The Clay

of Iron and Clay
Post 267
[Enhanced 5/10/13]

(Daniel 2:40-43)

The study of the clay has grown so large it will take several posts to complete.

The main topic of the previous post was the basic generic nature of prophetic iron. All iron is a kind of super strength (Daniel 2:40), whether used by Christ or the Beast. There is also a name brand Iron that has additional unique properties that we have not yet explored, but to comprehend that hybrid brand of Iron we must first discover the nature of clay.
* * *

Generic clay:
What does the “first mention” of scripture tell us was the use of clay? Surprisingly it was not to make functional pottery!

“And the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of bright brass. In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Sucoth and Zarthan (*1). And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out” I Kings 7:45-47.

In order to cast molten brass (II Chronicles 4:2) into shapes, the clay must first be worked into a mold of those intended shapes. So whether shaping the clay into pottery or shaping it into molds, the clay is still worked by a craftsman in basically the same principle; that is, it is accurately moistened and made pliable by vigorously stressing it until it is usable for its intended purpose of shape making. The amount of dampening, the degree of pliability, and even the way it is stressed may vary significantly for the application but the principle remains the same; The purpose of clay is to make shapes, i.e. forms.

“And the Lord God formed (3335) man of the dust of the ground…” Genesis 2:7.

Formed 3335 yatsar; probably identical with 3334 (through the squeezing into shape); ([compare 3331]); to mould into a form; especially as a potter; figuratively, to determine (i.e. form a resolution):-- X earthen, fashion, form, frame, make(-r), potter, purpose.
3334 yatsar; a primitive root; to press (intransitive), i.e. be narrow; figuratively, be in distress:-- be distressed, be narrow, be straitened (in straits), be vexed.

I find it curious that the first scriptural use of the word “clay” is not of a valuable clay product but simply to give shape to a valuable product of brass! The brass itself is not even the sole actual desire but the properties of the brass along with the shape of the brass are a combination of the end desire and therefore its value. The clay has nothing to do with the properties of brass but a lot to do with the shape of its function and beauty and therefore its unique value among brass objects. In this use the clay is simply a disposable product as a tool to accomplish that end; a valuable molded brass product of worth. But clay itself can also be made into its own product of function and beauty with very different properties than brass (*2). This is a significant clue to the nature of all the GDE Empires, and how earthen clay can strangely be a nature in the same category of the several metals, and by its unique properties the clay can also form the brass and even the Iron Empire properties to its resulting function. This makes the clay very uniquely complex against the other material properties. But I get ahead of myself, let’s take this slower:
* * *

Kinds of Clay?
Specifically distinguished as different from the other creation of plants birds and fish, animals are generically creatures of the earth (Genesis 1:24a). But the passage then informs us that there are further distinct different kinds within this earthen creatures group (Genesis 1:24-25). In other words, we have groups within a group among groups. Contrary to the scientifically provable wrong theories of Evolution, the Apostle Paul informs us plainly of this truth:

“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds” I Corinthians 15:39.

If scientists really wanted to learn something, they should study what in the DNA is different and not what is the same. Dinosaurs were NOT of birds, nor man from apes.

Prophetically, Rome was pure iron while Islam-Past was Iron and Clay. So knowing that the strength of the Iron Beast’s Roman phase was the powerful law of merciless iron, we need to understand the clay in order to fully comprehend the nature of this Daniel 7 Iron Beast Empire group, which its first two Empires have already come and gone and the third phase is now rising with unexplainable public acceptance in spite of its unsavory nature.

“And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ (6353) clay (2635) and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, foreasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry(2917) clay (2635). And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay (2635), so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken (8406)” Daniel 2:40-42.

The four connected verses of 40-43 describe the nature of the materials these Feet Empires and kingdoms are made of. We will later review verse 43 for still more specific details.
We have examined the basic properties of iron, which properties are in the legs, and also in the feet and toes of verse 40, and so we know that the properties of iron already past in history are also projected into the still rising second-foot GDE. But by confusion of the complexities we have wrongly presumed of the Feet a simplistic idea that the iron as pure and the clay as pure, are somehow united and thus form an internal conflict. But the Revelation 17:7 mystery is not “chunks” of iron particles smeared with clay like salad dressing on lettuce in a tossed salad, this would be no mystery at all; the mystery is the brand of Iron, who’s “impossible” hybrid properties are a mixture of element iron + element hybrid Clay, something like a hybrid car of combustion and electric, or like Oil based Latex paint. And now you notice by capitalization I have branded the clay too. This is like the complex mystery of a hybrid human/android driver of the hybrid car.
Some of the prophecies of these scriptures have been long hidden (Daniel 12:4, Revelation 10:4, I Thessalonians 5:1) perhaps to keep Satan off balance until the time, but more probably because we were simply not ready to receive this degree of complexity in our ability to lie to ourselves in the knowlege (Isaiah 48:7), much as the scientists of Darwin’s day had no idea that the Cell was far more complex than a simple blob of goo that functioned in a mysterious way, and so having concluded the plausibility of Evolution from such we are then shown by deeper scientific discovery that God was actually right all along. Having accepted this error as “proven truth” by simplicity, many are still not ready for this degree of study, but the time has come to understand the complexity and thereby advance beyond foolishness such as Evolution because of ignorance. The Daniel 7 fourth Diverse Beast being believed “all Roman” is simply ignorance of the scriptural complexities. And so is a simplistic iron and clay Empire.
In the next few posts, with the microscope of scripture, we will explore the three kinds of clay as we get closer to discovering how the angels breed with humanity. Don’t get confused by the underlined four clays in our above study passage; the generic lower case “clay” encompasses the three distinct kinds, but the third kind is not actually a kind but rather a specific condition, a state, of the two kinds:
* * *

Two kinds of Clay:
These verses seem to intermingle the uses of Potter’s Clay, clay, and Miry Clay as if they were simply using insignificant filler words to say the same thing poetically, but this is not the nature of scripture, as was shown in Genesis regarding distinct kinds of creation, so we really need to take a closer look at the specific differences:

Potter’s 6353 (clay 2635) pechar; (Chaldean), from an unused root probably meaning to fashion; a potter:-- potter.

