the clay

Vessels of Clay.

/ kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’

“But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’” – Jeremiah 18:1-12 ESV

God determined to provide Jeremiah with a visual lesson to help the prophet understand what was happening to the people of Judah. So, He sent Jeremiah on a field trip to a local pottery maker. There Jeremiah witnessed the potter crafting a pot out of clay, but something went wrong and the pot didn’t turn out quite like the potter had intended. The pot was not yet finished and had not been hardened in the sun, so, the potter simply began again. He took the still pliable clay, molding and shaping it into His original design. As Jeremiah watched this all unfold before his eyes, God spoke to him and gave him a message.

“O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” – Jeremiah 18:6 NLT

The clay was subject to the plans of the potter. He had every right to do with it as he wished. He had a vision in mind for the clay. But it would require careful shaping and molding, according to the potter’s skilled hands, for the clay to be transformed into the final end product the potter had in mind. And the same was true for Judah. They had been chosen by God, but were still like unbaked clay in His hands. They were a work in process, with flaws and blemishes that the potter (God) was faithfully and patiently working out.

But unlike lifeless clay, the people of Judah had opinions. They felt they had a say in the matter. They weren’t content letting God have the only input into what they became. And the prophet Isaiah had a few choice words for them.

How foolish can you be?
    He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!
Should the created thing say of the one who made it,
    “He didn’t make me”?
Does a jar ever say,
    “The potter who made me is stupid”? – Isaiah 29:16 NLT

The real issue at hand here is the failure of human beings to recognize and respect God’s position as the Creator-God. We tend to see ourselves as somehow more worthy and deserving of special treatment at the hands of God. We believe we should have a say in how our lives turn out. We should get to choose what we become and how we spend our days. But Isaiah would argue the case.

“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.
    Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying,
    ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
Does the pot exclaim,
    ‘How clumsy can you be?’” – Isaiah 45:9 NLT

And the apostle Paul would pick up on Isaiah’s thoughts generations later.

Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? – Romans 9:20-21 NLT

The sovereignty of God is the primary issue here. He alone is God. He has the right to do with His creation as He sees fit. And Isaiah recognized God’s sovereign prerogative to determine the fate of Judah, especially in light of their open rebellion against Him.

Therefore, you have turned away from us
    and turned us over to our sins.

And yet, O Lord, you are our Father.
    We are the clay, and you are the potter.
    We all are formed by your hand. – Isaiah 64:7-8 NLT

God reminded Jeremiah that there was an option for the people of Judah. It was called repentance. Unlike lifeless clay, they had been responsible for their flaws because of their sins. And God was going to “remake” them in order to eventually rid them of their glaring imperfections. But there was another way, an easier way.

“If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned.” – Jeremiah 18:7-8 NLT

Repentance. A change of mind that revealed itself through a change in behavior. That was the message of Jeremiah and all the other prophets. Return to God and renounce your evil ways.  And God will spare you. But the people of Judah had treated that message with disdain. So, God reminds Jeremiah:

“…if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.” – Jeremiah 18:9-10 NLT

Israel had been that nation. They had been chosen by God and told that they would be His possession. He would make them a great and powerful nation. And He had held up His end of the bargain. He had made them great. He had blessed them beyond measure. And they had responded to His grace and love with disobedience and unfaithfulness. So, He had determined to start over. But God gave them yet another change to repent. He told Jeremiah to give the people the following message:

“This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’” – Jeremiah 18:11 NLT

Rather than waste their time criticizing God for His craftsmanship, they could repent. they could confess their sins and return to Him in contrition. But God knew their hearts and was not surprised by their response to His compassionate call to repentance.

“Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires.” – Jeremiah 18:12 NLT

They rejected God’s call to repentance. They turned up their noses at His accusations of sin and wrongdoing. And in doing so they revealed that they had no understanding of God’s sovereignty over them. He was the Creator-God. He had made them. He had chosen them. And He could do with them as He saw fit. They were not the masters of their own fate. They were not in control of their own destinies. They could argue with or even ignore God, that did not change the outcome or make Him go away. His will was going to be accomplished, whether they liked it or not. They were like clay in His hands. He had a plan for them. He had a purpose in store for them. He had chosen them for a reason. And He would do what was necessary to accomplish His will for them – as it seemed good to the potter to do.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Petersoz

The Potter.

/ kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people. – Isaiah 64:8-9 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah has used this imagery before. He obviously had an affinity for the idea of God being the potter and mankind being soft clay in His sovereign hands. Earlier, in chapter 45, Isaiah referred to the potter/clay relationship. “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’” (Isaiah 45:9 NLT). For Isaiah, imagining God as a potter helped him better understand His sovereignty and control over all things. Seeing man as the clay in the Potter’s hand was a way for him to visual man’s ultimate submission to God’s divine will. Sovereignty and submission were two key themes for Isaiah. And the apostle Paul picked up on this same imagery in the book of Romans. “Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” (Romans 9:20-21 NLT). Paul, like Isaiah, believed that God was ultimately in control of all things. He believed and trusted in God’s complete authority and dominion over all creation, including mankind.

