and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever : and My servant David shall be their prince for ever " (Ezek. xxxvii. 21–25).
And David My servant shall be King over them …
1 This section is transferred here from my book, "The Jewish Problem," as it is important to the context and a full understanding of this prophecy.
4
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and My servant David shall be their Prince for ever Here is both Israel's King and Prince in the same person.
But, you say, do not the two terms substantially mean the same thing ? No ; the word in the original trans- lated " prince " in this passage does not mean prince in an hereditary sense of the word. " Nassi," the term used, signifies one exalted^ or elected by the freewill of the people. What a glimpse we get here of the change that will come over Israel at the appearing of Jesus Christ ! At His first coming Israel as a nation deliberately rejected Him. "Not this man, but Barabbas ! " they said ; and as to Christ, " Crucify Him ! Crucify Him ! We will not have this man to reign over us!" was their cry.
But the national verdict with regard to Jesus Christ will be revoked ; the grand mistake of the Jewish people shall yet be acknowledged and repented of. Instead of " Crucify Him ! " they will cry " Hosannah ! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " They will recognise His claims, not only as " the King," the One whose right it is to reign over them ; but they will deliberately declare Him their " Nassi," their elected, or exalted one.
This simply means that Israel will ratify God's choice. David himself, whose name Messiah bears, is a beautiful type of Christ in this, as in many other respects. In i Sam. xvi. we read of his being chosen and anointed king over Israel by the command of God. But what followed ? Did he at once commence his reign ? For fifteen years he was a fugitive ; his claims were un- recognised ; his home was the cave of Adullam or the wilderness of Judah. There was another king who hated David and disputed his sovereignty. Meanwhile, instead of a throne on Mount Zion and the hosts of Israel, his court was outside the camp, and his following
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consisted of his brethren and all his father's house : " And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented " a strange, typical lot, not at first numbering altogether more than about "four hundred men." But at last, after years of rejection, the people's heart turned to- ward him, " and the men of Judah came, and " as if he had never been anointed king before " there (in Hebron) they anointed David king over the house of Judah " (2 Sam. ii. 4).
Thus it is with Christ. From His incarnation He was designated King of the Jews. Jehovah Himself has anointed Him as His king on the holy hill of Zion ; and it was even then announced that " the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." But my people knew not the day of their visitation ; and for all these centuries have resolutely, as a nation, refused to acknow- ledge His claims. Meanwhile, also, the god of this world, " the prince of the power of the air," is permitted in the infinite wisdom of God to usurp Christ's sovereignty over the nations ; and the followers of our blessed, glorious Master are a mere handful of individuals from all nations, who spiritually are like that motley crowd in the cave of Adullam, " in distress, in debt, and discontented, or bitter of soul," because of a sense of sin and sorrow. These are painfully conscious that Jesus Christ is not yet accepted king over the earth ; for instead of a crown, which will come by and by, we have to take up His cross and follow Him "without the camp, bearing His reproach." But as sure as there was a cross planted for Him on that Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem, so surely, if the word and oath of our God stand for anything, is there yet to be a glorious
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throne for our Redeemer and Master on Mount Zion. " The stone which the builders have rejected has become the headstone of the corner ; " and, however marvellous and improbable in our eyes, Israel shall yet "serve Jehovah their God and David their king," and delibe- rately elect Him, whom during centuries of unbelief they have despised and rejected, as their " Nassi " their freely chosen ruler and Prince.
Another beautiful glimpse into the time and circum- stances of Israel's seeking and finding Christ, is to be found in the words of the same prophet at the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth chapters : " I will go and return to My place till they declare them- selves guilty, and seek My face ; in their affliction they will seek Me early." In their fulness these words can only be understood in the light of New Testament history. It is our Lord Jesus who, by His spirit, speaks through the mouth of the prophet. He was the Lamb of God, but by reason of their unbelief and the judgments which have befallen them in consequence of His rejection, His first coming to them, as depicted in the preceding verse, has been " as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah : He has torn and gone away." Whither has He gone ? The answer is : " to My place " to " the glory which He had with the Father J before the world was " (John xvii. 5). Having come from God He went, when His mission of suffering and death was accomplished, to God (John xiii. 3), and there, at His Father's right hand, He will remain " till they declare themselves guilty." The word here is the same, and seems to me to be designedly taken by the prophet from Gen. xlii., where we read the confession of Joseph's brethren in the midst of their trouble in Egypt. " We are verily guilty" they said one to another, " concerning our brother, in that we saw the
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anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear ; therefore is this tribulation come upon us. … Behold, also his blood is required" (Gen. xlii. 21, 22). So it will be with Israel in relation to the Messiah, the Beloved of the Father, whom also they sold for thirty pieces of silver, and whom they have believed all this time to be dead. The day is drawing nigh when this greater than Joseph, who meanwhile has been exalted a Prince and a Saviour, will reveal Himself to His own brethren, but not until, by the aid of the " spirit of grace and supplications which will be poured out upon them," "they declare themselves guilty" of the most terrible crime in their national history, even the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God, and their own brother according to the flesh.
And it was in the time of trouble that this heart- searching among Joseph's brethren took place, and the confession was wrung from them. So it will be with Israel. " In their affliction," in their tribulation (the word being the same as is used to describe " Jacob's trouble " in Jer. xxx. 7, and other scriptures) " they will seek Me early." Then the prophet, reaching out to- wards these promises from afar, and eager to hasten that longed-for time, says : " Come, and let us return to the Lord, for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight."
" One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." For nearly two such millennial days since the Dayspring from on high has visited us, has the national history of Israel been sus- pended, and the nation itself been as dead, but the third is the resurrection day, when the Lord will quicken and help Israel "at the breaking in of the morning" (Psa.
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xlvi. 5, Hebrew). " Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth."
And when once Israel learns to know God in the face of Jesus Christ, and has unveiled to them His absolute truth and righteousness, as well as His infinite love, " they shall fear toward Jehovah and His good- ness in the latter days." His love and forgiveness which they will experience on the ground of re- demption will not make them think lightly of sin, or to have low views of God's holiness. A filial fear will take possession of their hearts in relation to Him, in whom alone they will find, even as we do now, all their blessedness ; in the loss of whose fellowship they will have discovered the cause of all their misery. Yes, this is the effect which the grace of God has on the regenerate heart : " With Thee there is forgiveness that Thou mayest be feared." This is not