Miry 2917 (clay 2635) tiyn; (Chaldean), perhaps by interchange for a word corresponding to 2916; clay:-- miry.
2916 tiyt; (Hebrew) from an unused root meaning apparently to be sticky [rather perhaps a denominative from 2894, through the idea of dirt to be swept away]; mud, or clay; figuratively calamity:-- clay, dirt, mire.

clay 2635 chacaph; (Chaldean), from a root corresponding to that of 2636; a clod:-- clay.
2636 chacpac; reduplicated from an unused root meaning apparently to peel; a shred or scale:-- round thing.

What we end up with is as follows:
Potter’s Clay: a specific consistency of pliable earthen substance used by potters to mold into shapes for their intended use.
Miry Clay: Distinguished from potter’s clay in that it is significantly sticky and not desired by potters for its calamitous unsuitability for working into desired shapes and products; Bad Clay.
Clay: used generically to include either or both forms and therefore make another specific point regarding its basic nature as distinguished from the metallic natures. This lower case (c)lay is like the generic lower case (i)ron; it describes the basic properties of the raw material before “other defined natures” are specified. Just how these clays become the kinds they are is to be determined, but here the point is the two distinct kinds of natural clays; sheep and goats (Matthew 25:32-34,41). Just don’t miss that both kinds are still in the clay family; they are both clay.
* * *

Clay:
Before we increase magnification into the complexities of specific brand Clays, we need to first examine the properties of clay as a generic substance. What does scripture tell us that clay is, beyond a 2635 “clod”?
Well, it’s funny, but in American society, people functioning in a brainless or undignified manor are actually dubbed “clods”. This scripture appears to be the source of this slang and it refers to their basic form of being made from dust (Genesis 2:7) by mixing it with water (John 9:6) to make the clay substance we call a human body, before God breathed a spirit into it to make a complete man:

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” Genesis 2:7.

To make a man’s body from dust it must be formable, and so we know by science that God used water in the dust to make clay from which he formed man.

“Behold, he (God) put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: How much less (trust) in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed (1792) before the moth (6211)?” Job 4:18-19.

Crushed 1792 daka’; a primitive root (compare 1794); to crumble; transitively, to bruise (literally or figuratively):-- beat to pieces, break (in pieces), bruise, contrite, crush, destroy, humble, oppress, smite.

Moth 6211 ‘ash; from 6244; a moth:-- moth
6244 ‘ashesh; a primitive root; probably to shrink, i.e. fail:-- be consumed.

To be so crushed in death by a fragile moth is indeed pitifully weak (Isaiah 51:8), but the definition of moth tends to suggest a shrinking by the drying-out of the clay to the breaking point, which is the topic of the verse. The passage goes on to describe man’s pitifully finite existence; typically dying without ever coming to comprehend wisdom, which is why God can’t put his trust in them, even less than with the angels who do not die but still failed. This is the comparative frame of man’s accumulated wisdom and abilities as God asks the question:

“Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?” Job 4:17.

Yet man, in his pitifully small wisdom and equally pitiful abilities, feels quite confident to challenge God’s claims of Creation, His wisdom and rights to ownership! But I digress; Man is a clod, prone to drying out.

In his suffering Job goes on to remark;

“Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?” Job 10:9.

How do you turn clay back into dust? By drying the water and then crushing it to powder. Don’t miss that scripturally, water is a hard to explain force, and only after compiling this mixture of water and dust into a form, did God introduce the air of the Spirit to give him a life for his clay body and he became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).
The scriptures are literally stuffed with verses that directly proclaim that humanity is clay. Godless man is clay and so are Christ’s people, but humanity is not just any generic clay; we are Potter’s Clay that has the perfect properties to be formed exactly as the Potter desires.
* * *

The Potter’s Clay:

“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” Isaiah 64:8.

What we end up with is a body called a clay vessel:

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power (1411 force, miraculous power) may be of God, and not of us” II Corinthians 4:7.

What treasure is in these fragile vessels of clay from valueless dust? Verse 1-2 tells us it is the ministry handled in our humanity. So what is that ministry? 3:17 tells us it is “the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Lord, and where this Spirit is, there is liberty,” and verse 18 tells us that our lives which show this truth is the ministry. So, the treasure we contain within our earthen vessels is the presentation ministry of the miraculously powerful eternal Spirit working within our fragile flesh of dust. God breathed that miraculous spirit into us at our creation, simply being a Carbon based life form is indeed a treasure unspeakable! My point here is again that the clay vessel is not the real desire or value; the treasure shaped in the vessel mold is (Galatians 4:19). That treasure is the bright brass instruments for the Temple worship. The stresses that our clay suffers here on earth are what shapes that mold which then gives shape to the brass. An unstressed clay lump is just a clod. But did we shape ourselves or did the Potter form us? The above verse 7 proclaims it was the miraculous power of God that formed us, and although they try very hard to deny it, real science, in the recent discovery of information in the DNA, shows this claim to be true. This verse actually tells us that the purpose our eternal spirits are contained in our finite clay bodies is to ensure that we cannot take the credit for what our spirits are; the light of the knowledge of the glory of God displayed in Christ Jesus our Lord (II Corinthians 4:6+Matthew 5:14-16). This body-of-clay-that-contains-life concept is so prevalent in scripture, as well as science, that no reasonable scholar would reject this foundational concept; it’s the properties of the clay that interests me here. What happens when the clay molded somehow doesn’t turn out quite like the potter had in mind? Jeremiah provides a clear example:

“The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words” Jeremiah 18:1-2.

