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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
October, 1933
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reality remained untouched. It is even so with the king dom of God. The interregnum, even, is only seeming. To us a seeming interregnum o f 2500 years looks like a disso lution o f the kingdom, and a failure of the divine plan. But in the divine reckoning, the time is only two and a half days, and the hiatus is only seeming. A n O l d T e s t a m e n t P ic t u r e A little incident in the story of the kings o f Judah seems as if given on purpose as a crutch to our limping faith, to help us across a chasm, so we can grasp the real con tinuity of God’s kingdom in David’s promised line. The defection o f the ten tribes at the accession of Rehoboam did not affect the fulfillment o f God’s promise to David. The whole tribe o f Judah, and at least portions o f other tribes, remained loyal to the chosen line. The posterity of David succeeded him, without a break, to the seventh gen eration. But before the eighth came to the throne, a seem-' ing break occurred. The wicked Athaliah, the daughter of the notorious Ahab and Jezebel, became the wife o f King Joram. Her son Ahaziah succeeded his father to the throne. On his death, Athaliah undertook the wholesale assassina tion o f the seed royal and usurped the throne, and for six years seemed secure in her usurpation. But “ one woman’s ruthlessness is outwitted by another woman’s cunning.” Jehosheba, the sister of King Ahaziah and wife of Jehoiada the high priest, secreted Joash, an infant of the seed royal; and he was hid with her six years while Athaliah reigned. The throne was occupied by an enemy and usurper for a period o f only six years. The number six is, significantly, one, short of seven, the number o f completeness. We need not here repeat the details as to how Jehoiada, in the sev enth year o f Joash, assembled the chief men of the nation with the officers and priests and Levites, “ and showed them the king’s son,” crowned and enthroned him, and put to death the wicked usurper and her idolatrous priest. Nor does the sacred historian ever refer to this six-year period o f usurpation as a time when the kingdom o f Judah had ceased to be. The royal seed was not extinct, although Satan, through Athaliah, had planned its extinction. The real king was alive, though hidden, safely protected, and awaiting his formal coronation. A G r e a t e r T h r o n e U s u r p e d . Is it not easy to see here an enactment in miniature of a scene that has been in the process o f being enacted for centuries, and on which the curtain has not yet fallen? Since the days o f Nebuchadnezzar, no king has appeared on David’s throne. A usurper, the god o f this world, has been exercising dominion, through the agency of Gentile kings. But the true line of the royal seed has never been extinct. Down through the captivities, the Maccabean struggles and the Roman supremacy, there was always living a legal heir to David’s throne, so that really the scepter had not departed from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh came, and since His birth in Bethlehem, He has been hidden in the secret place o f the Most High. The prophetic words of the psalmist, “ For in the time o f trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me,” so minutely ful filled to David in his son Joash in the temple at Jerusalem,
[Because he believes God has a great ministry for the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles to perform in the fast-darkening days of this dispensation of grace, Dr. Elbert L. McCreery, a son o f the author o f the accompanying article, is returning as Dean of the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles. His father before him was a warm friend of the Institute, one who gave of his means fo r its support and his prayers fo r its strengtheningSEmTon] IP h e Bible is first and above all else, the story o f the kingdom o f God on the earth. The kingdom, in its essential elements, is found in its very first chapter. Genesis 1 de scribes the preparation of the earth as the home o f man and the scene o f his rule; then follows the story of his cre ation in the image o f God, and his investiture with divine dominion over the earth and all its creatures: Genesis 3 records how man lost his God-given dominion, mortgaging it for a taste o f pleasant fruit, to Satan, who thus becomes the god o f this world. But, in the very same chapter, God reveals His purpose to win back the kingdom for humanity, through the divine seed o f the woman, who was to be at once its Redeemer and eternal King. In the development o f the divine plan, God selected the line o f the promised seed, through whom the Saviour was to come and the kingdom to be reestablished. He chose Seth from among the sons o f Adam, and.Shem from the family o f Noah; and from his posterity, Abraham, to be the father o f the chosen nation; and Jacob to be their tribal ancestor; and Judah from among his sons to be the head of the royal tribe; and out of that royal tribe He took David from herding his father’s sheep, to be the shepherd king o f his people, Israel. This kingdom, established under David, was not to be like other kingdoms, existing for a while and then suc ceeded by another of earth’s passing nations. God made a wonderful covenant with David, as recorded in the sev enth chapter of 2 Samuel, and accentuated and more fully detailed in several o f the Psalms. From these and similar passages, we see that David was to have a posterity, a throne, and a people with a per manent habitation; that the kingdom o f David should not be temporary, like other kingdoms, but should endure through the ages; that this kingdom, starting with the Is raelites in Palestine, shall finally embrace all the kingdoms o f the earth; that the future glorious kingdom o f the Mes siah shall be a continuation o f the kingdom o f David; and that its glorious King will hold His title to the kingdoms of this world as David’s Son, sitting on David’s throne. But we are met at once with the objection that the cov enant with David promises a perpetual kingdom, through an unbroken line of succession; while the fact is that no king of David’s line has occupied his throne since Zede- kiah was carried to Babylon. Yes, it seems, but only seems as though God’s promise to David had failed, or that God did not mean just what He said to David. But we do well to remember that whatever else may fail, God’s Word standeth sure. On August 24, 1814, our capital city was captured by the British, and the capitol building burned to the ground. But no historian has made the mistake o f asserting that on that date the United States o f America, for a period', ceased to exist. The material symbol— the visible habitation only— o f our government was destroyed or captured; the vital ^
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