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and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days'
(Hos. 3:4,5).
As we have seen the outward symbol of the Lord's presence with Israel was the shekinah-glory which began to be
associated with Israel at the beginning of the historical kingdom at Sinai, when `the Lord descended upon it in fire'
(Exod. 19:18), so that `the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai' (Exod. 24:15, 16).
It was at this point that Israel received the laws of the kingdom and its constitution, ending with the Tabernacle,
which was filled with the glory of the Lord (Exod. 40:34). Later, in the time of Solomon, when he had completed
the magnificent Temple in the land of Israel, we read that:
`the fire came down from heaven ... and the glory of the LORD filled the house' (2 Chron. 7:1).
In the interval we are assured that `the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way;
neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light' (Neh. 9:19). Thus the shekinah glory was the visible evidence
of the personal presence of the Lord in the kingdom of Israel throughout its history up to Ezekiel's day. However,
the prophet describes in chapters 8-11 the vision of this glory slowly departing from the nation, as Jehovah
withdraws His presence from this people who had sunk so low in idolatry and apostasy. He did it as though
reluctantly, for first of all the glory was gone up `to the threshold of the house' (9:3); and later it `stood over the
threshold' ( 10:4) and then the cherubim lifted up their wings and `the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of
the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city' (11:23) and from this time onwards the
symbol of the visible presence of God vanished.
Later on a temple was built to replace the majestic one Solomon had erected, but we have no record of God's
glory there. Three outstanding events combine to show that the end of the historical kingdom of Israel had come
which had lasted approximately for eight centuries.
(1)
Israel had filled their cup of iniquity `till there was no remedy' (2 Chron. 36:11-16) and now God transferred
world supremacy to Gentile power. This was seen in the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar recorded in Daniel 2 and
interpreted by Daniel under God's guidance. Babylon was to be the `head of gold' (Dan. 2:38) followed by three
Gentile empires in unbroken succession. With the kingdom of Babylon we have the beginning of `the times of the
Gentiles' described by the Lord Jesus in Luke 21:23, 24 and this will go on until the end time of this age and His
Second Coming to the earth, when once more the `God of heaven' will establish the kingdom with saved and
restored Israel as its centre, never again to be spoiled or interrupted (Dan. 2:44).
(2)
The prophet Jeremiah reveals God's ban, putting an end to the succession of Solomon's family to the throne
of Israel. This concerned Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim. He was known by two other names, Jeconiah (Jer. 24:1)
and Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:6). The solemn utterance of the prophet is recorded in Jeremiah 22:29,30:
`O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that
shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling
any more in Judah'.
Jehoiachin and his successor Zedekiah were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon and they finally died
there. There appears to be a difficulty in the fact that Jehoiachin actually had a son in captivity, through whom the
family line culminated in Joseph, the husband of the virgin Mary (Matt. 1:12-16). But Joseph was not the father of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the seed of Mary, descended from David through Nathan (Luke 3:31) and not
through Solomon.
Jehoiachin was therefore written `childless' so far as the genealogical register of the royal family line.
(3)
The third significant event was the withdrawal of the glory of the Lord from Israel to which we have alluded.
While there was a measure of restoration to the land after Israel's 70 years of captivity, yet the nation never had full
possession of it, and the long dark time of Israel's rejection described by Hosea commenced when Israel would be
`many days without a king, and without a prince and without a sacrifice', until the future time of Christ's Second
Advent when they will `return and seek the Lord their God ... and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter
days' (Hos. 3:4, 5). Those days are still future to us now.