Clay in His Hands

Humanity’s sinful nature reveals itself early in life. When one granddaughter was three, we went for walks. I pointed to trees, flowers, birds and bugs along the way telling her that God made them. She was fine with that, but when I told her that God made her too, she put her hands on her hips, stuck out her lip, and said, “No He didn’t!”

This attitude is not new. God’s people in the OT were said to draw near with their mouth but their hearts were far from God. Isaiah expressed God as the POTTER and people as the clay . . .

Isaiah 29:15–16. Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

The God who created me knows more about me and how I should live than I do, just as a potter knows his creation and the purpose for which he made it. The clay knows nothing! For this reason, Isaiah spoke as he did about those who ignored their Maker:

Isaiah 64:7–9. “There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. 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 was not the only one who spoke words of warning to God’s people using this analogy. Jeremiah also saw the same truth about God and His right to do with us as He pleases:

Jeremiah 18:3–11. 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.’

Over the years, I’ve had many opportunities and ambitions. Had I taken those to be God’s will for me, I may have been an artist, or a novelist, or done a number of other things. At times I’ve wondered where I would be now had I pushed to do this or that, yet realize the truth of Proverbs 16:9. It says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

God decides the shape and the purpose of those He creates. He makes this point in a NT passage . . .

Romans 9:20–24. But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. He created me. He gave me the gifts and abilities He wanted for me, and the events and experiences woven into my life in the same way that a potter crafts patterns and designs in the clay. All of what the Lord wants for me is about His glory, not mine. I’ve resisted that at times, but finally realize that I am not the Potter, He is. He has every right to do with me and establish my steps according to His will. Not only that He knows what He is doing and in comparison, I am oblivious.