the strength of God’s word

It was prophesied that the sceptre would stay with Judah until the Messiah came (Genesis 49:10), later that David would never want a “man” (or heir) to sit on the throne ruling over the children of Israel, whom God would plant in a new land (2 Samuel: 7:10,16). Jeremiah’s commission was to overthrow the nations and kingdoms and “to build, and to plant” ( Jeremiah 1:10 ).

Israel was divided into Israel ruled by the House of Ephraim and Judah ruled by the House of David of the royal line of Judah. Zedekiah, the last King of Judah, was blinded and imprisoned after seeing his sons slaughtered (2 Kings 25:6-7). All the princes of Judah were killed (Jeremiah 52:10). There are those who believe that the royal line of Judah and, in particular, the House of David ceased to exist and to rule, contrary to the Word of God. How can they who claim to be believers doubt the effectiveness of the Word of God?

Just how serious was God’s promise to David?

I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: ….
My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. (Psalms 89:20, 28-37)

Jeremiah says:

Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son [translated from the Hebrew word for 'person'] to reign upon his throne (Jeremiah 33:20-21)

That looks fairly uncompromising. Transgressions by David’s seed result in punishment, not loss of the throne. Moreover, David was not to want a kingdom of the children of Israel over which to rule:

Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them. (Jeremiah 33:24-26)

preservation of the House of David

We have seen how the United Kingdom bears certain marks identifying it with the Houses of Israel, Judah and Ephraim. How was the monarchy preserved and how did it continue ruling over the seed of Jacob, later named Israel? What we shall see is that the seed of David was preserved through the female line which married into another branch of the royal line of Judah which was thereby exalted to the throne of David.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ….
And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. (Numbers 27:6, 8; see also Joshua 17:6)

At one time a queen, Athaliah, ruled over Israel (2 Kings 11). When Jeremiah spoke of David not wanting “a man’ to rule over Israel, the Hebrew word is ‘ish’ which refers to a male or female person and is still in use today as part of ‘British’, ‘English’, ‘Scottish’, ‘Irish’ and ‘Danish’.

Zedekiah’s daughters survived. They were taken captive in Mizpah (Jeremiah 41:10). Later, they were part of a remnant taken, in spite of a prophecy of Jeremiah, to Egypt along with Jeremiah himself and his scribe, Baruch:

But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah;
Even men, and women, and children, and the king’s daughters, … and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah.
So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes. (Jeremiah 43:5-8)

a new planting

Although most of those travelling to Egypt were to perish for disobedience, a few would escape from Egypt (Jeremiah 44:14). From the remnant which escaped, a Kingdom would grow:

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. (Isaiah 37:31-32)

The tale is told by Ezekiel:

Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:
In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it 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.
And all the trees of the field 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 have done it. (Ezekiel 17:22-24)

The last verse alludes to the change of dynasty. The “high tree” is brought down and the “low tree” is exalted. The low tree is from a royal “twig” carried away to another land and becoming a “vine of low stature”:

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; A great eagle with great wings [a ship] , longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch [the royal house] of the cedar:
He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.
He took also of the seed [people] of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters [oceans], 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 brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs….
There was also another great eagle [ship] 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.

The old rebellious ruling branch is gone:

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 with him to Babylon; (ibid., 1-6,12)

The high is to be replaced by the low:

And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.
I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, [no more overturned] until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. (Ezekiel 21:25-27)

These prophecies relate to the abasing of one branch of the royal family (“him that is high”) and the exalting of the other (“him that is low”). To identify the two branches, we will have to go back to the beginning, to Genesis. The “tender twig” of David (a daughter) is to be united with him that is low. The monarchy “shall not be the same.” The throne is to be overturned, subsequently overturned twice more and then no more overturned. It “shall not depart from Judah” (nor from David’s seed) until it is given to him “whose right it is”, who we know, again from Genesis (49:10), is Shiloh, the Messiah. Moreover, it will continue to rule over “the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Jeremiah 33:26).

the hidden twig of Judah

Genesis 38 tells us how Judah had twin sons by his widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar:

And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.
And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah. (Genesis 38:27-30)

‘Pharez’ means ‘breach’, ‘Zarah’ means ’seed’. It was the ruling branch of the Pharez line that was brought down and the lowly Zarah line that was exalted in its place. A surviving princess of the Pharez line married a prince of the Zarah line and ruled over children of Israel because the House of Judah had been taken into captivity without a sovereign. The sceptre of Judah and the birthright of Joseph were reunited.

The genealogy of Judah is described in 1 Chronicles 2 where the sons of Pharez and Judah are named:

The sons of Pharez; Hezron, and Hamul.
And the sons of Zerah; Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara: five of them in all. (1 Chronicles 2:5-6)

Genesis 46 tells us which descendants of Israel went to Egypt. They did not include Zarah’s sons:

And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt ….
And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah: but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul. (Genesis 46:8,12)

We have to resort to little known history to trace the fortunes of Zarah’s descendants. I’m confining my observations to scripture, to relatively well-known history and observable facts. Northern Ireland contains what is still known as Jeremiah’s tomb and a spot where Queen Tamar Tephi, a daughter of King Zedekiah of Judah, is buried. The heraldry of Northern Ireland includes David’s harp and a hand bearing a scarlet thread. Irish history records, at the right date, the arrival of an Eastern prophet, his scribe and a princess, Tamar Tephi, who married Eochaidh, the Heremon of Ireland and descendant of Zarah through Calcol. The scribe is known by various names recognisable as variants of ‘Baruch’. Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom traces her ancestry through Tamar Tephi to King David.