The displeasure of God against Israel as His nation led Him to take away the one that He had Himself set before them to be their King. In his overruling wisdom He caused "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," to be put as a title on the cross; and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin: and there, in spite of the Jews, it remained. The title, forced on them by Pilate, was left among men on earth, while Jesus of Nazareth went- on' high, and hid, amid the glories of the eternal throne there, the titles of " The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David " (Rev, v. 5); "the root and the offspring of David " (chap. 22:16); titles which He still wears there, as dear to Him-titles too which He puts before those that now, amid fallen churches, know, and love, and wait for Him "as the bright and morning Star."
The displeasure of God against Israel as His nation will lead Him, so His word assures us, to let them have, in a day yet to come, a king of their own choice. King of wilfulness and man of sin will he turn out to be. Him they will substitute as king for the Christ of God whom the nation once rejected. Coming in his own name and sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God-he will forsake the counsel of the old men -he will chastise them, too, with scorpions. But God, on Whom and on Whose Son, they turned their backs, rejecting the King of the Jews before the wide world-He and the King of His anointing will not be unmoved lookers-on. His King will destroy both the kingdom and the king of their making; and, coming in the name of the Lord, will then be counted blessed.