DOWN in the plain of Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah, King Solomon made the vessels for his temple (2 Chron. 4:1717In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah. (2 Chronicles 4:17)); and down in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground, a greater King than Solomon is engaged in making vessels for a yet more splendid Temple.
It is worth remembering, because one of the oddest features of Christian experience is our querulous habit of questioning the wisdom of the King. We say: “Please, Lord, I find it too hard to be a Christian just here. If You would only let me get out of these horrid clay-pits it would be so much easier to be out-and-out!”
Fortunately for us the King knows what He is about, and He does not listen very seriously to our whimpering’s.
He has plans laid for each life. One is to be a flesh-hook, another a shovel, and another just a pot; not very exciting in themselves, but designed to be instruments-for the sacred uses of God and the King in the Holy Temple.
The tragedy of a thousand lives is that the crisis of surrender has never been faced. What of your life? Have you got there yet? Have you ever looked into the face of your Lord, and said, “Have Thine own way”? Then again the tragedy of a thousand more is that they say it (and sometimes keep saying it), but they say it sentimentally, and when it comes to sticking obediently in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground of life, they object.
In the plain of the Jordan, there will always be sin and pain and death, but it is among these very things that we can best perfect a holy life in the fear of God. In the clay ground of human frailty there will always be those irritating folk who grind our nerves, there will be disappointments and dullness, drudgery and folks who nag; but these things are:
“Machinery just meant
To give thy soul its bent,
Try thee, and torn thee forth sufficiently impressed.”
So when the toils of life close round us, apparently marring our hopes, and tempting us to whine and run away from our circumstances, let us deliberately worship God and renew our glad surrender to the King, refusing to object, and praying in the spirit of the Master Himself, who grappled with the horror of sin and death, and hell itself (things we need never face, for He has faced them).
“Not my will, but Thine be done.’’
Seton Pollock.