Last time, we noted that traditional history records that one of King Zedekiah's daughters (Jeremiah 41:10) married an Irish prince of the Jewish line of Zerah just before Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. Many today, steeped in the skepticism and evolutionary thinking of this world, believe that travel or commerce between such far-flung realms was impossible in those days, but a careful study of history shows that it is not fanciful at all to adduce that an Irish prince was visiting Jerusalem in the sixth century BC. The ancients were more traveled than most people realize, and international relations—complete with ambassadors, protocols, and "diplomatic immunity"—were extant as well.

For instance, Nehemiah 11:24 mentions a certain Pethahiah, who was probably one such ambassador. More importantly, he was "of the children of Zerah, the son of Judah, [and] was the king's deputy in all matters concerning the people." The word deputy literally means "hand." In modern idiom, Pethahiah was the Persian king's "right-hand man." As strange as it may seem, several generations after Jeremiah's day, a highly placed Jew (that is, someone of Judah) worked in the Persian court to look after the Jews in Palestine.

We do not need to read too much between the lines to understand from this scripture that Ireland had diplomatic relations with the Persians, and Pethahiah, possibly of the Irish royal family, was sent to Persia to represent the interests of the Jews in Palestine. That is, the Irish king, himself a Jew in that he descended from Judah, felt responsible for the Jews in Palestine. Since he did not enjoy hegemony over that part of the world, he looked after their interests through a highly placed person—virtually an ambassador—in the Persian court. Even in today's complex world of foreign relations, this technique is a common method through which a leader can exercise a measure of control over an area outside his immediate authority.

The marriage of one of Zedekiah's daughters—of the Perez branch of Judah—to a prince of the Zerah branch healed the breach in Judah's family. Through this healing, God

• perpetuated the Davidic monarchy, as required by the unconditional promise to David in II Samuel 7:16. The offspring of the Irish prince and Zedekiah's daughter would legitimately bring the two branches together indefinitely, as one family, one monarchy.
• maintained the authority of the Davidic monarchy over the "house of Israel," as God prophesied in Jeremiah 33:17.

Jeremiah received the job of transporting the royal couple back to Ireland. Jeremiah 1:9-10 recounts God's commission to Jeremiah, at the time a teenager: "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant."

Jeremiah's task was so important that God had prepared him for it from his conception (verse 5). He encouraged Jeremiah by telling him not to fear those to whom he would be sent, "for I am with you to deliver you" (verse 8). He ends His commission in verse 19, assuring Jeremiah that the people to whom he would be sent will "fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you, . . . to deliver you."

Jeremiah was destined to carry on God's work over the objections of entire nations and kingdoms (note the plurals). God did not only use Jeremiah in His purpose to root out, pull down, destroy, and overthrow the Perez-centered monarchy, but also to plant and build a Zerah-Perez monarchy. Let us see how God did all this.

Jeremiah 40:1-5 describes the favor God granted Jeremiah in the eyes of the Babylonians. The captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, gave Jeremiah leave to go "wherever it seems good and convenient for you to go" (verse 4). However, Jeremiah followed the captain's urgings (verse 5), and stayed with Gedaliah, the governor of the area.

Note that Jeremiah did not choose to go to Babylon. Jeremiah certainly remembered what God had revealed to him, as recorded in Jeremiah 33:17, "David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel." He knew that it was not his task to "build up" the throne of David in a Gentile land. His was not the task of overthrowing a Gentile throne at this time. Jeremiah knew full well that he had to carry the Davidic monarchy to the people of Israel.

Jeremiah's party consisted of his secretary, Baruch, at least one of Zedekiah's daughters, and her husband, the Irish prince and heir to the throne of Zerah. Considering the rank of the people Jeremiah was escorting, the party certainly included servants of various sorts as well. As time passed, the party expanded to include the couple's son, who, tradition has it, was born in Spain. Jeremiah led these people to Ireland via Spain, where they arrived about 569 BC, some sixteen years after Jerusalem's fall.

David's throne did not become defunct with the death of Zedekiah's sons. It remains intact, awaiting Christ's return. Jeremiah did not plant it in a Gentile nation, such as Babylon, nor did he hide it in Jerusalem. Christ, during His first coming, did not "dig it up." During His human lifetime, it was a Gentile throne—that of Rome—that held sway over the Jews in Palestine. He left it that way at His ascension.

However, as Isaiah 9:7 states, Christ will ultimately sit "upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time [the time of His return] forward, even forever." Centuries after Isaiah, the archangel Gabriel said the same thing to Mary, as recorded in Luke 1:32: Her son "will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David."

The Key of David is vital knowledge indeed! Lacking that knowledge, it would be impossible to locate David's throne, his dynasty. We could search high and low, looking north among the American Eskimos and the Siberian Yakuts, vainly studying the legends of the North and South American aborigines, finally asking the Bedouins of the Middle East and the Ethiopians of Africa. Some have done this. Yet, they have failed to find the throne of David.

However, when we look for a perpetual dynasty, one without hiatus, one that has to this day never lacked a monarch, our field of search narrows considerably. God has been loyal to His promise to David. Our search criteria on the Key of David remain intact.