1. The sceptre would not depart from Judah until Shiloh (Messiah) came,

2. The lawgiver (i.e. governing body) would remain between the feet of the king until Shiloh came,

3. David’s dynasty would reign over Israel forever,

4. David’s kingdom (whole House of Israel) would stand forever, and

5. David’s throne would be established forever.

Inasmuch as Scripture tells us that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), and that these same scriptures were given by the Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Truth (2 Peter 1:20-21), then we will accept as axiomatic that David’s throne exists today and that one of his heirs is ruling over the thirteen tribes of Israel. We shall now search the scriptures for clues that will enable us to determine the whereabouts of the House of Israel and Judah and the Davidic throne in the world today.

In this section of Old Testament prophecy, Ezekiel recounts a vision of two great eagles and a cedar tree. The first eagle, very feathery and ornate, represented king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the cedar, the house of Judah (trees are used to represent nations symbolically throughout Scripture). The eagle plucked the highest branch of the cedar, i.e. king Jehoiachin (Jeconiah or Coniah) and "planted" him (with the princes — Jeremiah 24:1-10) in Babylon. These people became a recognisable national group, the Jews, but remained only a part of the kingdom of Israel.

The feathery, ornate eagle, symbol of Babylon in Ezekiel’s vision, passed on into the heraldry of ancient Rome and from there into the heraldry of the Holy Roman Empire, and then into that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. More recently this heraldic emblem also came to represent Germany and Russia.

The second great eagle of Ezekiel’s vision symbolically represented Egypt, with whom Zedekiah, 20th and last king of the House of Judah, sought to make an alliance, even though he had sworn allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. The east wind that was to cause the second eagle’s planting to wither away, i.e. the rebellious residue in Jerusalem, were the Babylonian king and his army.

This revelation given to Ezekiel was completely fulfilled during the ensuing years. The prophet himself had already been taken captive to a foreign land some years prior to the occurrence of these events.

In the same vision God Himself also picked from the top of the tree a young tender twig and "planted" it in "the mountain of the height of Israel."

It should be noted that the place of planting was not Canaan but Israel’s new home!

Again Ezekiel prophesied the removal of king Jehoiachin (Jeconiah or Coniah — the profane, wicked prince as described in Jeremiah 22:24-30) and his replacement by a lesser man, Zedekiah, who was king in name only. The prophet then went on to say that the diadem and crown, symbolically representing the Davidic throne, would be overturned, overturned, overturned.

And then be moved no more until He comes whose (birth-) right it is — i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ. (Isaiah 9:6-7; Luke 1:30-33).

As already mentioned, a small number of the survivors of the siege of Jerusalem were left behind in Canaan. This group, in spite of God’s explicit instructions to the contrary (Jeremiah 42:19), eventually made its way down to Egypt. Included in this small party were Jeremiah the prophet, Baruch his scribe, and the daughters of the now-deceased King Zedekiah. The Bible gives no further direct information about the whereabouts of the throne of David.

After being forced to go down into Egypt with a group of survivors of the siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah, Baruch and Zedekiah’s daughters escaped from that country and made their way to Spain. About 583 B.C. a ship of the tribe of Dan, i.e. Iberian Danaan in the Irish language of that era, was wrecked off the north-east coast of Ireland. On board this vessel were:

1. a royal princess of the name Tamar Tephi, (Hebrew for "Palm Beautiful" (i.e. the Tender Twig prophesied by Ezekiel,

2. a man known as Ollamh Fodhla meaning "Holy Seer" or "Holy Prophet", and

3. an historic stone known as Lia Fail, or "the Stone Wonderful".

This shipwrecked party was none other than the prophet Jeremiah, his scribe Baruch and one of Zedekiah’s daughters. The arrival in Ireland of this stone, which was indeed the Shepherd Stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24), i.e. Jacob’s pillar; and it was at this pillar that all the Davidic kings were crowned (see e.g. 2Kings 11:12-14), represented the first overturn of the Davidic throne as outlined in Ezekiel’s prophecy.

It would appear that the assertion that the throne of David became established in Ireland could be completely false in view of the fact that shortly after the arrival of this party, the young princess and Eochaidh, the Irish king, were married, thereby breaching God’s law of inheritance. It is at this very point in history that the Lord God once again demonstrates the wonderful inevitability of His plan and purpose for Israel. God’s immutable law required that every daughter possessing an inheritance must marry into her own tribe. As Tamar Tephi was of the tribe of Judah, her marriage to Eochaidh would only be valid in God’s eyes if he also were of the seed of Judah.

We must now once again look back into ancient Bible history in an attempt to resolve this problem. Following Jacob’s second encounter with his God at Bethel, he and his large family established themselves in Canaan and continued to prosper. It was during this time that Tamar was found to be with twins by Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons. During her labour, one child’s hand appeared and the midwife, assuming that this would be the first born, tied a scarlet cord about its wrist. however, this was not to be as the other child shouldered his brother out of the way and so was born first. The first-born baby was named Pharez, and his brother with the cord about his wrist was called Zarah. The descendants of these historically important twin boys are shown in Table 11.

Ancient history reveals that Calcol settled in Northern Ireland and some of his descendants later moved over to Scotland. Calcol’s ancient heraldic emblem of the scarlet cord around the red hand is found in the Ulster coat of arms to this very day. Darda also moved on and founded the ancient city of Troy on the Dardanelles. Following the overthrow and destruction of that city by the Greeks, his descendants migrated to Spain and then on to England. There they founded "Caer Troia", i.e. New Troy, which later became known to the Romans as Londinium, and today this ancient city is called London.

Irish history unequivocally identifies Eochaidh as a direct descendant of Calcol, so that his marriage to Tamar Tephi not only reunited the two branches of Judah’s family,

but also completely fulfilled the requirements of God’s law for the marriage of heiresses. As was Eochaidh, so too all his successors were crowned kings of Ireland while sitting on Jacob’s Pillar, until it was removed to Scotland in A.D. 503 by Fergus Mhore. This event represented the second Overturn of David’s throne. In the year 1296 A.D. this stone was again moved, this time to London by King Edward I, thereby bringing about the third and final) Overturn of the throne of Israel; and there it will remain, as Ezekiel prophesied (Ezekiel 21:27), "until he (i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ) come whose (birth) right it is."

This historically amazing piece of rock, known at differing periods of time as Jacob’s Pillar, the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel, Lia Fail, the Stone of Scone, Lea Gael, and the Stone of Destiny, was until recently located in Westminster Abbey, where it was housed by King Edward 1 in a special wooden chair. In A.D. 1989 this Stone was returned to Edinborough but it will be returned to Westminster Abbey when future British monarchs are to be crowned.

As were the Irish kings, so also were the Scottish and English kings crowned while sitting on this stone, as indeed was Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her coronation in A.D. 1953. This same practice was followed during the coronation of the Davidic kings in Old Testament times (2 Kings 11:12-14; 2 Chronicles 23:11-13).

As King Solomon sat upon the Throne of the Lord, so too, one hundred and twenty four generations later, does Queen Elizabeth 11,

who, of course, is also direct descendant of King David. The movement of Jacob’s Pillar from Jerusalem to London is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The three overturnings of the Davidic throne from Jerusalem to Ireland, to Scotland and ultimately to England.