sceptre was not interrupted by the captivity in
Babylon, because the return was promised and foretold.

638. Proofs of Jesus Christ.--Captivity, with the assurance of deliverance
within seventy years, was not real captivity. But now they are captives
without any hope.

God has promised them that, even though He should scatter them to the ends
of the earth, nevertheless, if they were faithful to His law, He would
assemble them together again. They are very faithful to it and remain
oppressed.

639. When Nebuchadnezzar carried away the people, for fear they should
believe that the sceptre had departed from Judah, they were told beforehand
that they would be there for a short time, and that they would be restored.
They were always consoled by the prophets; and their kings continued. But
the second destruction is without promise of restoration, without prophets,
without kings, without consolation, without hope, because the sceptre is
taken away for ever.

640. It is a wonderful thing, and worthy of particular attention, to see
this Jewish people existing so many years in perpetual misery, it being
necessary as a proof of Jesus Christ both that they should exist to prove
Him and that they should be miserable because they crucified Him; and though
to be miserable and to exist are contradictory, they nevertheless still
exist in spite of their misery.

641. They are visibly a people expressly created to serve as a witness to
the Messiah (Isaiah 43:9; 44:8). They keep the books, and love them, and do
not understand them. And all this was foretold; that God's judgments are
entrusted to them, but as a sealed book.

SECTION X: TYPOLOGY

642. Proof of the