“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image…its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and…the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
Daniel 2:31,33-35
As a fan of Country Music, I was recently given a book about the life of American Country Music Artist Randy Travis. He grew up with a lot of hurt and brokenness in his family, but went on to have a very successful career as a Country Music singer. At one point in the book, he speaks of his admiration for the heroes of the past, and how that thought inspired him to record an album entitled “Heroes and Friends.”
Around the world there is much unrest as many statues of heroes have been desecrated, sprayed with graffiti and destroyed at an alarming rate. Statues of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and even of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass have been torn down in the name of refusing to celebrate flawed men as heroes. Here at home, a monument in Ottawa named “The Memorial to the Victims of Communism” was recently vandalized with graffiti of the hammer and sickle, and the words “Communism Will Win!”.
There seems to be an innate longing in every human heart for a hero that will live up to the perfect ideal; one who will never disappoint, and who will never cause disillusion. But just as the feet of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream were partly made of clay, so every human being has feet of clay. All the sons and daughters of Adam were born with Adam’s sin nature, and though some have been used in extraordinary ways, all were sinners.
So what is the answer to the unrest? Is it to tear down the statues, erase our history, and start a revolution to create a new society built on love and equality for all – where everyone has everything in common? Is Communism the answer to a perfect, peaceful, utopian society? No, Communism has wrought greater devastation, and claimed more lives than any other ideological system! The answer is turning to the one Hero who does not have feet of clay! It is good to celebrate the heroes of the past, who God used in remarkable ways for good. But our ultimate hope is not in man – our ultimate hope is found in the Rock which dashed the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to pieces! Our ultimate hope is Jesus Christ, who is sovereign over every event in history, and whose kingdom will fill the earth! Hallelujah! What a Saviour!