Yet, while Isaiah recognized and respected God’s sovereign authority, it motivated him to appeal to that authority and plead with God to use it in order to forgive and restore the very people He had made. God had fashioned the people of Israel out of nothing. He had raised up an obscure, no-name individual from Ur of the Chaldees and transformed his lineage into a mighty nation. He had rescued them from captivity in Egypt. He had led them through the wilderness for 40 years, eventually providing them with a rich and fertile land in which to live. They were God’s creation. He had formed them. Now, Isaiah was calling on the Potter to rescue them. He was appealing to the mercy of God. Paul knew that God was fully capable of showing mercy on whoever He chose. He wrote: “In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory” (Romans 9:22-23 NLT). Paul’s point was that God, as the Potter, was free to extend mercy to Jews and Gentiles alike. He had made them both. He could show mercy to both. And He has.

All of us were destined for destruction, but God, in His mercy, sent His Son to die on our behalf. He redeemed and restored us. He is in the process of refashioning us. He has the power and authority to do so. Isaiah knew that. That is why he called on God as the Potter and asked Him to extend mercy to a people who did not deserve it. He knew that God had made them and that only God could save them. He was well aware that God had the right to destroy them, but he also knew that God was a loving, gracious, patient and forgiving God. He appealed to God’s mercy. He simply asked Him to look on their condition. The rest he was willing to leave in God’s hands. He didn’t presume to tell God what to do. He didn’t question why God had allowed the circumstances in which they found themselves to take place. He didn’t shake his fist in anger at God. He didn’t demand. He didn’t complain. He simply placed the fate of he and the people of God in the hands of the Potter.

There is a great old hymn that speaks of this Potter/clay relationship in a very personal, intimate way. It simply says: “Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, While I am waiting, yielded and still.” There is a sense in which we must submit ourselves to the sovereign will of God. We must trust Him and rely on Him to do what is best for us. He knows what He is doing. We may not see the benefits of His will for our lives, but we must learn to recognize that He alone knows what we need, what we deserve and what is required to transform us into vessels of honor, fit for His use and capable of bringing Him glory and honor. It is one thing to recognize God’s sovereignty and stubbornly submit to it. You can resignedly accept His control, simply because you can’t do anything about it. But what if we could learn to see that control as something to rest in and rely on. When you can accept God’s sovereignty and balance it with His incomparable love, mercy and grace, you discover that being in the Potter’s hands is the very best place you can be. Then you can say, “Mold me and make me after Thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still.”

Made and Known By God.

/ kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. – Psalm 139:13-16 ESV

Psalm 139

God knows you. He knows everything about you. What an incredible thought. For David, it was the explanation behind everything he had already said in his prayer. He used the word, “for” as a transition, and for clarification. The reason God was inescapable, had David surrounded, and heard, saw and intervened in the affairs on his life, was because God was His creator. He had made David, so God knew everything about him. David expressed amazement and wonder at the fact that he had been made by God. He acknowledges to God, “you formed my inward parts.” The Hebrew word David used is kilyah and it literally means “kidneys.” But to the Hebrew mind it also referred to the seat of the emotions and affections. It was that inner part of man that controlled the emotions (heart) and moral character (mind). God had made each and every part of David, from the physical to the spiritual, the mental to the emotional. He had “knit” or “woven” David in his mother’s womb. In other words, God had hand-crafted David. David’s conclusion? “…I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Was David bragging about his own beauty and significance? Most likely not. He was expressing awe at the incredible realization that God had wonderfully made Him. His existence was not mere happenstance, but an act of God.

When David’s bones were being formed in the womb, God was there. He oversaw the entire birth process from conception to David’s first breath outside the womb. Even before he was born, David’s name was written in God’s book of the living. God already knew the length of his days and the activities that would mark his life. All of this speaks to the amazing sovereignty and power of God. Jesus even told us, “even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7 ESV). For some, that number may be getting smaller, but God never loses count. He knows us. He made us. And nothing about us was a mistake. And as difficult as that may by for us to understand or appreciate sometimes, we must recognize that God is in control of all things at all times. If He is not, then He is not God. Yes, there are babies born with birth defects and grave illnesses that result in death even at the moment of birth. These diseases are not the creation of God. They are the result of sin infiltrating God’s perfect creation and bringing with it the penalty of death, disease and disorder. We can see God’s creation marred by the affects of sin in so many ways. It is all around us. So much of what we view in this life is an anomaly, a deviation from what God intended. But that does not alter the fact that God’s creative process is amazing and awe-inspiring. Even in a world marred by sin, we see the amazing handiwork of God all around us.

For David, the knowledge of God’s role in his life led to worship. He couldn’t help but stand amazed at God’s intimate involvement in his life. The realization that we have been hand-crafted by God should inspire awe and amazement, but also result in reverence, gratitude and worship. But too often, we express our discontent and dissatisfaction to God for how He made us. We question His wisdom and wonder about His love for us because we don’t like how things have turned out for us. The prophet Isaiah has some strong words for those who think that way.“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’” (Isaiah 45:9 NLT). Again, Isaiah puts his thoughts quite bluntly. “How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, ‘He didn’t make me’? Does a jar ever say, ‘The potter who made me is stupid’?” (Isaiah 29:16 NLT). We may not like the way we look. We may not care for our circumstances in life. We may not agree with God’s crafting of our form or how the final product turned out. But David would have us focus on the Creator, not the creature. He would encourage us to keep our attention on the Producer, not the final product. God is not done yet. For those of us in Christ, He is still crafting us. He is still molding and making us. Paul reminds us,  “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV). God’s creative process in our lives is not yet complete. But that day is coming. For now, sin has marred His creation. But God will one day make all things right. He will make all things new. And any mars, defects and imperfections we suffer with now will be gone. God made us. He knows us. And He is not yet done with us.