The concept that God was revealing to Jeremiah needed a word-picture to truly grasp.

“Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels” v.3.

Don’t just skim over this part because it seems like filler; Here we see the potter was forming a specific piece on more than one wheel. This was a complex item he was working on that would take more than one part to complete the work. Such a work was not some casual thing he threw together as a demonstration for Jeremiah, this was a labor, a grand creation, a complex piece of art! No potter would create such a work from unworkable miry clay; this is potter’s clay he was using but the concept provided by the generic use of “clay” means the Potter was working with a clod. This understanding is important. Now we can move on:

“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred (7843) in the hand of the potter:…” v.4a.

marred 7843 shachath; a primitive root; to decay, i.e. (causatively) ruin (literally or figuratively):-- batter, cast off, corrupt(-er, thing), destroy(-er, -uction), lose, mar, perish, spill, spoiler, X utterly, waste(-r).

What just happened?
Perhaps the potter was unskilled and he needed another try to get it right. Perhaps. But because this is a prophetic word-picture from God we know this is not the actual meaning, as God does not make mistakes (Romans 9:21-24). The very word marred informs us that the potter did not make it wrong; it became wrong while still in his hand (Deuteronomy 9:7,24). The cause at this point is momentarily insignificant; the intent of the word-picture is the authority of the potter over the clay regardless of the circumstances of why things happen.
Now we can move on:

“…so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it” v.4b.

(I shutter to ask this next question in today’s confused society of intellectuals, but I must): Do we question the authority of even a student in a pottery class to make and destroy and make again a cup or vase from a lump of pottery clay, how much more a Master Potter? What about the rights of the clay?
The clay has no rights; it’s clay. There is no pity on the clay, even when we as spectators have emotional empathy on the beautiful item formed of it, that was then destroyed by the potter because he didn’t like the way it turned out; It’s clay!
The reason why I am concerned for the response of our intellectual society of confusion in this matter is because even already today, by Hollywood’s encouragement to intentionally believe the unbelievable through the voluntary “Suspension of Unbelief” so that we can enjoy a fantasy, our very real society has unintentionally forgotten to “un-suspend” the truth. Now, in confusion of a distorted perspective of reality, they earnestly attribute human worth to animals by emotionally granting them the fanciful human emotion that they accepted in the “temporary” lie that they voluntarily accepted, but was then unable to completely “unaccepted” as they assumed that they could and did. There is no such thing as a consequence-free suspension of unbelief even though in theory it sounds wonderfully advantageous (II Thessalonians 2:11-12).
* * *

The Suspension of Unbelief:
So how much longer until that same intellectual confusion, progresses to demand a discussion of whether the clay of the pottery student has rights or not? Is this honestly not the argument in Star Trek concerning Data the android in another carefully crafted environment requiring another Suspension of Unbelief? What fools we have become by our “harmless” voluntary compliance to believe what we know is not true for the sake of a momentary pleasure! The illusion of this miry pit by the charming but confusing descriptive phrase, is the appearance that we are not in danger of a permanent belief in the lie because we know it’s a lie and we have only temporarily “suspended the truth” to gain an otherwise impossible pleasure. Disney is currently the greatest open pusher of the concept, by an all-encompassing slow arch of the hands they instruct us to simply “Believe!”
By the unspoken message, we fully know the toipc we are supposed to believe is the untrue, the fantasy, magic.
While God wants you to believe in Jesus as the Truth, Disney wants you to “believe” specifically what is not true. This is not a faith in something, but rather an open-minded faith that contemplates their enchanting offering that is previously understood to be a false view of reality. But as followers of God this is forbidden (I John 4:1). Remember; if someone wants you to be neutral there are two things you can bank on: They aren’t, and you shouldn’t be either. And while Disney wants you to "believe" generally the delusion they show you, they have a specific something in mind, this belief is an open and defenseless gate through which they are marching their specific conqueror of truth. And Disney is not alone.

This discussion is worthy of an entire study: Consider your child’s “harmless” imagination of Superman and the many Superheroes (Deuteronomy 13:6-8). You have no fear that they will actually believe that they are reality when they grow up, after all they’re only children, but just how did the Greeks come to worship their gods Zeus and Dianna etc.? And how did they then turn from their nationally imagined gods by the fun and harmless suspension of unbelief, unto actually worshiping stone and wood idols with those names? What event causes a whole Eastern nation to actually bow down to a bronze image of a very fat dead man? It starts by the “harmless” Suspension of Unbelief in knowing it’s both forbidden and not true, but going there anyway as entertainment! So it is with Harry Potter for our Christian children. A suspension of unbelief is to knowingly choose to believe a lie for the sake of a momentary unnatural luxury, you do not easily come all the way back from such a folly but enough to think you have. And the next suspension picks up where the last one left off... from which you don’t come all the way back, etc. Eventually after years of not noticing the small steps left un-recovered, your teenage son starts dressing and acting like a druid and your teenage daughter starts dressing and acting like a whore in your own Christian home. But you don’t see the connection because it’s only entertainment. And before you know it they're not just acting like it anymore.
The HUGE American problem of child molestation often begins as a “harmless” pleasure of pornography in a “suspension of unbelief.” Drugs, theft, adultery, and Sodomy begin the same way; “I’m not wicked like those that do this, it’s just a harmless experiment” (*3).

But we must return to our topic of clay that molds the soul... Oh wait! We are on topic aren’t we? How do you suppose the potter’s clay was marred, i.e. decayed, ruined?
* * *

Now back to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah learned this very clear word-picture at the potter’s house, now let’s see what the LORD told him after he made his observation so that His point could be understood:

“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Then God explains what he means, by providing examples:

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
In this case God intended destruction because of the mar but the clay heeded the warning and turned from its corruption, and so God did not destroy it as He had planned (see the book of Jonah).

