Does Queen Elizabeth Sit on the Throne of David?

by
Byker Bob

In a word, no.  And, having stated that fact, let's immediately turn to the scriptural reference

supporting this conclusion before we lose some readers!

Ezekiel 21:13  Testing will surely come.  And what if even the scepter, which the sword

despises,does not continue? declares the Sovereign Lord.

Ezekiel 21:24-27  Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Because you people have

brought to mind your guilt by your open rebellion, revealing your sins in all that you do--because

you have done this, you will be taken captive.

You profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose time of punishment has

reached its climax, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Take off the turban, remove the crown.  

It will not be as it was:  The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low.  

A ruin!  A ruin! I will make it a ruin!  The crown will not be restored until he to whom it

rightfully belongs shall come; to him will I give it.

Have you ever seen these verses before?  I ask this because those who teach theories

regarding the lost tribes of Israel are not generally in the habit of quoting or exploring them.  

I assure my readers that they are most definitely contained in your Bible!

So that there are no mistakes about the application of this prophecy, let's review and consider

several pertinent facts.  Just prior to his death, Jacob's prophetic prayer and blessing over his

sons stated that  the scepter would be vested in Judah.  Judah's older brothers had disqualified

themselves from receiving the normal birthright and positions of reponsibility over their brothers

through some of their grossly sinful activities. (Gen. 49:10)  From the accounts in Genesis, we

see that Judah had assumed his position as the natural leader amongst his brothers.  Jacob's  

prophecy continued in its fulfillment, first through David, and then in Jesus Christ.  Following the

death of Solomon, Jereboam the son of Nebat led a rebellion against Solomon's true heir,

Rehoboam, and began an illegitimate monarchy, which assumed rulership over the Northern

Tribes of Israel.   Ezekiel was active as a prophet of God from 593-571 BC.  His prophecy,

quoted in the verses above,  was addressed towards Jerusalem and the sanctuary (Ez. 21:1).  

Jerusalem was the capital of the united Israel under David and Solomon.  Following Israel's

secession, it remained the capital of Judah.

As we demonstrated in our earlier article, British Israelism Revisited, large numbers of Israelites

from the Northern Tribes had migrated south to live in the covenant lands of Judah in the  

centuries prior to the fall of Israel to the Assyrians, and the ensuing exile.  Unlike the kings of

kings of Judah were frequently considered to be good kings, in that they had actually governed

their nation in keeping with the laws of God, shunning idolatry.  Some had invited anyone from

the northern tribes who wished to do the same to emigrate south.  Several such migrations

are recorded in the Bible, especially from the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, all of which we

had documented from scripture in that earlier article.  The Southern Kingdom, with Jerusalem as

its capital, by that time included numerous peoples from all of the tribes in addition

to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi.  Therefore, Ezekiel was totally accurate in using the

term "Israel" to describe this area, and "prince of Israel" to describe Zedekiah, the last king of

Judah prior to the Babylonian captivity. Since the Northern Kingdom had already fallen many

decades prior to Ezekiel's birth, in 722 BC, this prophecy can only describe the fall of Jerusalem

in 586 BC, and specifically the removal of the crown from Zedekiah.  

It is important to remember that it was never the will of God that there be human kings over His

covenant people, Israel.  This is something with which we are all very familiar.  When the

Israelites approached Samuel, and lobbied for a human king as the gentile nations had, God let

His wisdom on this be known in no uncertain terms:

I Samuel 8:6-9  But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel, so

he prayed to the Lord.  And the Lord told him:  "Listen to all that the people are saying to

you;  it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.  As they have

done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving

other gods, so they are doing to you.  Now listen to them, but warn them solemnly and

let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights."

God intended for Israel to be governed as a Theocracy, not a monarchy.  He was their King!  

God governed  through chosen, spirit-led priests who were close to Him by nature of their

duties, and who were often assisted by the prophets.  I will not indulge in lengthy quotes from

the post-exilic books of the Old Testament, but anyone who reads the books of Ezra and

Nehemiah will be impressed with one profound absence.  There was no native Israelite

king!  The Medes and Persians allowed the Israelites and Jews who returned from the exile to

govern themselves according to their own God-given laws.  Theocracy was restored, with

Israel also paying tribute to the Medo-Persian kings.  Hundreds of years later, during the

intertestamental period, the Hasmonean kings whose exploits against Helenism are

chronicled in the deuterocanonical books of the Maccabees were actually priests.  Josephus

identifies Judas Maccabeus and his brothers as being descended from the Levitical priestly

line. Later, in Roman times, we find the Jews again with a king, but the Herodian kings were

actually Idumean, not from the tribe of Judah.  From Josephus we learn that the Idumeans

had been converted into Judaism following their conquest by John Hyrcannus, a descendent

of Judas Maccabeus.  The Herodian line was established by the Romans, and constituted

another illegitimate monarchy.  Arguably, the Herods became the very pinnacle of fulfillment

of the prophecies God gave to Samuel concerning what to expect from a king.  

While King Zedekiah was the prince of Israel referenced  to in Ezekiel's prophecy, the

one to whom the throne rightfully belongs can only be Jesus Christ.  There never was any

emergency requiring a prophet to spirit some princesses and Jacob's pillar stone off to

England to transplant and perpetuate the throne of David.  Such an activity, had it occurred,  

would have actually thwarted the fulfillment of Ezekiel's  prophecy!  Human kings had led

God's people into evil and idolatry,   Has the British monarchy established any better track

record of obedience to God than did the kings of Israel or Judah?  Even a casual study of

the history of England rules that notion out!  There has been a similar mixture of good and evil.  

Herbert Armstrong always taught that sabbath keeping was the true identifier of God's

people.  The British monarchy and the British people have never been identified with the

sabbath.  Even if for the sake of argumentation we allow ourselves to use the HWA model

as our criteria, how could non-sabbatarian British monarchs be viewed  as "he to whom

it rightfully belongs"?  

Jesus Christ, in His human life,  was directly descended from both Abraham and from David,

as God had preplanned.  In a very real sense, through Jesus Christ there has never been a time

when God's promise to David was in jeopardy. Was the British monarchy ordained of God?  Do

they have authority over subjects?  Yes, just as any other human government.   Paul tells us in

Romans 13 that there is no authority except that which God has established.  But, the scepter of

Judah is not vested in the British monarchy.  British Israelism is an extrabiblical theory

or teaching. God's chosen people today are the disciples of Jesus Christ, not a physical genetic

group.  God is not a racist.  He created all of the different races, and saw that they were good.

 He bases His favor to humans on our belief in Him, our faith in Him, and our love for Him,

just as He did with Abraham.  

Manasseh and Ephraim were not even pure Israelite!  Joseph's wife, the mother of his children,

was Egyptian.  This could mean many things.  Was she Nubian?  Nubians were black Egyptian.  

Was she Hykksos?  Or Egyptian as we know the Egyptians today?  We simply don't know the

answer to these questions.  Perhaps that is as was intended by a God who places value upon

his children not due to their genetic makeup, but because of what is in their hearts!

 More by this author:
"British Israelism Revisited"

The Ten Tribes

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