en left of the superiority of the tribe of Judah, at
the time when Christ appeared? But if we look deeper, we shall find no
reason for such feeble interpretations. The fulness of strength which,
notwithstanding the deepest humiliation, still dwelt in the sceptre of
Judah at the time when Christ appeared, is made manifest by the very
appearance of Christ--the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Although
faint-heartedness, perceiving only what is immediately before the eyes,
might have said, "The sceptre has departed from [Pg 66] Judah," to
every one who was not blinded it must have been evident, at the very
moment when Christ appeared, that the sceptre had not departed from
Judah. We must not allow ourselves to be perplexed by any events and
arguments adduced to prove that the sceptre _has departed_ from Judah;
for the very same events and arguments would militate against the
eternal dominion of his house which had been promised to David, and
would therefore make us doubtful of that also. All these events and
arguments lose their significancy, when we remark, that this departing
is only an _apparent_, not a _definitive_ one;--that God never, by His
promises, binds the hands of His punitive justice;--that His election
goes always hand-in-hand with the visitation of the sins of the
elected; but that, in the end, the election will stand in all its
validity.[7] To Judah applies exactly what in Ps. lxxxix. 31-35 is said
of David: "If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My
judgments; if they break My statutes, and keep not My commandments;
then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity
with stripes. Nevertheless, My loving-kindness will I not utterly take
from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips." But the
greater the degradation that had come upon Judah, the more consoling is
this promise. If we see that neither the decline of David's and Judah's
dominion after Solomon, nor the apparently total disappearance of
David's kingdom which took place after the Chaldee catastrophe, and
continued for centuries; nor the altogether comfortless condition (when
[Pg 67] looking only at what Is visible) which Jeremiah describes in
the words: "Judah is captive in affliction and great servitude: she
dwelleth among the heathen, and findeth no rest. The anointed of the
Lord, who was our consolation, is taken in their pits, he of whom we
sai