Shall the clay say to the potter… (pt. 3)

The potter and the clay

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 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? 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? - Rom. 9:19-21

In part 2 we discussed how parents at times override the wills of their children. There are various reasons why a parent may override the will of a child - protection (keeping the child from harm), punishment/discipline (response to disobedience, correcting unacceptable behavior, or teaching proper behavior), or simply to accomplish the parents will (such as having a clean house). By abrogating the child’s will in this way, the parent is molding the child (hopefully) toward becoming a well-adjusted, responsible adult, just as a potter molds a piece of clay into a useful piece of pottery. We now come to the section of Romans chapter 9 from which the title of this series was taken:

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 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? 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 9:19-21

To properly understand this, we must consider a few of the preceding verses as well, which also reopens the discussion on God’s mercy, compassion, and hardening:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

Romans 9:14-18

When he says that God will show mercy to whomever He pleases, and will harden whom ever He chooses, Paul anticipates the response. “If God made me this way, how can He blame me for my actions?” This is why Paul poses the question, “shall the clay say to the potter…?” This is a rather rich metaphor, though one aspect appears missed by many. Read the commentaries and you’ll find a broad range of interpretations of this passage, as well as some excellent Old Testament references. From Clarke referencing Jeremiah 18 to assert God can dispose of the nations “as He in his infinite wisdom may judge most right” to Geneva and Gill claiming a reference to Adam, they all have points worthy of consideration, and I would not presume to disparage any of them. I’ve looked (at the least) at Clarke, Barnes, the Geneva Bible notes, Gill, JFB (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown), Luther, Matthew Henry, Robertson’s Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament, and Wesley, and while all say something about the potter (God) having a right to form the clay (people) how He wishes, I find one particularly pertinent point curiously absent: the clay has no influence on how it is molded. 

Let’s imagine together this process from the beginning. A potter has a huge lump of clay. From it, he takes a smaller lump (this is an individual). He puts the lump on the wheel and begins spinning. As the wheel spins, the potter shapes the turning mound, and little by little, wetting when necessary, indenting here, extruding there, shaping the clay until the vessel upon which he is working arrives at the potter’s desired shape. Scripture here describes God creating us in similar fashion as Isaiah tells us: “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).

Aside from sitting on the wheel, what part does the clay play in how it is molded? What effort does it put forth in its formation? None. The potter is free to make whatever he wishes, whether a vase or an ash tray, a water pitcher or a bed pan. He is also free to use each vessel as He sees fit. The vase doesn’t put flowers in itself, nor does the ashtray fill itself with ashes. The water pitcher does not fill itself, neither does the bed pan. In a way, these comparisons may sound crass, and some may wish to argue that such is unbiblical. Even many of the commentaries in discussing this passage still put the onus for much on the clay. For instance, Wesley states the following and references Jeremiah 18:6-7:

Therefore, though "He hath mercy on whom he willeth, and whom he willeth he hardeneth," that is, suffers to be hardened in consequence of their obstinate wickedness; yet his is not the will of an arbitrary, capricious, or tyrannical being. He wills nothing but what is infinitely wise and good; and therefore his will is a most proper rule of judgment. He will show mercy, as he hath assured us, to none but true believers, nor harden any but such as obstinately refuse his mercy.

While there may be merit to this (if you read the passage in Jeremiah 18, God talks about nations - not individuals - and how He may choose to deal with them), I believe there is more to Paul’s statement. As I mentioned earlier, which goes hand-in-hand with the metaphor of the potter and the clay, Paul anticipates people asking, “if God made me this way, why does He still fault me?” So, does God make us in such as way as to be sinful, or is it our own doing? Such a teaching is difficult to accept, but it does align with the overall context of the passages under consideration.

Proverbs 16:4 tells us that “The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.” This is clear in its declaration that God creates the wicked for destruction, and it parallels the very next verse, Romans 9:22 - “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” Does this not, in its context, indicate that God created some vessels for destruction? Would it be wrong for the potter to do so? In my opinion, it is neither wrong nor evil for God to do this, and this is what Paul says as well. Who are we to question God? God asks the same of Job when Job questions his own existence and why he was suffering. Does God seek to explain Himself to Job? No. He asks Job, “where were you when I…?” and “are you able to…?” God puts Job in His place and tells Him the same thing Paul here tells us - who are you to question God?

A lot of this leads to more questions rather than answers. Does this mean God creates the sinner as a sinner? Such would explain the question Paul anticipates: “why does He still find fault?” Does the potter have a right to fill with what He chooses the clay vessels He creates? Can He repurpose a bed pan for use as a vase? Certainly. He could wash the inside and put water and flowers in it. It might not be the prettiest vase on the mantle, but put on a mantle, it will display the prettiest roses the Potter chooses to place in it.

This returns us to the inability of the vessel to in any way influence or change its own shape or to fill itself. Such is in God’s hands. Romans 9:22 explains that God has a plan, and that plan involves showing His mercy to vessels of His choosing, while enduring patiently vessels created for wrath, and that plan is “to make His power known.” Romans 9 gives us quite a bit to consider about this.

We could then ask, if God creates the sinner to sin, was Adam intended to sin? If Jesus was savior of the world before the foundation of the Earth, is the fall not something that was planned? These are questions that concern God’s allowance of evil versus His intent for it (and, perhaps, a topic for another article). In Genesis 50:20, Joseph says to his brothers of their selling him into slavery, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” The Hebrew word rendered “meant” by the NASB is a word that embodies purpose and intent. The text does not merely say God “used” for good what the brothers meant for evil; therefore, if God intended Joseph to rise up in Egypt as he did, was the brothers’ plot against Joseph something of God’s making or at least as God intended?

There is a lot to digest here. Some is difficult, I admit, and I am open to alternate opinions - if they align with Scripture. There is more to come, so until the next article I will leave you to contemplate what I have written so far, and I will also point you to an article I wrote previously regarding God’s plan referenced in Romans 9:22: Of angels and devils or…why am I here?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments.

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Read the next article in the series: Shall the clay say to the potter... - pt. 4

Read the previous article in the series: Shall the clay say to the potter... - pt. 2