And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
In this case God had very good and favorable plans for this clay, and put a lot of work into, but it became marred and would not heed the warning, so God destroys what he himself said was intended to be glorious (see Ezekiel 16:6-43, Jude 1:5-6).

Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good” Jeremiah 18:5-11.
In this case God determined good and glorious things for his own people, but they became decayed in his hand, therefore he changed his intentions from benefit to destruction, and he warned them of his changed plans in case they wanted to repent and be saved.

Modern Christianity loves to wave the banner of Jesus Christ as the ultimate security blanket from which God cannot harm them as they continue in sin, but here in Jeremiah, God long ago established the fact that a promise of God does have its contingencies of honest and true compliance. Judah didn’t get the point of the message even though it could not be made more clear.
Oh how I beg you to buy “An Unconventional War” DVD (*4). The true recent story of how Uganda overcame their own God devised horrors by turning back to the LORD! This film clearly shows the long elusive secret of very real cause-and-effect for both evil and its cure. This secret is so desperately needed here in America as we are about to enter such horrors for our own decay, and like them we will long think helplessly that we are guiltlessly abused Christians enduring a holy suffering, and that God has unexplainably abandoned us with no cause or resolution and so we are left with only a long unfulfilled hope of rescue as our clay is pulverized, expecting that God will reward us for our faithful endurance! This concept is so important I intend to bring it up again in a few posts, by then you should have purchased your DVD copy, which we can discuss. I know so few Christians who actually understand this concept and this presentation puts it into practice in a very real, current events, way.

So what we learned by Jeremiah’s word-picture is that all humanity is potter’s clay, both the good and the bad. What we learned by God’s expounding on that word-picture is that, people, kingdoms, and nations of humanity are all of clay. According to God the clay itself has no intrinsic value beyond the product he desires to create from it. If the mold turns out true, he keeps it, if it turns out marred he destroys it and makes another. God is no respecter of persons; Pagan, Gentile, Muslim, Jew, or Christian, we are all equally accountable to God and all can be made true (Acts 10:34-35).

“And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” Matthew 3:9.

I only imagine that those stones would first have to be crushed to powder and then with the addition of water stressed to make Potter’s clay to be raised up unto Abraham as children. I wonder if this is exactly what God is doing with the poor abused of Africa since American Christians have stopped singing his praises. Such a thing is clearly not beyond God, as he already did it with the Hebrews and 400 years in Egypt (Deuteronomy 4:20, Jeremiah 11:4). So now where is the confident waving of the “Jesus Christ” banner in one hand and a can of sin in the other as you cheer for his team like you were actually a player? Everybody likes fans but fans don’t join the victory party in the locker-room (Luke 13:26-27).
These things were plainly shown in Jeremiah’s word-picture and narrative. What we had to understand is that not all potter’s clay is going to hold the correct form and therefore will be needfully abused for remolding. Get over the “rights of the clay” protest, and quickly accept that even as potter’s clay we must readily be formable in the Maker’s hand and then hold that form without decay. The molding is not ours to do; our part is the holding after we are molded into the image of Christ:

“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:” Hebrews 10:23-24.

Our holding fast without wavering is possible BECAUSE we know by faith that God is faithful. Our “shape holding” comes from believing that if the potter made me in this image then it’s the shape he specifically wants and he knows that I can hold it (John 6:27) while the bright brass solidifies into that shape (John 6:29).

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry (1495)” I Corinthians 10:13-14.

What does idolatry have to do with escaping a fall to temptation? Only everything! It’s all about the image that we as clay take on, like pressing the clay into a die. Idolatry 1495 is the worship of an image. An image of what? Anything other than God. We are to worship God himself because as clay we take on the image of what we worship. God provides the way of escape but if we have taken on the image of something other than God, His escape is unavailable and we find ourselves marred and destined for destruction; Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry!

We learned that even in the hand of the Master Potter, the right kind of clay (Potter’s) has in it the ability to decay, (call it “slump”) and that ruin causes the Potter to decide to completely mash it down and make it into something else.
Speaking metaphorically as humanity, the vigorous working back into a pliable state is lengthy unspeakable suffering. God himself “devises a device” to do that job (usually iron), even if it’s a corrupted American government, Rome, Hitler, the LRA, or Islam-2. I intend to eventually cover in detail the specific mar that warrants a complete destruction and the specific need for a special device of iron to do the reworking, but for now let’s continue on topic.
* * *

The Miry Clay:
What we get from this passage written in Babylonian Chaldean is that by using different specific words for clay it is clearly and intentionally speaking of two very different kinds of a singular basic substance; one pleasantly usable, though retaining the ability to become corrupt, and one unpleasantly unusable with a nature of corruption. This distinction is not immediately noticed until we discover the same phrase “miry clay” in the prophetic Hebrew Psalms:

“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry (3121) clay (2916), and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” Psalm 40:2.

If clay represents temporal life and both good and bad humanity is Potter’s Clay that can become marred, then what is this Miry Clay in the pit, which had David so quagmired? Let’s look at the Hebrew definition of these comparable words in Psalms against the Chaldean words used in Daniel, to see if they fit in any significant way, let’s break it down and start with:
* * *

“Miry” of Miry Clay:

Miry 3121 yaven; from the same as 3196; properly dregs (as effervescing); hence mud:-- mire, miry.
3196 yayin; from an unused root meaning to effervesce; wine (as fermented); by implication intoxication:-- banqueting, wine, wine [-bibber].

Effervesce: …[Latin effervescere, from ex+fervescere to begin boiling, from fervere to boil.] 1. To bubble, hiss, and foam, as carbonated water. 2. To show exhilaration; to be boisterous - Webster’s.

