Thumbprint in the Clay by Luci Shaw

Author:Luci Shaw [Shaw, Luci]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

We may seal a promise with a kiss and a hug. Or a business agreement with a firm handshake. We pay attorneys enormous hourly fees when we sign legal papers like wills or contracts in their offices, or have them duly witnessed in the presence of a certified public accountant, with an embossed seal to attest to their authenticity. I have a friend who still seals his envelopes with red sealing wax impressed with his initial.

Thinking along these lines of promises and authenticity, I’ve been struck by the great Old Testament example given in the message of the prophet Haggai, in which God pronounces that he will make Zerubbabel his “signet ring.” Zerubbabel, though not a king, was the governor or civil leader of the fragmented nation of Israel during the time when the city of Jerusalem was being rebuilt following the peoples’ return from the Babylonian captivity.

This was the proclamation: “The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month: Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations” (Haggai 2:20-22). (Talk about the impact of God’s thumbprint! A Hasidic saying goes like this: “God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.” In a similar vein, Canadian writer Murray Pura once warned an audience that “Jesus is not a glass of milk.”) The power that shaped the universe is evident in the shaking, the disruption.

“On that day . . . I will take you, O Zerubbabel, . . . as my personal servant and I will set you as a signet ring, the sign of my sovereign presence and authority. . . . I’ve . . . chosen you for this work” (Haggai 2:23 The Message).

Zerubbabel’s name means “son of Babylon” because the pagan city of Babylon was his birthplace. Yet as part of Israel’s faithful remnant—the ones who maintained their devotion to Yahweh during their time in exile—he was the one who returned to the ruined, decimated Jerusalem and supervised the laying of the foundations of the second temple.

I am awed by the significance of the very direct and definite role assigned to Zerubbabel. It seems to prefigure the responsibility that Christian writers, artists, thinkers and theologians may claim in society, of guiding an errant or complacent population in the rebuilding of an authentic relationship with God. The way we worship, work, communicate, create and exert influence defines us as change-makers in society. We form the seal. Like Zerubbabel, we may become the seal.

Such an authenticating symbol, impressed in wax or a clay tablet, or in Zerubbabel’s day in vegetable ink on parchment, was the proof of authenticity. Today’s copyright symbol—©—applied next to the texts of our books and poems, our films and essays, testifies that the words and the way the work is presented are original, that they are ours alone.

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