Potter and the Clay

Isaiah 29:16, New King James Version

"Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, 'He did not make me'? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, 'He has no understanding'?"

Isaiah 45:5-9, (NKJV)

⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,
⁶ so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. ⁷ I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. ⁸ “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the Lord, have created it. ⁹ “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’?

Isaiah 64:8, (NKJV)

⁸ Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Jeremiah 18:4-10, NKJV

⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me. ⁶ He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. ⁷ If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, ⁸ and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. ⁹ And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

John 9:6, (NKJV)

⁶ After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.

Romans 9:21, (NKJV) and 25-26 (Gentiles), and 27 (Israel)

²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

^{(NKJV Thomas Nelson Edition)}

²⁵ As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them My people who are not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.^”

²⁶ “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” (other NKJV’s show “ ‘children of the living God’”)

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.

My Comments: The Potter is God and make no mistake He created everything, the Earth and all that is in it, the Universe and all the Galaxy’s there are, have been and ever will be. In Romans 10:17 is says. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” To understand Him one must read His word and ask for the Holy Spirit to open up the word and let the truth be seen and understood. Many need miracles to believe yet often walk away and try to explain the miracles away.

When Jesus spit on the clay and applied it to the blind man those people saw it as the miracle it was yet did not understand what it represented. We are formed of the clay of the earth. The Potter formed clay and applied it to the piece of the person that was in need of fixing. He made the man whole of body as He makes us whole of Spirit.

Jesus formed everything and called all into existence. He formed each and every one of us right down to the smallest molecule in our bodies. This humbles me in front of Him who loved us so much he created us and the world to support us, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the beauty we see and the sounds we hear, family, children and Grandchildren, friends to come along side of us. He holds us in the hands that created us and saves us from sin. He holds the oceans from sweeping over the earth and gives us the Greater and Lesser Lights in the heavens. I am so amazed as I look with my human eyes and consider with my limited brain all that He has done for us. Yet He is not done with us.

As the Potter He is continually molding us and reshaping us into His likeness. He is the Master Potter who as we submit, is taking sinful hardened clay and with His Holy Spirit is wetting it and scraping out of us what is not needed that separates us from being like Him and closer to Him. But even then He is not done.

Then He refines us and like Daniel allows us to be in the fire to help us endure hardships and trials and prepares us for His service and writes his name on us because we are now His. We now are the Master Potters’ and He can use us.

Then Jesus takes the vessel that we have become and finishes us with a glaze or paints on us the pictures of Him and His Gospel which the world can see and praise God for and He signs His name on us to seal us as His. We know that no matter what happens in life, how hard it gets (and it can get extremely hard), no matter what happens in the world around us, He is there to use us and preserve us for the glory of God. We can trust His hands to bring us through if we allow Him to do the work. The clay cannot tell the Potter how it should be molded to become what the Potter wants it to become. The Master Potter is God Almighty, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last the Alpha and the Omega the I Am, and He will shape us if we let Him.

Romans 10:11 say, “For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Abba Father at times our lives can hurt so much yet we trust You to bring us through the dark nights, fiery furnace, loss, disappointments, betrayals and anything else the evil one of this world will throw at us because You love us so much and as our Father want only what is best for us. We thank You Jesus for always being there in the midst of all of the pain and suffering we go through in this life and trust knowing when we are with You after this world there will be no more pain or suffering yet for the glory of God You will help us to endure and even to go through all things with the joy of knowing we will one day be with You. Be with us in the fires as You were with Daniel, in the prisons as You were with Paul, Peter and others, in the stoning as You were with Steven, in the shipwrecks as You were with Paul, in the whippings as with the martyrs.

When we read Your Word may we see and understand how You are always with us through it all and how You use it all to refine us and bring You the glory. Holy Spirit, teach us in the word, to know and understand our Father who loves us more than we will ever understand. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we will live our lives for the glory of God. In Jesus name, in union with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rebishka