01/17/19 THE CLAY FAILED, THE POTTER DID NOT

01/17/19 THE CLAY FAILED, THE POTTER DID NOT

God forms us from the clay, or the clay fails to be formed. God either refashions the clay or He casts us aside.

I said, the clay is either formed (shaped) by the Potter or the clay failed to be formed. The passage says that the clay was marred in the hand of the potter. This was not the fault of the potter. The potter gave great care to the clay, but the clay failed to respond accordingly. There was something in the clay, a rock, sand, something that kept the clay from being formed as the potter intended.

Still, the potter endeavored to mold and make the clay into the vessel He preferred. When the clay will not yield and respond to the will of the potter, the potter then turns a vessel of honor into a vessel of dishonor. He will use the clay, for his own purpose, if not for his original purpose. Sometimes the clay and the vessel are so terribly marred that the potter simply casts it away, into the potter's field of life.

The Jeremiah passage tells us that God will redeem a people who yield and return to Him, and that He will cut off the person who turns away from Him.

God's first desire for all of us is to be saved, to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be vessels of honor, sanctified and fit for the Master's use. For those who refuse to yield to God's call to righteousness, God will still use them to accomplish His will of justice, judgment.

In the Romans passage we see the same truth, in reference to God's chosen people and God's chosen vessel. Israel refused to yield to the loving and wise hand of God, therefore Israel was cut off and the Gentiles were grafted into the place of Israel. However, if the Gentiles despise there calling, as did Israel, then God will cut off the Gentiles as well.

The amazing thing is that the sinner wants to blame God for doing what God always said He would do; and the fact is that the marred vessel actually is the one who tried to force the Potter into doing that which was unjust.

Jeremiah 18:1-10
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 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.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
6 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.
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

Romans 9:19-29
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.