Small wonder that the apostles said: 'Lord, wilt Thou at this time

restore again the kingdom to Israel?'.  We can go a little further and

consider the testimony of the apostle in the Acts:

'And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God

unto our fathers: unto which promise Our Twelve Tribes, instantly

serving God day and night, hope to come' (Acts 26:6,7).

He that scattered Israel, will gather him.

'And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs

and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and

gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away' (Isa. 35:10).

We do not wish to 'flog a dead horse', but we do ask the reader who may

have inclined to the suggestion put forth by those who teach that there will

be a 'pre -Millennial kingdom', can you honestly place Isaiah 60:1 -22 at

some period prior to this return of Israel, in the absence of their King, and

while the Gentile power still treads down Jerusalem?  See also Isaiah 59:20,

and another presentation of the subject of Israel's restoration in the

article entitled Gathered People (p. 275).

We 'open the book' and note that it commences with 'the words of

Jeremiah', and that Jeremiah's prophetic office lasted until the fifth month

of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, when Jerusalem fell (1:1 -3), and we note

that the last verse of chapter 51 says 'Thus far are the words of Jeremiah'

(64); we must believe that the record of the fulfilment of his prophecy which

occupies chapter 52 and takes us also to the besieging of the city unto 'the

eleventh year of king Zedekiah' (52:5) was added under the inspiration of

God, by another hand.  The record that fills Jeremiah 52 is practically a

verbatim repeat of the record already written in 2 Kings 24 (18 -20) and 25

(1 -30), a few supplemental items only being added.  The book therefore falls

into two parts.

A

1 -51 'The words of Jeremiah', their beginning and their end -- 'thus

A

Historic proof of the truth of his prophecy so far as it

concerned Jerusalem.

At the beginning of Jeremiah's ministry, we meet two symbols, 'the

almond tree' and 'the seething pot' (1:11 -16), and at the close we have the

symbol of the little book specially written and sent to Babylon which was to

be cast into the Euphrates (51:59 -64).  The symbol of the almond tree gives

assurance that the word of the Lord shall be fulfilled.  The Hebrew word for

'almond tree' is shaqed 'the watcher', because it is the first to blossom in

the spring.  The point of the symbol is blunted by the Authorized Version

translation of the corresponding Hebrew verb shaqad by 'hasten'.  This is

rectified in the Revised Version which reads 'I will watch over My word to

perform it'.  The second symbol of a seething pot which was 'from the north'

(R.V.) is explained: