The clay is in the potter’s hand.”

Jeremiah 2:1-10

 

You and I are in the hands of God, like the clay is in the hands of the potter; and He has the right and power to do with us exactly what He will.

 

      Throughout the Bible, God identifies Himself as one who has and exercises total control over all things, at all times, and in all places. His will, His purpose, His plans, His works, and His power are irresistible. He who is God has the incontestable right and the irresistible ability to make, govern, use, and dispose of all things according to His own will. — That includes you and me.

 

      You and I are clay in the hands of God. We belong to God; and God has the right to do with us what He will. He says to you and to me, — “Cannot I do with you as I will?

 

      The God of the Bible, the one true and living God, the God we worship, trust, love, and serve, is totally, absolutely, irresistibly, uncontrollably, universally sovereign. He created all things, owns all things, rules all things, and disposes of all things according to His own pleasure, even you and me! Nothing in this universe, nothing in heaven, earth or hell wiggles or moves, but by the will of God.

 

      God rules everything, absolutely. In creation, in providence, and in grace God is sovereign. — God is incontestably sovereign over all His works and all His creatures (Daniel 4:35-37). He is no more a debtor to us than the potter is debtor to the clay. He has the right to make and mar, use and dispose of us as He will. And he is not accountable to us for what He does to us or with us.

 

      God exercises His sovereignty with the greatest ease. It is very easy for God to do with us what He will. He makes us as it pleases Him, changes us as it pleases Him, uses us as it pleases Him, and disposes of us as it pleases Him. We cannot resist Him. He’s the Potter. We’re the clay. He’s God. We’re just men! One turn of the potter’s hand, one spin of his wheel completely alters the shape of the clay, makes it, mars it or makes it anew. So it is with us. Our times and our lives, the times and lives of all men are in the hands of God (Job 12:23; 34:29; Psalm 107:33; Isaiah 45:7; 46:9-13).

 

      And God will be glorified in all His works. Vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor both reflect the potter’s wisdom, power, and skill. Vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy show forth the praise of God. — “The LORD hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Proverbs 16:4).

 

God formed us out of the clay (Job 33:6). We are just clay in the hands of the Almighty. — “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” (Isaiah 64:8). God has the same power over us that the potter has over the clay (Romans 9:21). We ought to willingly submit ourselves to the will and wisdom of God, being willingly pliable in His hands as the clay is in the potter’s hands (Isaiah 29:15-16; 45:9).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

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