'inferior' occurs twenty -one times in the Old Testament and in every other

occurrence it is translated 'earth', even in Daniel 2:39:

'And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior (ara) to thee, and

another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the

earth (ara)'.

In the form arith the word occurs once again as 'the bottom' in Daniel

6:24.  In Ephesians 4:9, where the Authorized Version reads 'He descended

first into the lower parts of the earth', we should translate 'the lower

parts, that is to say, the earth', the genitive being that of apposition.

The tendency of Gentile rule over the earth would be earthward, it would

never become 'the kingdom of heaven'; it would deteriorate even as Israel

had.  It would commence with gold, but it would end with clay.  Before we

turn to Daniel 2 to examine the dream and its interpretation, we have one or

two matters to occupy our attention.  The one immediately before us being the

references in the Old Testament to the potter.

We left our examination of Lamentations 4:2 with the reference to the

potter.  There is no such word for 'pot'

in the formation of the Hebrew word yatsar, the word translated 'potter'

seventeen times in the Old Testament.  The word means 'to form' or 'to

fashion', 'to purpose' or 'to make', and that both in the material and in the

mental realm:

'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground'

(Gen. 2:7).

'His hands formed the dry land' (Psa. 95:5).

The word can mean 'to fashion' as with hammers (Isa. 44:12); 'to

purpose' (Isa. 46:11) or 'to make' summer and winter (Psa. 74:17), or to form

'the spirit' of man (Zech. 12:1).  The word first appears with specific

reference to a potter in 2 Samuel 17:28, where it is translated 'earthen'

(lit. vessels of the potter).

The writer of Lamentations, who spoke so feelingly about the

deterioration of Israel, who were originally comparable to fine gold, but had

become as potter's vessels, had already recorded two parabolic references to

the work of a potter in his prophecy.  In Jeremiah chapter 18, he brings

before us the potter with his wheel, and in chapter 19 he is bidden to take a

potter's bottle or pitcher with which to give a further demonstration of the

purpose of the Lord.  Jeremiah is commanded to go down to the potter's house,

and there he would hear, and understand, the word of the Lord.  He went and

saw the potter working at his wheel, and, as he watched, the vessel was

marred in the hand of the potter.  He further observed that the potter made

it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.

There is a great danger when dealing with types and symbols, that we

shall fail to think of the spiritual equivalent or the intended lesson and be

preoccupied with the details of the type or parable.  It is most blessedly

true, that in place of the old covenant there will be brought in the new, in

place of the old creation there will be the new, but to say that the Lord

never mends what man has marred, would lead, if taken to its logical

conclusion to a denial of redemption itself.  Over and over again the Lord

employs the figure of healing to the state of Israel; in Matthew 9:16 the