In the potter’s workshop
Series: Metamorphosis | Bible text: Psalm 145:17
We are knitted differently and yet all ingeniously created by God, no matter whether it is an exhibit or a chamber pot!
We’ve been seeing a potter’s hands in the countdown and in the teaser for more than half a year now. What does that do for you? Some people want to try something like that. Others, on the other hand, don’t like to get their hands dirty. We start by listening to the prophet Isaiah, who says about his people before God: «Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, you are the potter and we are the work of your hand». (Isaiah 64:7 NLB).
The image of God as a potter occurs in the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. At that time, of course, pottery was an everyday image. People lived with clay vessels they made themselves. They were used for cooking, storing, serving, eating and drinking… And when we read in the creation account how God created human beings, we understand that this image of the potter fits God very well: «Then the Lord God formed man from the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life». (Genesis 2:7 NLB).
No one is like YOU!
I don’t know if God got his hands dirty when he created Adam. But it is obvious that it was his idea and his creation to create us humans like this. And now we are amazed that the prophet Isaiah writes long after creation: We are the work of God’s hand. You and I, we are all formed and brought into being by him. I would like to watch an excerpt from these pottery videos with you with this very personal formulation of Isaiah’s word: «I am the clay, you God, are the potter. I am the work of your hand».
God has created a unique specimen with you. There is no There is only one person on this earth who is exactly like you, and that will remain so even after you have died, there will never be a duplicate of you. Pottery is art. I like to watch, but I would never trust myself to produce something beautiful or useful! God has made a work of art out of us humans. We are the work of his hand! Now I can imagine attentive listeners getting restless!
What happens when someone is born with a disability: My sister-in-law was born with trisomy 21 and slightly autistic. For a long time she was a ray of sunshine for the whole family – but still a huge task and challenge! Or I think of Nick Vujicic, who was born without arms and legs – just think of your arms and legs on your chair; imagine having to live like that! Nick became a Christian and today speaks internationally about his disability, his faith in Jesus Christ and his hope! Over one billion people live with a disability in this world. That’s 15 per cent of the world’s population.
I am aware that it is not within our competence to ask: Why? Isaiah says: «Woe to him who accuses his Creator! In God’s eyes he is no more than a clay jar among many others. Does a lump of clay ask the potter, «What are you doing to me?» Or does he mock and say, «My master has two left hands?» (Isaiah 45:9 Hfa). But there are also non-disabled people who provoke questions: e.g. Hitler? Or currently the arsonists of the devastating forest fires in southern Europe! Are they geniuses? Or the Taliban, who are now taking over the whole of Afghanistan? After the Fall of Man, many things are going wrong in this world, as we see on the screen every day!
God is our potter
Incidentally, it did not look any better with Isaiah. Before he says «You are our Father… you the potter, we the clay… we are the work of your hand». it sounds quite different: «We have all become like unclean ones. Our righteous deeds are no better than a bloodstained garment. Like leaves we all wither, and through our sins we blow away like the wind. Yet no one called upon your name, and no one rose up to hold fast to you. For you hid yourself from us; therefore we became as soft as wax in the grip of our sin». (Isaiah 64:5–6 NLB). We know this! We’ve all had warm wax squeezed through our fingers! It’s similar to craft clay!
If we are like warm candle wax in the clutches of sin and sin can tinker with us as it pleases, then all is not well with us! But Isaiah, after his analysis of the situation, clings to God on behalf of God’s people: «And yet, Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter and we are the work of your hand!» Isaiah does not want it with all his people, and we do not want it either: to live in the clutches of sin. Jesus is the Redeemer; can free us from it! It is good to repent and, freed from guilt, to place ourselves anew in God’s hands.
