Happy Monday! -- How to keep your glasses from fogging up...

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Date Posted: 11:25:05 02/25/02 Mon
Author: Laura
Subject: Happy Monday!

Well, Lynn and I decided not to drive to St. Cloud for the fireside last night - we're not crazy enough to try a drive like that on snow and ice! We didn't get much here in the cities, but the radar showed St. Cloud getting hit pretty hard early on in the day. So we stayed home and Lynn came to my house for dinner after church - chili and left over quinoa salad. The chili was pretty spicy already last night - I'm a little afraid to try it today! I think I went a little heavy on the cayenne...

Okay, here's my thought for the day. Daniel 2:36-45: Okay, I'm not strong enough in my ancient history to be able to place this time period off the top of my head or to name specific "world powers" if you will, but I tried to understand this vision & Daniel's interpretation of it based on what we know today.

Daniel says the vision speaks of 5 kingdoms - I think of of empires, of "world powers" in their own times - one of gold, one of silver, one of brass, one of iron, and finally one of clay mixed with iron.

The gold represents the Babylonian Empire. The silver represents one that come after but isn't as great - the footnote indicates this is the Persian Empire. The brass represents another empire which rules all the earth. I'm not sure about this because I'm not strong enough with my ancient timeline - but might this refer to Alexander the Great and the Greeks?

Then comes the fourth kingdom, the kingdom of iron that is as strong as iron. This has to be the Roman Empire, doesn't it? (Perhaps the "Holy Roman Empire" because Rome became as much about the ideal of a republic as about Christianity.) It dominated the ancient world, finally - Europe, the middle east, North Africa. And then, after Rome faded, it's influence lived on. And so the kingdom is divided, as Daniel says - Italy, Germany, France, England, Greece, Russian, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Spain...all the European countries share ancient Rome as a common ancestor, and even many of the middle east countries and north Africa countries have vestiges of Rome.

And so finally in the vision, the feet and toes represent the last days, which would be now, right? What is the "world power" today? The United States, pretty much everyone agrees? Our influence is pretty much everywhere - Europe, Asia, even the Muslim world (which is why, they say, they resent us so much). And it seems to me that everywhere in American culture and government we can find Roman influence - or in other words, pieces of "iron" mixed into and throughout the "clay".

And if this is right - if this last kingdom, the kingdom of clay and iron, refers to us today, what does it say about us, what can we learn?

"41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters� clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."

Our kingdom is partly strong, and partly broken, and we mingle ourselves together, but do not cleave one to another - what does this mean? I can think of several ways in which these two statements might apply to us today, but I'd love to hear what you ladies think, too.

And then of course comes the well-known verse, about the stone cut out of the mountain without hands: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever."

Comments, anyone?

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Replies:

kingdom of iron and clay -- lynn, 14:48:57 02/25/02 Mon
- I had that thought, too... -- Laura, 22:49:22 02/25/02 Mon
Daniel 2: 36-45 -- kelly, 22:11:55 02/28/02 Thu
- Way cool! -- Laura, 20:49:39 03/01/02 Fri