'feet of clay'

We are all familiar with a comment sometimes made about our heroes who fall short of our expectations. They may be politicians, actors, film stars, sports icons or maybe just people in our own circles whom we respect - and then they let us, and themselves, down. They do inexcusable things and we are hugely disappointed. Ah! well. It could happen to any of us. They had 'feet of clay'.

The expression comes from the Bible, from the book of Daniel. '“Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace", Daniel 2.31-35 NIV. The statue started off with body parts of incorruptible metals - gold, silver, bronze and iron. But the lower one went down the torso the weaker the metal until at last the feet were the weak part - iron mixed with clay. And the image in the dream, despite the great strength at its top, was brought down by weak feet.

The expression, therefore, means that anyone, possibly even every one, has a weak point. No one is perfect. All of mankind, since the fall of Adam in the garden of Eden, have sinful natures and the devil knows how to smash us. He knows our weak points and targets them, and before we know it we are brought down. Good names, good testimonies, can be so easily and so quickly destroyed. We all have feet of clay.

One of the most influential men in the history of the world -and one of my personal heroes - was Martyn Luther, a German monk. It was he who was at the forefront of the Reformation which swept Europe. In his battle with the Roman Catholic Church he stood alone against the might of the Pope of the day, the Holy Roman Emperor and much if not all of Christendom at the time. 'Here I stand, I can do no other. So help me God', he said when charged with heresy and the possibility of martyrdom. He was an absolute titan. His writings, his commentaries on the Bible, his teachings swept and divided the world and were used of God in the conversion of many famous men and women. Yet he had feet of clay. He was savagely anti semitic (as were most people in his day) and his language in describing his enemies was vitriolic and makes the most ardent christian apologist of today blush.

I say all of mankind have feet of clay, but there is One who did not. As Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ did not sin, in fact could not sin. Following the picture of the image with all its metals, each one less valuable than the other - gold, then silver, then bronze, then iron and finally iron mixed with clay - our Lord is gold from top to bottom. Nothing could tempt Him - and boy did the devil try! Your heroes, and mine, can and will fail. Some of their failures may be minor and some major, but fail they will.

Has someone you looked up to let you down? Has someone you admired disappointed you? It is sadly inevitable given the weakness of human nature. 'Put not your trust in princes or in men' says the Psalmist. Pray for those who have saddened you, but don't be surprised. Only God, His Son and His Spirit are perfect. And let us be careful. 'He who thinks he stands should take heed lest he fall'.