t is true, at the same time, a matter-of-fact prophecy
of a sad character. To those who clung to the form, without having in a
living manner laid hold of the substance, and who, therefore, were not
able to partake in the more glorious display of the substance,--to
these it announced that the time was approaching when the form, to
which they had attached themselves with their whole existence, was
to be broken. Since already one of the great privileges of the
covenant-people, the [Greek: doxa] (Rom. ix. 4), had disappeared,
surely all that might and would soon share the same fate, which existed
only for the sake of it, and in it only had its significance. In this
respect, the non-restoration of the Ark of the Covenant showed that the
Chaldean destruction and that by the Romans were connected as
commencement and completion; while, in the other aspect, it declared
that, with the return from the captivity, the realization of God's
great plan of salvation was being prepared. Inasmuch as the most
complete _fuga vacui_ is peculiar to the Covenant-God, the emptiness in
that place where formerly the glory of God dwelt, proclaimed aloud the
future fulness.--_Finally_, we have still to determine the special
reference of our verse to Israel, _i.e._, the former kingdom of the ten
tribes. This reference is, by most interpreters, entirely lost sight
of, and is very superficially and erroneously determined by those who,
like _Calvin_, pay attention to it. In the preceding verse, it had been
promised to Israel, that those blessings should again be bestowed upon
them, which they had forfeited by their rebellion against the Davidic
house, and that they should be restored to them with abundant interest.
For David's house is to attain to its completion in its righteous
Sprout. This Shepherd, who is, in the fullest sense, what His ancestor
had only imperfectly been--a man according to the heart of God--shall
feed them with knowledge and understanding. _Here_, a compensation is
promised for the second, infinitely greater loss, which [Pg 394] had,
at all times, been acknowledged as such by the faithful in the kingdom
of the ten tribes. The revelation of the Lord over the Ark of the
Covenant was the magnet which constantly drew them to Jerusalem. Many
sacrificed all their earthly possessions, and took up their abode in
Judea. Others went on a pilgrimage from their natural to their
spiritual home, to the "throne of the glory exalted from the
begin