The Potter and The Clay Bible Study | Clay In The Potter’s Hands

The Potter and the Clay - Clay in the Potter's Hands
In Isaiah 64:8 (NKJV), Isaiah introduces the concept of the potter and the clay and presents God as the Potter who naturally cares about that which He has created. He does not want to discard his creation. “But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.” God is the “Father of our spirits” (Hebrews 12:9) and has created us to be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Paul prayed that God would complete the work He had begun in them (Philippians 1:6). God is definitely working to make us what He desires us to be but…

We Can Resist The Potter

Those who resist God’s work in their lives never become what He designed for them to be. We are incapable of producing our own happiness or fulfillment. Solomon had all the human resources one could gather at his disposal, yet he found a void he could not fill – “toiling for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 5:16). There is a real sense in which God limited His own power to accomplish His purpose for us by giving us free-will. The Psalmist said of Israel, “How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert. Yet, again and again, they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 78:40-41). God could not mold and shape them as He desired because of their rebellion.

Denying the Potter and the Clay Relationship

In Isaiah 29:16, God rebuked Israel because they arrogantly defied Him and acted as though He had not created them. They acted as though they were in control of their own lives. Isaiah told them, “Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me?” Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?” It is unthinkable that the “clay” should have such an attitude toward the Potter. But we do exactly that. What does it tell you about people when you see so many different religions and denominations? Are they are open-minded and tolerant, or does it point to the human inability to satisfy their own longings? We should see a bunch of happy, fulfilled people in such a free, tolerant society. But it is not a lack of freedom that keeps us from being happy, it is a lack of truth. For many “God” is the clay and “we” are the potters. We desire to mold God into whatever shape “we” desire. We seek an imaginary god who will tolerate our inadequacies without requiring change. (Homosexuality, adultery, greed, etc.). But it is sin and its wages that bring unhappiness (Romans 6:21, 23). The True Potter knows that it is the clay that must change its shape.

We Can Acknowledge the Potter and the Clay Relationship

Paul declared that God is “able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20) God has a great advantage over man in the work of molding lives for the better. God knows what is best for us because He truly knows our every need (Philippians 4:19). Sometimes we need just the opposite of what we seek (thank God for unanswered prayers!).

The Potter Can Remake The Clay

What happens when we choose to resist God and we are not what God wants us to be? Is there hope for us beyond sin? The prophet, Jeremiah, thought there was when he said, “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!” (Jeremiah 18:3-6). Israel had constantly resisted God’s work in them. But He was not willing to throw them away. Though they were marred, and could not be what they once could have been, God could remake the vessel into another vessel, that would glorify Him.

God accomplished this in Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a marred vessel as long as he resisted the power of apostolic preaching and “kicked against the goads” (Acts 9:5 – NKJV), but when he fell before Jesus and asked, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” (Acts 9:6), God remade him into a vessel of honor, “useful to the master….” (2 Timothy 2:21 – ESV). We are all marred vessels, but it matters not how we marred our life, or how long it has been malformed. The Great Potter can remold the clay (us) if we are willing to trust and obey (Romans 9:18-33).

The Potter and the Clay – The Finished Product

We are hindered by our inability to see the end of the process. God has the power to truly change lives through the power of the Gospel (Romans 1:16). Paul wanted the Philippians to know that God was continually in the process of shaping and molding his life when he said,

“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear” (Philippians 1:12-14).

Paul continued,

“For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:19-20).

Whatever happened to him, Paul knew God could make it work for spiritual good. He later encouraged them to acquire this mindset, as the mind of Christ.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

Jesus humbly trusted the Father and was obedient to His will (Hebrews 5:8; cf. Philippians 2:8).

Have Thine Own Way, Lord!

There is another aspect of the potter and the clay that we need to think about. Every revolution of the potter’s wheel brings the clay closer to what its end will look like. It is that way with our lives. As we are being turned on the Potter’s wheel, we are being molded and shaped, regardless of how long we’ve been turning. There’s a sacred hymn that we sing from time to time entitled, “Have Thine Own Way Lord”, which beautifully illustrates how we (the clay) should be pliable in the Potter’s hands. The song reads, “Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me After Thy will, While I am waiting, Yielded and still.” The last verse reads, “Hold o’er my being Absolute sway! Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see Christ only, always, Living in me.”

Dear reader, as Isaiah pleaded with the people of his day (Isaiah 64:8), we are pleading with you today to allow God to be the Potter of your life, continually shaping and molding you, as you willingly render obedience to His will (Romans 10:17; Acts 17:30; Romans 10:9-10; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:1-11; Gal. 3:26-27; John 8:31; Revelation 2:10).