I have no problem seeing both David’s use and the interpretation, to easily include the enslaving power of alcohol, drugs, or any number of other vices, including; anger, lust, willfulness, short sighted, etc., from which liberation becomes very difficult; i.e. “sticky” as the Chaldean put it. It is unworkable by its nature to cling where it’s not wanted and not cling where it is wanted; MUD! But is this the whole example of Miry? Hardly.
Corrie ten Boom’s sister Betsie gave Corrie, her now famous phrase; “There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still”. Coming from a Nazi Concentration camp kind of pit, that really means something! There is a mire that is not your own but it gets on you with a hold that seems unshakable. It can simply be waiting in a pit into which you fall or it can be forced upon you by the clay of the mirey sea of humanity (Isaiah 57:20). This effervescing mire, like wine, seems to have an active mind of its own, which once attached, becomes hard to distinguish from your own clay. When a person is drunk are their actions and words their own or is it “the alcohol talking”? Isn’t it really just semantics? At that point, they are a drunk, and their words and actions are those of a drunk, and so is the result (Nahum 1:10). Extract them from the mire of alcohol and then it is not hard to distinguish their actions and words from those of the alcohol. This is the confusion of a Sex Slave, who by no desire of her own finds herself mired as a prostitute and is burdened by the guilt and consequences of being a prostitute. She is mired.

Now recall the brief discussion of the allurement to suspend unbelief; “I’m not a drunk I just had too much to drink!” While the addiction to alcohol is said to be physical there can be no such cause for the addiction to Porn, or Hollywood’s productions requiring a suspension of unbelief in order to enjoy its pleasure of unrealistic fantasy or acceptably broken morals. Yet the addiction is just as firm by the evidence of those mired in its effervescent grasp. I submit that the addiction is not the elemental problem itself but the love of the thing that lured us to suspend our God-commanded unbelief in iniquity (Romans 1:18). Therefore the addiction is primarily the mire of iniquity in our heart (Psalm 66:18, Acts 8:23) and not in our flesh as we are told by describing it as “a disease.” As long as we believe the addiction is in our flesh we ply no effort to eradicate it from our heart and the bond remains firm which is why many return to the addiction after a successful detox’. We have suspended our unbelief that the problem lies in the flesh and so we remain captive no matter how hard we battle it there.
What a fascinatingly confusing phrase but the complexity is extremely accurate! The phrase itself is miry while describing a miry topic. Yet simply return it to its scriptural state, and suddenly it becomes readily understood:

“Suspension of unbelief” = “believe a lie” (II Thessalonians 2:11).

Believe for a bit, what you do not believe, or in otherwords; “Try it, you’ll like it!”

Unclean:
A friend with perfect timing recently provided me with a concept that expanded my comprehension of this word. It was only yesterday morning that I found myself scripturally unclean. I repented, was forgiven under Christ’s blood, and went about my day working on perfecting this section of posts. Now of course as I write this in perfect hindsight it makes easy sense, but at the time, all day yesterday, I stopped work several times to spend in prayer because somehow the Spirit of the Lord was slightly distant. I found myself earnestly deep in the successful work of the Lord but somehow felt “alone”… not completely alone, just… “off.”
Prayer didn’t fix it, stopping my work to just bask in the Lord didn’t fix it, I worked 14 hours on these posts yesterday and made very good progress but still went to bed last night a little troubled; something was not quite right, but what?
This morning I awoke to the Lord “whispering in my ear” like pillow-talk as usual, my soul was refreshed and my spirit was giddy with the presence of God.
What immediately came to mind was my friend’s provided definition of:

Unclean: 169 akathartos (an adjective, derived from 1/A "not" and 2513/katharos, "clean, purged") – properly, not pure (because mixed), i.e. adulterated with "a wrong mix" and hence "unclean" (because tainted by sin). [The antonym, 2508/kathairo ("clean"), means "free from wrong mixture" (unadulterated, unmixed).]
- HELPS word studies (http://biblesuite.com/greek/169.htm).

The Strong's puts it like this:

Unclean 169 akathartos; from 1 (as a negative particle) and a presumed derivative of 2508 (mean, cleansed); impure (ceremonially, morally [lewd] or specifically [doemonic]):-- foul, unclean.
2508 kathairo; from 2513; to cleanse, i.e. (specifically) to prune; figuratively to expiate:-- purge.

What came clear to me by the Strong's definition is that unclean is the existence of contamination. What comes more clear by the HELPS definition is that unclean is a contamination of what was once pure.
What the Lord immediately showed me this morning in the scripture’s parameters regarding uncleanness, is that there is a specified period in which the unclean person remains unclean even after the rights of cleansing (forgiveness) are enacted (Leviticus 11:24-25,28,32,15:5,7-8,16,18,27,etc.). That period of purging ended as I slept and the Lord was eagerly waiting for me to awake so that we could continue. This is not a “punishment” of God, it is simply the way reality works; break a bone and it simply takes a calculable time to heal. A mire of sin is to think there are no lasting consequences in spite of the declaration by God that there are. Some are short and mere inconveniences while others are quite long and hazardous. The one unchecked by oneself in knowledge, always grows to become the other. Many Christians are so mired in a multitude of uncleanness that they NEVER hear from God, feel his close presence, or access his Power, and so they think that is the normal state (condition) of Christianity (See II Timothy 3:1-5 with focus on 5, rather than a focus on 1-4 to determine 5). "From such turn away" (II Timothy 3:5). This unclean is the folly of a practiced blending of a holy walk with God and a few small idols hidden under her delicate womanliness that no man intrudes upon by gender respect (Ezekiel 20:18, Genesis 31:34-35), which then makes her husband (the Lord) to be shown a fool for “ignorantly” defending her wrong doing (Isaiah 54:9).
Next we investigate David’s "brand" Hebrew word:
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“Clay” of Miry Clay:

Clay 2916 tiyt; from an unused root meaning apparently to be sticky [rather perhaps a denominative from 2894, through the idea of dirt to be swept away]; mud or clay; figuratively calamity:-- clay, dirt, mire.
2894 tuw; a primitive root; to sweep away:-- sweep.

