city of merchants, in a land o f trafick."
The second part of this riddle reads as follows: "He took also of
the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he
placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. And it
grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches
turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him; so it
became a vine, and shot forth sprigs."
"The seed o f the land" is most certainly the people of the
land. The land from which "he took" this seed, or people, is
Palestine; and the people of Palestine are distinctly Israelites.
And numerically, hence preeminently, they are always the
ten-tribed kingdom of Israel.
So these people who had been taken out of their own land
were "planted" in another, and that other has become to them "a
fruitful field," which is located "by great waters." Not by the
Mediterranean Sea, or the Great Sea, as it is called in
Scripture. But the new home of this removed people is "by great
waters." In their new home Israel "grew and became a spreading
vine." And since this riddle is dealing with the breach - as we
shall see - in which the "high" and the "low" princes of the
royal house are to exchange places, we are not surprised that
this spreading or outreaching vine is said to be of "Low"
stature, nor that its branches and sprigs turned toward him, or
that its roots, or growing power, was under him. If under him,
then he was over them, i. e., their ruler.
ANOTHER GREAT EAGLE
This riddle further says: "There was also another great
eagle with great wings and many feathers; and behold this vine
did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward
him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. It
was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring
forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a
goodly vine." Here we have the record of the arrival of another
passenger, who also came to that land of "good soil," which is by
"great waters," and who was brought there by the same means of
transportation, i. e., a "great eagle with great wings," as that
which brought the royal sons. This was not the same eagle, but
"another" eagle, or ship, for we believe this means of
transportation to have been the ships of Dan; since it is
declared that "Dan abode in ships," and that "they have taken
cedars from Lebanon to make masts" for their ships. We also know
that the seaport of Tyre, in Palestine, was the port into which
they must come for the cedars of Lebanon.
Yes, for the cedars of Lebanon!!! be they used as masts for
their ships, or as types of their royal princes. The tribe of Dan
also used the eagle as their standard, and they are said to have
used great carved eagles with outstretched wings as the
figureheads on the bows of their vessels. Also it is a common
thing to symbolize ships which are under full sail as flying
birds; and in this riddle the "long wings" represent the long
sails, which, like wings carry the "great" ship - the large bird,
or eagle ship - and her passengers to the land of traffic.
We are forced to the conclusion that the object which the
writer has in view in mentioning the coming of this second ship
is, that we may guess that another important personage had
arrived; for, after mentioning the ship's arrival, his next
expression is "Behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him."
Thus we learn that the person who came in the second ship was a
woman, and that her inclination and desire was toward the prince
who had preceded her into the same land.
Then, still under the similitude of a vine, and that which
is essential to its life and growth, viz., land and water, there
follows that which clearly indicates a unity of life, claims and
purpose. In fact, there was a marriage between the "her" and the
"him" of this riddle, the result of which was that she, too, was
"set" or "planted" in that land of a "goodly vine," albeit that
goodly vine is of "Low Stature"; and bore "fruit." That is,
offspring.
JEREMIAH AND KING'S DAUGHTERS
Since it is true that a prince can wed only with a princess,
it will be well for us, at this juncture, to remember that we
left Jeremiah and his little royal remnant of king's daughters on
their way to a land which was strange, or unknown, to them; yet
to a place where this preserved seed of David's line was to be
"planted," again "take root," and "bear fruit."
Now, it is a fact that the man and the woman of this riddle
were united. Also it is a fact that the woman was "planted" in
that land of good soil, into which she did "take root," and these
things were accomplished in order that she "might bear fruit."
In other words, that which hitherto has been the subject of
prophecy concerning Jeremiah's commission, and concerning his
royal charge, is now recorded as a matter of history. The analogy
is complete.
MEANING OF THE PARABLE
Still the explanation of this riddle makes all these things
so plain that we are not left to conjecture. For at the eleventh
verse the prophet says: "Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what
these things mean? Tell them, Behold the king of Babylon is come
to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof and the princes
thereof, and led them to Babylon."
The king of Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar, as we know. The king
of Jerusalem, and the princes thereof, were, as we also know,
Zedekiah and his sons.
Then follows a brief account of Zedekiah's treachery with
the king of Babylon, how he rebelled against him, and sent to the
king of Egypt for help.
Then comes a prophecy concerning the fact that King Zedekiah
shall die in Babylon.
After this comes the prophetic account of that band of
fugitives going to Egypt, and the declaration that they should
fall by the sword, etc., all of which we have given in detail.
But the outcome of it all, and that which pertains to our
immediate subject, begins again with the twenty-second verse. The
prophet, still using the symbols of the riddle, explains as
follows:
"Thus saith the Lord God, I will take of the highest branch of
the high cedar, and will set it." This is the royal prince who
came in Ship Number 1. He then proceeds to say: "I will crop off
from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will PLANT It
upon a high mountain and eminent." This is the second importation
of royal branches, but this time it is the "top" or one whose
right it is to rule, a "tender one." That is, it is a tender
young girl, the top-most one of the young twigs that came in Ship
Number 2.
