The Illustration Of The Potter And The Clay

THE ILLUSTRATION OF THE POTTER AND THE CLAY
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? (Romans 9:20-21). The charge was that God could not find fault with sinners if it is He who has mercy and if it He who hardens. Paul does not argue the charge. He does not try to defend God. God needs no defense. God is not on trial. It is man who is on trial. And it is the height of human arrogance for a man to try to pass judgment upon the righteousness of God.

Paul does not answer the charge. Instead he repels the charge. He proclaims that the objection is out of order. He states that it is not a valid objection. He proclaims that man has no right to make a charge against God. For a man to try to judge God is for him to claim that his standard of justice is higher than God's standard.

Paul illustrates this by using a familiar Old Testament example. It is the example of a potter and his clay. The same illustration is used several times by the prophets.

You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that what is made should say to its maker, “He did not make me”; or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He had no understanding”? (Isaiah 29:16).

Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker - an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, “What are you doing?” Or the thing you are making say, “He has no hands”? 10 Woe to him who says to a father, “What are you begetting?” Or to a woman, “To what are you giving birth?” (Isaiah 45:9-10). But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and all of us are the work of Thy hand. (Isaiah 64:8).

Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:3-6). The illustration is of a potter sitting at his wheel. He takes a portion of clay from his pile and he fashions a beautiful vase to be sold at the market for a vast sum. Then from that same lump of clay, he might take another portion of clay and mold a basin to be used by a farmer for feeding his pigs. No one would ever think of charging the potter with injustice because he had not given equal treatment to both lumps of clay. No one can question the potter's right to do with the lump of clay as he will. The principle is the same here. As the sovereign Creator, God can do anything with His creation that He desires. He is free to act as He chooses.

Now we admit that man is not the same as clay. Man has emotions and feelings and he is an intelligent creature. But he is still a creature. He was created. Thus God is free to make from that lump a Moses who will lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God is also free to make from that same lump a Pharaoh who will be used in spite of himself to glorify his Creator.