It took a bit to understand how “dirt to be swept away” was “sticky.” Dry dirt is easily blown away and usually by little more than the wind. It’s when the dirt gets damp that it becomes a problem that takes more than casual sweeping to remove it. This damp unwanted sticky dirt is perhaps this Hebrew definition of sticky Clay. Now add the dregs of the unwanted Miry to the mix and we really have a dirty floor covered in an unwanted element of earth that will take a serious scrubbing to remove! I am reminded of the red clay earth of Hawaii that permanently stains everything from wood to clothes to the rubber on your sneakers. Its sticky consistency is worse than wet cement; it’s not watery soupy mud to be squeezed off, it’s wet glue; one step and your shoe has a 3” thick glob permanently attached and the next step seems to pick up even more, the whole earth seems to peal up as you walk!
It is important to point out that although these are two different words with two different definitions combined into the brand Miry Clay, there are other Hebrew words for clay that we will eventually cover. This specific 2916 “sticky” Clay is used only three times in scripture and the discovery is profound:

Isaiah 41:25 speaks of a potter treading on this sticky Clay because sticky clay is not acceptable to be used on the potter’s wheel. To the Potter- who with knowledge knows when he sees good and bad clay- sees no other potter’s use for this sticky Clay but as something to tread on with vigor as if in spite of its name of clay and him being a potter who works with clay.

“I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay (2916)” Isaiah 41:25.

Note: This treader does in fact call on the name of God from the first moment of dawn, and therefore is not the Assyrian treader of the Nahum passage below. Understand; God is the Potter, not this treader who calls on his name. It seems quite apparent that this treader is Jesus Christ in his second coming. Notice his specific targets are the morter/miry princes, not the general populous, which will or will not fall with those they follow.

Yes, you tread on Mortar Clay to make it useful (though for bricks and not for pottery), but you don’t tread on Potter’s Clay, a potter treads on Sticky/Miry Clay like the Miry Clay treads on Morter. Like Isaiah’s prophecy, Nahum 3:14 also connects this 2916 sticky Clay with morter by the treading. And we begin to see that the potter has cast the Sticky Clay into the street from his potter’s wheel in disgust, he has an actual reason and purpose for treading on this clay vigorously as with a frustrated vengeance for its unworkable nature. Nahum’s rare use of this specific kind of Clay supports Isaiah’s similar use as both events described are during overwhelming attacks:

“Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go in clay (2916), and tread the morter (2563), make strong the brickkiln” Nahum 3:14.

But here we see that this (2916) Sticky Clay is trodden to make it Morter for the bricks of defense that will be baked in a specially designed kiln…
Noooo, that’s not exactly what it says! What’s with the awkward wording; “go into clay”? I propose this verse is actually speaking to Satan:

“Become ‘Mr. Clay,’ the Assyrian, and tread the morter as a human being.”

Are you kidding!? Wow, does that affect the meaning or what?! Read that Isaiah 41:25 passage again and we see that this Nahum 3 Sticky Clay doing the trodding now, is the one that later gets trod upon in return for these beastly crimes. This is Gaston’s attack of the Beast’s kingdom, but now we see the cause (Isaiah 14:25). So if bricks for the wall of defense against God are made from fired morter and not from Miry Clay, What is Morter!?
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"Morter" of Potter's Clay:

Morter 2563 chomer; from 2560; properly, a bubbling up, i.e. of water, a wave; of earth, mire or clay (cement); also a heap; hence, a chomer or dry measure:-- clay, heap, homer, mire, motion.

So now we see that Mortar is like another kind of Clay, but not really a kind, rather a condition; a state, like savorless salt.

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” Matthew 5:13.

It seems quite clear by this Matthew Passage that the people Jesus was talking to: ineffective Christians; i.e. the marred Potter’s Clay, can be snatched from the Potter’s wheel because they became this savorless mired Morter to be trod upon by Mr. Sticky Clay in preparation of being sent to the fire of the brickkiln to build walls of protection against God’s wrath!

By definition, this Potter’s Clay became this Morter because of the bubbling water of mire. Why and how is too complex to explain here but we will get to that in the next few posts. This 2563 Morter in the KJV is translated simply as clay eleven times.

“So now let me get this right; the Assyrian defender against God prepares for battle by drawing miry waters against the sege and then goes in as Miry Clay and treads on the Morter Clay to make cement for fired brick walls of defense from God?”
Yes, now you’re getting it! (Revelation 16:13-14,16).

“And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall. Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago” Isaiah 22:10-11.

Just look at the profound multi-links in these seemingly unrelated passages! “Houses” are our clay bodies in which our brass dwells in the faith of God as the hypocritical city “Jerusalem”, “walls” are fortifications resisting the attacker, “the ditch between the opposing walls” and “water from the old pool while ignoring the Maker of it”… we will get to that in other posts. The cycles and Types in scripture seem to go on forever!

“So how does that plan work out?”
Continue reading the passage:

“There (at the treading of morter and preparation of the kiln) shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like a cankerworm: (so if cankerworms are so successful) make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: (like) the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun (Son) ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are (Hell?). Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them (because you can’t). There is no healing of thy Genesis 3:15 bruise: thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit (report) of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” Nahum 3:15-19.

“Not so good then right? That’s all you had to say; Not so good”.
Yes, but this “Bloody City” (Nahum 3:1) is not only the Nineveh-of-old, it is a telling of the end time prophetic Nineveh as well. We know this because “The Assyrian” has not yet conquered Judah/Jacob as he did the northern kingdom of Israel long ago: (read it; Isaiah 36-37). It was Rome not Assyria who later destroyed Jerusalem after Christ came, therefore it will happen yet again by the Assyrian as prophesied:

“O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets” Isaiah 10:5-6 (*5).

