You saw the feet and toes, partly of a potter’s fired clay and partly of iron–it will be a divided kingdom, though some of the strength of iron will be in it. You saw the iron mixed with clay, and that the toes of the feet were part iron and part fired clay–part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle. You saw the iron mixed with clay–the peoples will mix with one another but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with fired clay. “In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation certain.”
(Daniel 2:41-45 HCSB) (This is only the last few lines of the story in Daniel–be sure to read the rest if you’ve forgotten it.)
My husband is always saving news articles for me that he thinks I’ll find interesting. Usually, I do. A couple of days ago, he left one on my computer about all the economic trouble that’s currently afflicting Europe and how difficult it is for Europe to hold together. It made me think of something a friend and I were talking about during our weekly bible study together–somehow our discussion drifted briefly from the gospel of Matthew to the above passage in Daniel. I asked the Lord about it after I read the article, and here’s what I sensed Him saying to me:
My time for these things has not yet come, though you are always eager. Soon. Soon, My bride–soon. But not just yet . . . .
To you, the fired clay represents something less weak than the wet clay–yet wet clay clings and flexes, while brittle fired clay only crumbles and shatters and breaks apart. It can take no impact or shifting. There is no give. Inflexible, rigid, dry and dead; it cannot be made alive, but it will be given the appearance of life for one brief period of time before I shatter it, along with the iron (which is also brittle, though stronger).
This dead thing with the crumbling feet is the enemy’s appalling answer to My one new man. How little he comprehends of life! How flawed and diseased and depraved is his vision of living, of power. This is the best he can fabricate; joining bits he’s found lying about; scattered remnants of glory past; discarded shells and dry leaves disguised as precious things. His sin-crazed heart can no longer see the true wealth or the true glory, which is love. He is depraved beyond all redemption, and was so the moment he chose to seek his own above all else.
The iron and clay–he has nothing better to work with. He used all the more suitable and beautiful materials first, and now, when at last he has come to the first–the foundation–the feet, he has but iron and clay, which, though he knows to be grossly inadequate, he must use or fail utterly. It will hold together for an hour–a day–an abysmally short time. If I did not crush it, this aberration would crush itself by its own absurd and unthinkable weight. All the weight of all the years, bearing down on those feet of iron and clay.
You will be able to see it go, but you will not have a hand in it. Only with your eyes will you behold and see the salvation of your God. In this will My righteous servants be justified. In this will My sons and daughters receive the glory I have kept back, to bestow it on them at maturity. In that moment, as the dead are raised, as the righteous are vindicated, as the wicked are destroyed, as the sovereignty passes to the daughters and the sons of My hand–in the moment of final triumph shall death be swallowed up in victory and sin in peace.
My question, which He never really answers to my satisfaction: “But how long, Lord? How long must we wait until You come? How long until we see Your face?”
Soon, Child–very soon. You will see these things unfold. You will see Europe darkened and the pale greenish glow of the angry star of Ishtar as it rises to give its ghastly light. A light that obscures and obfuscates–that hides and confuses and misrepresents–a light only the blind can embrace–and there are many, many blind. This “light,” instead of shining out, sucks everything into itself, like a collapsing star–like a dying star.
But you, My daughters and sons–but you, My noble children, shall watch with me as My firstborn, the Son of My love, cleanses and annihilates and utterly shatters the nations. He shall dash them into shards, like a potter’s vessel. He shall grind them into powder and scatter them to the four winds. He shall retrieve the earth for its final day, for its Sabbath rest, for the ice cream, the celebration, the last good day, the reunion time, the time of rest and remaking–of the making of mighty sons and glorious daughters. My family shall I have, My bride and My body–My city of priests covering the universe. One city, one body, one bride, one people. The dream of God and man come together in one.
I didn’t know anything about Ishtar and figured I’d probably seen his name in the bible as some pagan god. It’s not in the bible, at least not in this form and in any of my translations. I did find Ishtar on Wikipedia, and it’s a she–not a he. A really interesting article. Plus, the “star of Ishtar” apparently has further meaning, but I haven’t time this morning to read up on it. If you know anything, feel free to post it. Otherwise, when I’ve studied it a little while, I’ll post an article about it.
Blessings, Cindy
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