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Season 3, Episode 12
For Friday, May 6, 2016
“The Potter and The Clay”
HOST: Wade Webster
Show Notes:
God is the potter and we are the clay (Jer. 18:1-6). Sadly, many today have these roles reversed. They see themselves as the potter and God as the clay. They shape God as it seems good to them. They mold their worship according to their own will. However, God has already shaped His will the way that He wants it. He has put it through the fire and hardened it. It is forever settled. Men cannot reshape it. They can only break it.
Episode Transcript:
I have always found the work of potters amazing. The potter takes a lump of clay and skillfully shapes it into a beautiful and functional vessel. The clay goes from being trampled under foot to sitting in a position of honor in someone’s home. It goes from being cleaned off of someone’s boots to being fashioned into a beautiful plate or cup to serve them food or drink.
You may recall that God used this image to reveal Himself and His will to Jeremiah. We read, “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel” (Jer. 18:1-6).
What a beautiful image God gave to Jeremiah and to us by inspiration. God is the potter and we are the clay. As the potter, God has the right to shape things as they seem good to Him. The potter, and not the clay, is in charge. It is the clay that needs to bend to the potter’s will and not the potter that needs to bend to the clay’s will.
It seems to me that many today have the roles reversed. They see themselves as the potter and God as the clay. They shape God as it seems good to them. They mold their worship according to their own will. If they want mechanical instruments of music in worship, they fashion the worship to include them. If they want women to take a lead in public assemblies, they fashion the worship accordingly. If they want a quarterly observance of communion, instead of a weekly observance, they schedule it that way. The problem is that this makes man the potter and it makes God the one that must change. It ignores the fact that God has already shaped His will the way that He wants it. As a piece of pottery that has been put in the kiln, God has put His will through the fire and hardened it. It is forever settled. The sweet psalmist of Israel wrote, “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psa. 119:89). We must not alter it either by adding to it or taking from it. In the book of Deuteronomy, we read, “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deut. 12:32). Men cannot reshape God’s will today, they can only obey it or break it.
As we get ready to worship this week, let’s remember that God is the potter and that we are the clay. Let’s bend to His will and not expect Him to bend to ours. Let’s worship as He has fashioned it.
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