So do the Lord and the Assyrian king have some sort of pact? I mean this Assyrian, from his beginning, seems to calls upon God’s name in his actions. (Isaiah 41:25), But No:

“Howbeit he meaneth not so (to do the will of God), neither doeth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. For he saith, Are not my (ten?) princes altogether kings?” Isaiah 10:7-8 (see also v.13-14)

Like but Unlike the II Chronicles 35:21 Pagan Pharaoh Necho “Assyrian” who did know he was doing God’s command, but didn’t know what God’s dual intent actually was (II Chronicles 35:22/Jeremiah 36:2+Jeremiah 46:1-17), this Assyrian thinks it’s all his own idea to conquer many nations, and for his own glory. This is the Antichrist Beast of Revelation 17, the king of the Daniel 2:42 Ten-Toes Empire of iron and clay. This Nineveh is the Mede seat of the Assyrian Beast that eventually destroys its manipulating whore Mystery Babylon whose seat is in the land of Chaldeans (Isaiah 13:17-20). But the hypocritical nation has to have something to be hypocritical about; meaning this is the image of Israel at some point in the future as it has the illusion of serving God but doesn’t (Isaiah 10:24-34, note “the high ones of stature”: v.33 being New Giants). The confusing distinction is that there are two described kinds of Assyrians in time and a third unidentified “‘one’ from the North country” that is wrongly assumed to be the same duplicitous Assyrian. The Isaiah 10 Assyrian is not the Isaiah 41 Northern conquerer in either form (*6), likewise the destroyed is also a variety of the wicked; both God’s people and other. Dehumanizing “the enemy” by finding distinction from ourselves is always the means to a self-protection mindframe that blinds us to the similarities that make us the same, and therefore in the same boat. Miry Clay and Morter Clay really are different, but both are cast into the street and trode upon.
OK, we got slightly ahead of ourselves:

The double enslavement of David’s effervescing-Miry, sticky-Clay is reminis-cent of quicksand or a tar pit, by composition; passively sticky, but of a bondage that almost with “a life of its own” sucks you ever deeper into its Hungry grasp! This is the pit of David’s sin, and this is the miry pit from which David found himself rescued by God when he called out to him for mercy! As exampled by the twin brothers Jacob and Esau; it’s the same pit but one is rescued and the other is not. Repentance through an awakening to God seems to be the significant difference and not their degrees of righteousness; Jacob the 3290 supplanter really wasn’t a “clean man” even after he acquired his blessing and God changed his name to Israel (Genesis 32:22-28)(*7). Like the Unclean after repentance, the purging of false reasoning takes time. It’s going to be a real shock when I reveal the details of Jacob’s still future punishment for the lifelong crime against his brother Esau! (Hosea 12:2-3a) but that will have to wait.
Because of repentance both David and Jacob were still clay but had been successfully extracted from the miry before they were utterly destroyed. So we see that mire, though intimately linked with clay, is not really humanity; it’s something else from the pit, though it is still clay. The Potter’s Clay of humanity can find itself deeply quagmired in the mire, even eventually beyond marred, it becomes Morter, like Miry Clay, it is troden. Not everyone so stuck in the mire will be rescued from it; Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry…. BEFORE you find yourself so stuck! This warning against idolatry is speaking of anything in which you put your trust other than God himself; like say, Oh, the Economy, stored goods, a job, a republican President, military protection, a concealed weapon, condoms, a spectator’s “Jesus” Pennant-Banner, a theology of safety in sin, or anything else from which you anticipate salvation from the consequense of mire that has you in its grasp.

“OK, I get Clay, I get Potter's Clay, I get Morter Clay, and I even get Mire; but what is sticky Miry Clay different from say Morter?”

Well, We now know that it is NOT plain humanity; that’s Potter’s Clay and Morter Clay, so now we can remove those elements as an option… sort of.
Obviously all clay is earthen, which means it is of the earth; i.e. temporal life. So what other element could make the distinguishing difference between clays? How about the water that makes clay of dust?
But that investigation will have to wait for another post.
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(*1) Hidden Meaning?

“In the plain of Jordan (3383 descender) did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Sucoth (5523 booths) and Zarthan (from 6868 to pierce)” I kings 7:46.

I find this sentence provocative, as by the meanings of these place names we get a message of the Hebrew people, cast by God The King, into the “homeland” of Satan in the time between the hope of salvation and the Cross. What were the clay casts made for? To form the brass things for the Temple. What were the Hebrews in Canaan to do? They were to establish the pattern of the faith for God’s kingdom, in the time between Moses’ rescue and Jesus’ sacrifice. Once they fulfilled that purpose of establishing the pattern, they became marred, and God broke them down and re-stressed them for molding again. But clearly the brass items cast in clay were vessels themselves so what does the bright brass represent?
I am proposing in the primary layer, that the clay is our bodies of flesh in the temporal plane, the bright brass is the “quickened” (molten) spirit within those bodies, and the solidified molded spirit at death is what is used in the kingdom of God, filled with his Spirit, to implement those Holy rights for eternity. A bad mold would shape a bad spirit and so the mold is broken down in stress and remade while it is still pliable. When the mold is right the thing it shapes is right and the mold is no longer needed, our clay body is discarded in death while our bright brass spirit formed in the clay lives to the glory of God, filled with his Spirit.
It’s going to be easy to read “Reincarnation” here, but this is not the meaning. We have one life (Hebrews 9:27), and as we mess it up by unstable Mire, God breaks us down and rebuilds it, (Ecclesiastes 3:3). As we resist his design he re-moistens us and builds it anew (Jeremiah 31:28). Eventually, if we remain stubbornly resistant to his will, we are either too miry to work, or too dried out and unyielding, and the clay is cast out to be trodding upon. I am sure you have met both kinds of people. Emotionally unstable (II Timothy 3:6-7, Ephesians 4:14) or stiffnecked (Acts 7:51). The Potter is looking for Potter’s Clay (II Chronicles 16:9).

