Pots of Clay
The Lord led me to study "clay" about four years ago. This post is the second in a series of three articles about the instruction that I received, and continue to receive, from studying the scriptures relating to the "clay of God" and how He, the potter, relates to us.
Lamentations 4:2
How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter's hands!
To understand Lamentations, I had to know more about the context of this book. Jerusalem, capitol of Judah had fallen to the Babylonians. The Temple was destroyed. Jeremiah had
warned the Israelites, or Judeans, that disaster was going to overtake them if they continued to worship and follow the gods of their neighbors. Jeremiah had also warned them to submit to Babylon, instead of seeking
Egypt's help to overthrow the Babylonian rule. (Read Jeremiah,
A Faithful Follower) In Chapter 4 of Lamentations, the Israelites are trying to have hope that even with this disaster, brought on by sin, God is working for his people
if they will rely on him.
The Potter's Hands
The precious sons of Zion stopped acknowledging God as the one true God, the Master Potter who created man with his hands. God wants to be in a loving relationship with his people. However, in the face of fullblown rebellion, he sent prophets to warn the nation to return to him. Instead, the nation continued importing goods and religion from their more sophisticated and powerful neighbors
Warned to Repent
Israel had been warned to repent and had ignored the warnings. Willfully determined to live outside the covenant, Israel continued to sin. The price of sin was heavy. To be forgiven, the entire population would need to confess. Then, sin offerings could be given. Unlike the Judeans, Christ paid our price for sin. We are under the new covenant that the prophets kept telling the tribe of Israel about.
His Precious Pots
I like the word precious in this verse. We have great value to God. He does not want to lose the work of his hands. He established a new covenant with his people because he values us, the work of his hands. We are precious enough, that God sent his son, Jesus to us. Jesus was the sin offering for all of God's precious, pots of clay.
Daniel 2:31-45
King Nebuchadnezzar had a disturbing dream about a statue. The king's astrologers, magicians and enchanters told him no one could interpret the dream "except the gods, and they do not live among men."
(2:10) God revealed the mystery to Daniel so he could interpret the dream for King Nebuchadnezzar.
Clay in Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
"...its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay...a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them."
Daniel's Interpretation From God
"Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom...Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. and just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. God of Heaven will set up a kingdom...it will crush all those kingdoms...but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning ...of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands..."
God has a plan. He is going to set up a kingdom that will endure forever.
