"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Psalm 2:9
AELW 10:35-36
"Rod of iron is the holy Gospel, in which Christ's royal scepter in His church and kingdom and which Esther kisses in devout faith (Esther 5:2). It is called a "rod" because it directs, convicts, reproves, and upholds, etc. But it is called a rod "of iron" for a threefold reason.
The first is that it is hard and opposed to the flesh, since it points to the cross and martyrdom according to the flesh, to "beak it to pieces like a potter's vessel," namely, poverty, humility, and patience, which are three horns of the cross against greed, the lust of the eyes, against the pride of life, against sensual pleasure and lust of the flesh (1 John 2:16)
...The second reason is that it is inflexible and of an invincible straightness.
...The third reason is that , like iron, it crushes and crumbles, subdues and shapes everything, as Dan. 2:40 tells us. So the Gospel puts the misshapen in order, that is, it disciplines the undisciplined, it crushes the great(that is, it humbles the proud) [It bends what stands erect, that is, it puts down the puffed up], it smoothes the rough places (that is, it calms down the angry), it lengthens the short (that is, it banishes sloth), etc.
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