The prophet Jeremiah received the following command from God one day: «Go down to the potter’s workshop. I will tell you something there» (Jeremiah 18:2 NLB). Docile as he is, Jeremiah goes to the potter and watches him. If the potter is not completely satisfied with his product, he kneads the clay again and starts shaping it all over again. He works at it until the object looks exactly as he wants it to. Then God said the following to Jeremiah: «Why shouldn’t I be able to do the same with my people as this potter?» I think we are all «second-hand Christians» because after our re-creation, the heavenly Father has to knead and reshape us in His hands at least a second time until we are as He intended!
«But you shall be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect».Matthias said an important sentence about this sentence from Jesus» Sermon on the Mount in last Sunday’s sermon, which I would like to repeat at this point: «Man is perfect when he realises the purpose for which he was created (by God)!» This is the transformation where God is on us.
What is just and what is unjust?
But God shapes his children very differently because we have very different tasks. But we like to imagine a «unity pot» of a Christian! A pot from God, the potter, sees so off and if you don’t so there is something wrong with you! Like a unified Bible translation, there should be a unified Christian. Or I could also say: From the «seetal chile caterpillar» there is after all the Butterflies and not others! No! But God is much more creative.
He is proving this to us right now with the butterflies. At present, more than 180,000 species of butterflies are known in the world and about 700 more species are discovered every year. God has never stopped creating new things! He is still creating new people today: «When someone belongs to Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; something entirely new has begun!» (2 Corinthians 5:17 NGÜ)
As creator, God has the freedom to form a beautiful fruit bowl at one time and a chamber pot at another. How do you see yourself? As a beautiful lantern or as a simple soup pot? «Why doesn’t God make us all equally beautiful, it’s not fair!» Paul takes up this thorny issue in the Letter to the Romans. First he mentions Rebekah, the wife of the progenitor Isaac, who is expecting twins, and tells how God says to her: «The older will have to be subordinate to the younger». (Genesis 25:23 NLB).
In a culture where the firstborn has such a privileged position, this was an affront! Paul mentions another passage from the book of Malachi where God says about these twin brothers: «To Jacob I have given my love, but to Esau I have cast away». (Malachi 1:2–3 NLB). Doesn’t this cause us to cry out: «God, you can’t do this! This is against every rule of education! You are not that brutal.
Paul has anticipated our perplexed reclamation and comments: «So? What are you imagining? You are a man and you want to start arguing with God? Does a vessel say to the one who formed it, «Why did you make me the way I am?» Does not the potter have the right to dispose of the clay and make two different vessels out of one and the same mass – one for an honourable purpose (exhibit) and one for a less honourable purpose (chamber pot)?» (Romans 9:20–21 NGÜ).
Who are you to decide what is just and what is unjust? We quickly realise that in other biblical images we also like to compare: e.g. the body of Christ, which has countless different components! You would like to be a lip that helps you speak, or at least a lung, but not a toenail! Jesus describes himself as a good shepherd, but you may feel he could be a better shepherd for you! Jesus has healed countless people of their illnesses – why doesn’t he heal me!
I have the firm impression that a person must first have come to know God and have Yes for Him before he can say Yes to himself for who he is. He must first have experienced the grace of God in himself before he can deal more graciously with God and other people. He must himself be justified by God before he can acknowledge the justice of God. Through the sacrificial death of Jesus we can find this justice! «Now that we have been declared righteous by God through faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus our Lord did for us.» (Romans 5:1 NLB). With this peace in my heart, I personally share the testimony of David who says in Psalm 145: «The Lord is righteous in all he does, a God to be relied on»( Psalm 145:17 NLB).
Amen.
You can find the questions for the small groups on the back ;)
Possible questions for the small groups
Read the Bible text: Isaiah 45:9–12 and Jeremiah 18:1–10
- Have any of you been to a pottery class? (If yes, what are your experiences, impressions?)
- What do you think God was thinking when he created you? Do you recognise God’s hand in you, his shaping?
- Tell each other about your gifts and qualities that God has placed in you (This may take a little effort, but it’s good!).
- In what situation or events have you also had the impression that God is unjust?
- Are there disappointments that you can’t get over? Do you have the freedom to report them?
- What helps us most to let God stand in His sovereignty?
