The History

2 Samuel 7: 16 " And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. "

If the throne of David no longer exists here on earth then the Bible is a fraud. You may as well take your Bible and throw it out the window, or in the thrash bin right now, if the Throne of David has been wiped out. If the Jews are all of Israel, as so many people say, then where is the throne ? Who is the King of the Jews ? And don't give me the argument that Christ now occupies that throne, but occupies it from heaven. This is false. If Christ now occupies that throne from heaven then the Bible is a fraud, because the Throne of David would have ceased to exist from the time of Zedekiah(586 BC) up to the time of Christ (33 AD). The Bible says the throne was to be established forever.

The truth is Christ will take over that throne when He returns. Christ is a descendant of King David. Christ's Kingdom has not yet been established here on earth. It will only be established when He returns to rule the earth (Revelation 11:15).

The nation of Israel was divided into two Kingdoms shortly after the death of Solomon. The northern ten tribes revolted against the house of David, against the Monarchy. They wanted a break in the high taxes that Solomon had saddled them with (1 Kings 12: 3-5). But Solomon's son Rehoboam answered roughly and promised further burdens for the people to bear(1 Kings 12:12-17). So the northern ten tribes rebelled and were called Israel (1 Kings 12:19). The southern tribe of Judah remained loyal to the crown and King Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:17, 20) (1 Kings 11: 35-37).

The northern ten tribes (now referred to as Israel) continued to exist as an independent nation, separate from Judah for the next 200 years !! In 722 BC, God was finally completely fed up with their idolatry and sent the Assyrians to conquer them (2 Kings 17: 1-18). The Assyrians exiled the northern tribes called Israel and sent a different people to live in that land. They eventually became known as Samaritans (2 Kings 17:24-41). Israel was taken captive and never returned.

Where did these northern tribes go? Well there is very much evidence to suggest these tribes eventually migrated to NW Europe. They had a tradition of each tribe remaining distinct. So the tradition did not die. Each retained their own tribal cohesion, but over time their identity as the tribes of Israel faded. They were still part of Israel, but were no longer aware of it.

Judah remained in the land as a separate country, from the split with the northern ten tribes called Israel in roughly 920 BC up to 586 BC - about 334 years. Judah was a separate nation by itself for about 334 years !! But God was finally fed up with their idolatry and unfaithfulness. He caused the Babylonians to attack Judah and take most of them captive to Babylon in 586 BC (2 Kings 17:18-20) (2 Kings 25th chapter).

Seventy years later God caused a remnant to return and rebuild the walls around Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple (Jeremiah 29:10) (2 Chronicles 36:22-23 ). The books of Ezra and Nehemiah deal extensively with this return. However, Judah never really regained independence, but remained a colony, or province of various Empires. But they regained independence and a homeland in 1948.

When Judah was conquered by the Babylonians,

King Zedekiah of Judah fled. However, he was captured and taken to Babylon for trial. King Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah's sons killed. Zedekiah was blinded, and jailed in Babylon(2 Kings 25:5-7). And the nobles of Judah were also slaughtered (Jeremiah 39:6-7).

So was this the end of the Throne of David ? No ! The King's daughters had survived the slaughter ! A remnant of Judah were left in Judea. Some hot heads rebelled against the Babylonians and set out for Egypt. They forced Jeremiah and the King's daughters to go with them to Egypt (Jeremiah 43:1-7 note verse 6). Well The Babylonians came not long after and conquered Egypt too !

The Bible tells us no more about Jeremiah, Baruch and the King's daughters. We must pick up the story from history and tradition. Tradition says that Jeremiah, with Baruch and the King's daughters set sail West. Jeremiah eventually landed in what is now Ireland with one of the King Zedekiah's daughters - Tea Tephi (apparently the other daughter was left in Spain). Jeremiah also brought along Jacob's Pillar Stone.

Centuries earlier the Zerah line of the Royal family had migrated to that land. Tea Tephi was of the Pharez branch (Genesis 38: 24- 30).

