Berean Study Bible Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. King James Bible Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Does clay say to the one forming it, What are you making? Or does your work say, He has no hands? American Standard Version Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Will the ploughman plough the earth all say?
Contemporary English Version Israel, you have no right to argue with your Creator. You are merely a clay pot shaped by a potter. The clay doesn't ask, "Why did you make me this way? Where are the handles? English Revised Version Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! We actually bring God down. We try to make Him like us and He is not. His thoughts are not our thoughts and we need to realise this when trouble and difficulties come into our lives. When we see the hand of God trying to mould our life, we need to realise that His thoughts are not our thoughts and He has thoughts that are good for us even though it might be a time of pressure and difficulty.
Also in that verse it says 'that the clay speaks back to the potter' and it says 'shall the potter be considered equal with the clay that what is made would say to its maker He did not make me '.
Isaiah was talking about his own time but it's even more relevant today because you have even more people that just think that they evolved, that they were not actually made by a creator.
So just to conclude this message, the whole illustration of the potter and the clay is one that God wanted Jeremiah to come and watch and learn from.
He wanted to point out that He is really the true potter and we are the clay. And this whole illustration is one of the sovereignty of God and His right to control and manipulate the clay for His purposes. Our response is to submit to God and to be flexible and mouldable. I will just conclude with one last illustration - it was something I read from Phillip Yancy.
Yancy apparently was a very good chess player and he played quite a lot in high school and he considered himself to be pretty good as he won most of his matches. Quite a few years later he met a truly fine world class chess player who had perfected his technique for years. Yancy wrote. Any classic offence I tried he countered with a classic defence. If I turned to a more risky unorthodox technique he incorporated my bold forays into his winning strategies.
Although I had complete freedom to make any move I wished I soon reached the conclusion that none of my strategies mattered very much.
His superior skill guaranteed that my moves inevitably ended up serving his own winning strategy. He grants us freedom to rebel against its original design but even as we do we end up ironically serving His eventual goal of restoration. If I accept that blueprint it transforms how I view both good and bad things that happen. Good things such as health, talent and money I can present to God as offerings to serve His purpose.
And bad things too, disability, poverty, family dysfunction, failures - they can be redeemed as the very instruments that drive me to God. A sceptic may accuse me of flagrant rationalism arguing backwards to make evidence fit a prior conclusion. Yes, exactly. A Christian begins with the conclusion that a good God will restore creation to its original design and he sees all history proceeding towards that end. When a grand master plays a chess amateur victory is assured no matter how the board may look at any given moment.
That's fantastic because that is God. God is the Grand Master and at any moment in our life, even if things look really, really grim, even if things are really difficult victory is ultimately still assured. He can turn any situation. And he has a purpose when He applies pressure into our lives. Who is he? He was actually the king of Persia.
The one who would lead the Medes and the Persians in conquering the Babylonians. Now this prophecy of Isaiah was given in B. Basically years before Cyrus even came onto this planet! And yet God here actually calls him by name years in advance.
The Jewish historian Josephus actually recorded that the Jews showed Cyrus this prophecy when he conquered Babylon the fact that he was already written in their book Boy would that blow you away or what? So God in this chapter is fairly much introducing Himself in a prophetic passage to Cyrus and He is saying that He is God and He has a plan and that He has chosen Cyrus specifically with a purpose in mind. Very much like you and me - He has chosen us also with a purpose for our life.
I am the Lord and there is no other. So God here tells Cyrus about Himself. That He is the only God. That He is the Sovereign God. He is the one who is in control. He is the one that not only brings well being but scripture also says that He brings calamity.
And that is all part of the sovereignty of God. Which brings us to verse 9 about the Potter and the Clay. Why do you think that follows on in this context? I will just tell you about them briefly. The first pastor was an American pastor and he was well loved by his church and his congregation. One day he got a virus and the virus attacked his vocal chords and he couldn't speak.
He thought to himself - I will get over this, I will get better and will go back to work. But the days went into weeks and the weeks went into months. Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Blog at WordPress.
Home About Dr. Bev About The Hope Center. Search Search. Twitter Facebook LinkedIn. Isaiah 8 Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker, an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth. Rowley sums it up best:. Neither Jeremiah nor Paul had in mind an aimless dilettante, working in a casual and haphazard way, turning out vessels according to the chance whim of the moment … To suppose that a crazy potter, who made vessels with no other thought than that he would afterwards knock them to pieces, is the type and figure of God, is supremely dishonoring to God.
They were not puppets in His hand, compelled to do His will without moral responsibility for their deed, but chosen because He saw that the very iniquity of their heart would lead them to the course that He could use Rowley, Doctrine of Election , p. Neither Isaiah, nor Jeremiah, nor Paul had in mind a potter who purposefully created pots just so that He could smash them. No potter would do that, then or now. Instead, God is the wise potter who works with the clay to form useful tools.
They still serve important purposes and help with vital tasks, but they are not vessels of honor. Typically, vessels of dishonor do end up being destroyed which is not necessarily hell!
And what makes one vessel clean or unclean? Rowley pointed out above, God allows humans to determine what kind of vessel they will be, and then He uses those who have made themselves vessels of dishonor. A careful reading of Romans reveals this very point.
Again, none of this has anything to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven or hell after death. The way a vessel is used refers primarily to how God uses individuals, kings, and nations in this life. Marston and Forster add this:. The basic lump that forms a nation will either be built up or broken down by the Lord, depending on their own moral response.
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