my lips". "Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David." Again we

have the seed and the throne, "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 the faithful witness in

heaven". Surely, words cannot be clearer! This promise to David was fulfilled, of

course, in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was the literal descendant of David, as His

genealogy given in Matthew's Gospel shows.

Shall we now turn to the prophecy of Isa. 9:? Some of us know verse 6 because it is

so often quoted at Christmas time: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given

and the government shall be upon His shoulder." Here is the Seed of David, the King of

Israel, "and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And his name shall be called,

Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God". Yes, the helpless Babe, born in Bethlehem,

the Son given, is "The Mighty God"!

"Great is the mystery of godliness", wrote the Apostle Paul centuries later, "God was

manifest in the flesh", in human form. "The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father", better,

"the Father of the ages", the One who has created the span of time, the One Who is the

origin of the ages. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us this in chapter 1:: "By Whom He

made the ages", "the worlds" in our A.V. but "ages" in the original. He is also "The

Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end";

"there shall be no end upon the throne of David". This is the throne that Psa. 89:

speaks about, "and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and

with justice from henceforth", for how long?, "for ever"! Who is going to bring it to pass

and how is it going to happen? Listen! "The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this".

God's zeal, God's intense passion to finish His plan will bring it to pass, will accomplish

this mighty purpose. The government, the rule of the world and all creation, will be on

His shoulder; it is not yet, otherwise we should not have the terrible confusion and

trouble that we see all around us. The Epistle to the Hebrews says: "We see not yet all

things put under Him." He is still rejected of men; perhaps He is still rejected by

someone who is reading these lines.  But there is a day coming when the government,

all rule, shall be on His shoulder, when, at last, as Phil. 2: tells us, "Every knee shall

bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth", every knee, no

exception, and at last He will be acknowledged by all to be the Lord, the great Jehovah of

the O.T. Here is then the promise concerning the Leader, the King of Israel, and the

throne of David.

How is the theme picked up when we actually come to the birth of Christ? Let us turn

to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1: Here is the angel talking to His mother, Mary and this

is what he says: "Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and

shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:

and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David", just as Psa. 89:

foretold and Isa. 9: spoke about. Here is the fulfillment of the promise. "And he shall

reign over the house of Jacob", the people of Israel, "for ever". This is just Isaiah

asserted, "of his kingdom there shall be no end". Later on in this chapter, we come to

Zacharias, who was "filled with the Holy Ghost" (verse 67), and being filled with the

Holy Ghost he was not giving us his own opinions. This is what he says in his song