Genesis chapter 38 - Now Zerah and Pharez were the sons of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar. Judah's son Er had married Tamar, but Er was wicked in God's sight, so God killed him. The tradition was if a man died without an offspring then his brother was supposed to marry her, and the first child born would belong to the dead brother, so the child could inherit the dead man's estate and carry on his name. So Onan, Judah's second son took Tamar for a wife, but he refused to do the job of begetting a child for Er. Man alive you would think he would have done it with pleasure. Kept spilling the sperm on the bed. Good grief ! Selfish lout ! This displeased the Lord and so God killed Onan too. Well the next son in line to marry Tamar was too young, so Judah told Tamar to remain a widow, until Judah's son Shelah was grown.

Well then later on Judah's wife died. Hard luck Judah. Shelah was now grown, but Tamar realized Judah wasn't going to give Shelah to her for a husband. Maybe Judah figured he would lose his last son too. Tamar must have looked like bad luck for him.

Anyways Tamar covered her face and sat beside the road in an open place. Judah came along and thought she was a prostitute and propositioned her. He apparently didn't recognize her as Tamar. What's with these men ? They don't even want to know who they are having sex with ! For payment, for services rendered Judah promised her a baby goat, or sheep. Clever Tamar didn't trust Judah, so she asked him to give her something as a pledge, or deposit until he delivered the goat ....... the goods.

Well this cohabitation resulted in Tamar getting pregnant. When rotten Judah found out Tamar was pregnant he was going to have her burnt, because the rumour was that Tamar got pregnant through prostitution. Seems like there were a lot of gossips in those days too. Well Tamar delivered up the things Judah had left as a deposit and said the owner of these things is the Daddy. Judah had to admit the obvious. Got ya ! Whether he was embarrassed and red faced by being found out is not stated in the Bible. Maybe he was proud. Who knows. Anyways Er will finally have someone to carry on the name.

Tamar's time to give birth came and she had twins in her womb. It must of been a hard delivery. One little boy stuck out his hand first. So the midwife tied a scarlet thread onto the kids wrist, because he was the first. Being the firstborn was pretty important in those days. The firstborn inherited the most. This must have been a scary experience for Tamar having twins. Childbirth in them days was often fatal for women, not like in Canada today where we have things like caesarean sections. Anyways that little sucker with the scarlet thread on his wrist, pulled back in his hand ! And by golly the other boy can't wait and comes out instead ! This boy was named Pharez. The scarlet thread kid was named Zerah.

King David and all the Kings of Judah, up to the last one Zedekiah, were of the Pharez line. However, the breach was finally healed and the Throne was transferred to the Zerah line. This is how it happened. It is a very interesting story, very complicated. Maybe God likes to create riddles, so we can have things to figure out and mull over.

Ezekiel 17:1-4 " And the word of the Lord came unto me , saying, Son of man put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the House of Israel; And say, Thus saith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colors came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar: He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a land of merchants. " The highest, young and tender branch is symbolic of the King's young daughter. She is plucked off and taken to another land - to the land currently called Ireland.

Ezekiel 17:22-24 " Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of the young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:

" In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.

" And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and done it."

The young tender twig is symbolic of the King's young daughter. It is to be planted in a high mountain and mountain is symbolic of a nation in Bible prophecy. The daughter is transplanted to a different nation. Where ? In " the mountain of the height of Israel, " which means the daughter is taken from Judah to one of the other tribes of Israel. Tea Tephi fulfills this prophecy perfectly.

The green tree being dried up and brought down low is symbolic of the Pharez line of the Royal family. King David and his successor Kings were all part of that lineage (Matthew 1:1-3). King Zedekiah was part of the Pharez line too, but he was imprisoned and his sons were killed.

The dry and low tree, which God causes to flourish is symbolic of the Zerah line of the Royal family that had migrated to Ireland centuries before. Tea Tephi transfers the Throne of David to the Zerah line by marrying the Milesian King Eochaide (who was of the Zerah line). The Throne of David has been successfully transferred from conquered Judah to another tribe of Israel. The mysterious breach was healed. It is a long and fascinating study.