(*2) Treasured Clay Dishes:
To nephil man, the clay itself is where the beauty and value is and by valuing the clay’s beautiful form over its intended function he sees no purpose for stressing the clay after it is first moulded “Let the clay slump as the clay wishes, the clay has rights and the slump adds character!” This misplaced value in the clay is reflected in the costs of Fine China and brand names used to elevate the appeal of clay dishes now glorified by the title; “Stoneware”. Just do an internet search for “Stoneware Dinnerware” to see that even in the technological and advanced age of the 21st Century we are hardly different than thousands of years ago and we set our best tables with clay pottery as if the various properties of these fragile dishes was the ultimate in beauty perfection and value. Beautiful? Yes…when young, but not so much after it is scratched and chipped with use and finally broken and cast out as pottery eventually is. If only it had been cast in enduring brass!
Our beautiful bodies are but clay with a very thin varnish, and God does not take pleasure in our bodies (Psalm 147:10) but uses those specific properties to form the molten soul that is poured into it, which he does take pleasure in (Psalm 147:11). But I get ahead of myself again.

(*3) Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” lyrics
Songwriters: Dennis, Cathy; Gottwald, Lukasz; Martin, Max; Perry, Katy;

“This was never the way I planned, not my intention
I got so brave, drink in hand, lost my discretion
It's not what I'm used to, just wanna try you on
I'm curious for you caught my attention

[chorus]
I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it, I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong, it felt so right, don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it, I liked it

No, I don't even know your name, it doesn't matter
You're my experimental game, just human nature
It's not what good girls do, not how they should behave
My head gets so confused, hard to obey

[repeat chorus]

Us girls we are so magical, soft skin, red lips, so kissable
Hard to resist, so touchable, too good to deny it
It ain't no big deal, it's innocent

[repeat chorus]”
- (http://www.elyrics.net/read/k/katy-perry-lyrics/i-kissed-a-girl-lyrics.html).

Just how innocent is it? She openly declares that she used to have discretion but lost it by alcohol and an unnatural attraction to the same gender. She admits it’s not normal, or right, and direct disobedience, and declares by not even knowing the other girl’s name it’s not love; just sexual, but although she says it meant nothing beyond an experimental game, she allows the possibility of it becoming love another night because she liked it. Finding that you like it is the very purpose of suspending one’s unbelief. All this has the real look of real homosexuality but because she names it an experiment then she does not perceive it as actually wicked, in fact it’s innocent… except now she’s confused.
Innocent? Just a Suspension of Unbelief for the sake of desired forbidden pleasure? Hardly. God calls it abomination (Romans 1:26 via Romans 1:24-25); changing the truth of God into a lie; i.e. folly. Does this mean there is no room for imagination or creative thinking? Of course not; there is acceptable and unacceptable. But breaking the commands of God is still broken whether in reality or fantasy because it shapes your internal brass treasure.

(*4) Purchase “An Unconventional War” DVD at: Explorationfilms.com (http://www.explorationfilms.com/exploration-films-broadcast-ss3.php).

(*5) Hasn’t This Already Happened by Rome?
It must be confessed that as we have discovered that several Empires fall under the singular 4th Diverse iron Beast of Daniel 7, it may be true that Rome in this light was indeed the intent of this verse, but only as the Devil is the declared Assyrian in all the Gentile Empires of record save Persia: (II Kings17:5-6, Ezekiel 23:1-7= Assyria, Isaiah 52:4+Lamentation 5:6= Egypt, Isaiah 23:13+Ezekiel 23:23= Babylon, Daniel 5:28, Esther3:1= Persia, Daniel 8:9-13,21-23= Greece, Daniel 9:26= Rome, Micah 5:5-6,Nahum 3:1-19= Assyria/Babylon union=Islam).
If none of this but Rome were found in scripture we would have to conclude that indeed the events that linked us to (*5) must have already happened by Rome in fulfillment of the prophecy. But because we have all these other connecting links we can be confident that the events of the topic’s passage are meant prophetically for the last Empire to fulfill. The mysterious absence of Persia in this otherwise complete list is most curious and must be explored in a later post. I will simply state here that it is directly found in the book of Esther.

(*6) The Isaiah 10 Assyrian is not the Isaiah 41 Northern conqueror:
This is a door I don’t wish to open here for its huge and complex topic. So I will only here identify Isaiah 63 as the Isaiah 41 Yeshua Christ, but with the very important concern that you do not mistake him for the Isaiah 10 Jesus of Islam who is the Assyrian! I warn you now, that Islam will use this Isaiah 63 passage to declare their Messiah from our own scriptures! Intellectual Christianity from a studied knowledge of scripture will be no defense against this new cancerous front. We must know our messiah’s very nature by an intimate experience of his Holy Spirit gift, so that we can possess the ability to cipher this and other passages correctly! The confusion is growing rapidly!

(*7) Jacob a prophetic Type of Israel’s final struggle:
This passage beginning with Genesis 32:22 shows a powerful prophetic Type of the nation Israel as Jacob sent over the river Jabbok (2999 pouring forth) his two wives and 11 sons, and is left behind empty to fight to gain his already promised blessing. This river is a picture of “crossing over” from this life, and as Israel is left behind we see this river is the Type of the Rapture. When left alone Jacob struggles hard to finally gain his promised blessing while his family continues on the other side until he joins them. There is soooo much here that will have to wait for a long away study, which I anticipate including in a later book of the Christian Path collection, titled; A Highway For Our God (Isaiah 40:3).
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