Where was she planted? "In the mountain of the height of
Israel," is the Divine reply. "What, ISRAEL?" Yes, Israel,
national Israel. Israel as a nation; but not Jewish-Israel, for
that kingdom is overthrown; the people are gone into the
Babylonish captivity; the king, with his eyes put out, is doomed
to die in chains in a Babylonish prison; the princes are dead;
the king's daughters have escaped out of Jerusalem; and the top-
most one of these tender twigs is planted here in the height of
the mountains of Israel, i. e., the THRONE.
"And it (that which was planted) shall bring forth boughs,
and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell
all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof
shall they dwell." The purport of this is so glaringly plain that
the most obtuse mind can see that it refers to the mixed
population which Israel, of necessity, must have gathered while
being sifted through other countries.
The prophet further declares: "And all the trees of the
field, i. e., all the people of that kingdom of Israel, "shall
know that I, the Lord, have brought down the HIGH tree, have
exalted the Low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made
the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken and DONE it."
(Ezek.17:24.)
"Done what?" Brought down the HIGH from the throne, and
exalted the Low to the throne.
"What else?" Made the long-foretold breach, remembered his
covenant with David, and kept faith with Jeremiah.
THE BREACH HEALED
For, since these trees are the royal cedars, and the male
heirs of the former reigning line have been dethroned in favor of
him that was low, who also is the "spreading vine of Low stature"
of the riddle, and who is now exalted by being enthroned, and
since a royal princess found her way to the land of the "vine of
low stature" and united her interests with his, "that he might
water the furrows of her plantation," we are safe in saying that
God has taken the crown from off the head of Zedekiah, the high,
who was of the Pharez line, and has placed it on the head of a
prince of Zarah, the low, to whom Zedekiah's daughter, the heir
to crown and sceptre, made her way, in company with Jeremiah, who
had charge of the royal paraphernalia, and who was divinely
commissioned to plant and build anew the plucked-up and
overthrown kingdom of David.
Christ came through the family line of Judah, David, Josiah
and Jeconiah, not through the breach; the breach ran through
Judah, David, Josiah and Zedekiah. So, the two branches of the
Judo-Pharez-David line diverge at Josiah. One of these lines
eventually gave birth to the Messiah; and, as we shall prove, the
other line, after having been united to the brother line of the
Scarlet Thread, are still holding that preserved throne and
sceptre, and raising the seed unto their fathers, Judah and
David; so that there shall never be a lack of some one of David's
children to sit upon that throne as rulers over the seed of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that the sceptre may not depart
from Judah till SHILOH COME.
THE ULTIMATE HEALING OF THE BREACH
Thus it is that one of these lines holds that sceptre, and
wears that crown as a fact, but the judo-David house has a
greater son to whom they belong by "RIGHT." When he comes, as
Shiloh, God will give it to him, for unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. At that time the breaches will be healed, and
he shall be called "The Restorer of the BREACH."
The question now is to find where that sceptre and throne
are today, for we are not only confronted with the question of
"Lost Israel," or the "Lost Birthright," which involves the whole
house of Joseph and the many nations into which they were to
develop; but we are also confronted with the question Of THE LOST
SCEPTRE which involves the Zedekiah branch of the house of David
and all its Heraldic Blazonry.
....................
NOTE:
OH, THE WORKINGS OF THE ETERNAL GOD. GREAT IS HIS
WAYS AND WONDERS TO PERFORM. THE PLAN OF GOD IS FOUND
IN THE RIDDLE AND PARABLE. THE ALMIGHTY WILL YET BE TRUE
TO HIS WORD TO DAVID.
DAVID'S THRONE WILL SURVIVE AND BE PLANTED IN A LAND WITH
GREAT WATERS, WHERE IT WILL TAKE ROOT AND EXPAND LIKE A
VINE OVER A WELL, AND A THRONE WILL RULE AND REMAIN EVEN
IN A SPACE-AGE WORLD.
A THRONE THAT MAY NOT HAVE INDIVIDUAL POWER PER SE, BUT IT'S
POWER WILL BE THE HISTORY OF ITS THRONE - SO ANCIENT AND SO
HONORED AND RESPECTED BY THE BILLIONS OF PEOPLE IT REIGNS OVER,
THAT IT WILL NEVER DIE, AND ONE DAY THE SON OF DAVID, HE WHOSE
RIGHT IT IS, WILL COME AND SIT ON THAT THRONE. THE GREATEST
RESTORER OF THE BREACH - THE ONE WHO WILL BRING IN THE
RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS, WILL COME AND REIGN ON THE EARTH
SITTING ON DAVID'S THRONE.
DOES YOUR HEART REJOICE IN THE BEAUTY AND GLORY AND FAITHFULNESS
OF THE ETERNAL GOD, WHO CAN GIVE A PROMISE TO A MAN, AND BRING
TO PASS THAT WHICH IS PROMISED. PRAISE AND GLORY BE HIS!
Keith Hunt
To be continued
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