“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
~ Isaiah 64:8
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you ever feel like that you are nothing more than the dust out of which God made you from? Do you ever feel like that you are nothing more than the glob of clay which God is using to mold you? Do you ever feel like that you are nothing more than dirty, filthy kids? Isaiah – in Isaiah 64, does some serious introspection about what God’s role is in the lives of guys, gals and kids. As Isaiah wrestled with his thoughts about the general status of guys, gals and kids who were God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people groups guys, gals and kids, as well as guys, gals and kids who were not God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, Isaiah found himself having to use reason to examine his beliefs and feelings. Isaiah’s dilemma – as one of God’s prophet spokesmen, was to have to deal with guys, gals and kids who refused to listen to him. As Isaiah reflected on the wickedness of the guys, gals and kids who were not God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, Isaiah suggested to God that He rip open the heavens, that He come down to planet Earth to make the mountains tremble in His presence, that He make His name known among the guys, gals and kids who do not know Him and that He cause the nations of these guys, gals and kids to quake before Him. As Isaiah continued to probe his thoughts about the vileness of the guys, gals and kids who were not God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, Isaiah seemed to have had an epiphany. Isaiah seemed to have been suddenly awakened to the fact that the guys, gals and kids who were not God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids did not have the market sewed up for doing sin – that sin was in the DNA of even the guys, gals and kids who were God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids. As he really thought about it, Isaiah realized that every guy, gal and kid is born unclean – no matter whether they were one of God’s specially chosen guys, gals or kids or were not one of God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, and that any attempt by a guy, gal or kid to do a good or righteous act was equal to their using a filthy rag to try to clean something. Isaiah also – as he thought about it, came to the realization that all guys, gals and kids – no matter whether they were God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids or were not God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, would have their uncleanness ultimately cause them to become as shriveled up leaves which in turn would cause them to be swept away as the wind blows away dried up leaves. Just as Isaiah mulled over in his mind the ramifications of all guys, gals and kids being born with a sin DNA in trying to reconcile how God – Whose character cannot be compared from the earliest of known times to any deity and Who acts on behalf of the guys, gals and kids who unconditionally accept Him, could allow sin to exist, have you ever found yourselves wondering why God unfolds the lives of guys, gals and kids the way that He does?
Verse 8 – which says, “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” clearly tells us what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of guys, gals and kids everywhere on planet Earth. Have you ever watched a potter make a bowl or cup or . . . from a glob of clay? Do you know where a potter gets the clay that he or she uses to make a bowl or cup or . . . do you know what a potter has to do to be able to work with a glob of clay before he or she can make a bowl or cup or . . . do you know how a potter takes a glob of clay and makes a bowl or cup or . . . out of the glob of clay? Do you think that a potter has ever had to or decided to start over making a bowl or cup or . . . from a glob of clay? Are you able to visualize in your mind how a glob of sticky, wet clay can become a beautiful bowl that you can eat cereal out of or an ornate cup that you can drink coffee out of or . . . do you know from what kind of clay that a potter needs to have to make a bowl or cup or . . . that can be used every day? A potter needs the glob of clay that he or she is using to be at a certain sticky, wet consistency to make what it is that he or she is making. A potter also needs something that turns while he or she is pumping a foot peddle. A potter needs to let dry for a time whatever it is that he or she has made on his or her potter’s wheel. After whatever it is that the potter has made on his or her potter’s wheel has dried and after he or she has put a coat or coats of glaze or of different glazes on what it is that he or she has made, the potter needs to carefully place the bowl or cup or . . . into a kiln where it is fired with intense heat. When Isaiah wrote that ‘we’ – meaning God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, ‘are all the work of your hand’, Isaiah was telling God that he now has an understanding of what He was doing with His specially chosen guys, gals and kids – that God had each guy, gal and kid who was or who would be His specially chosen guy, gal or kid or His specially elected guy, gal or kid on a potter’s wheel and that He was and is molding ‘us’ to be who He wants us to be.
Do you think that a potter ever turns or makes a perfect piece of pottery? The uniqueness about pottery is that every piece of potter in one way or another is different from every other piece of pottery and that every piece of pottery is not perfectly made. Your grandmaa and your Aunt Lynn collect pottery. The pottery that your grandmaa and your Aunt Lynn like the most are the pottery pieces that have imperfections and which they were able to buy at a reduced costs even though the pottery pieces are perfectly usable. The blemished pieces of pottery are symbolic to your grandmaa and grandpaa through the ways that God has used them despite their perceived inadequacies – such has a very bad singing voice or ability to speak well. How is the Divine Potter molding your lives into His image?
Isaiah 64 (946)