Pliable for the Perfect Potter

The allegory of God as a Potter appears several times in both the Old and New Testaments. That's not surprising when you discover that the Hebrew verb yāsar actually means to create or to make. God is our Creator and the verb is often translated in the Old Testament as, "He formed.." or, "He fashioned.." - such as in Psalm 139: 15 - 16, which says that God formed us (ʿāśâ) in our mother's womb and shaped (yāsar) the destiny that he dreamt of for each one of us.

But there are also times when the context makes is obvious that God is being described specifically as a Potter. Isaiah 64: 8, for example, says very clearly that, "We are the clay and You are our Potter." In Jeremiah chapter 18, God asks Jeremiah to go and watch a real potter at work; then He speaks prophetically about His sovereignty in shaping the destiny of nations, depending on whether or not they are pliable in His hands.

In Romans 9: 20, Paul also uses the allegory of God as a Potter (the Greek word is kerameus) to illustrate how ridiculous it would be for us as human beings, God's creation, to think that we know better than He does. It's not the piece of clay who tells the potter what he should be doing, explains Paul.

So, seeing God as the Potter is on the one hand a picture of His creative power and His sovereignty. But it's also a picture of how gracious He is: when a pot turns out wrong, He doesn't simply throw it in the trash; He makes a fresh start and gently reshapes the clay again. The Potter is never rough or rushed; He's gentle, careful and patient as He gradually shapes the clay into what He desires it to be.

Just as our part is to be "good soil" for the Gardener (see yesterday's post), our responsibility is also to be "pliable clay" for the Potter.

I've never forgotten a word study that one of our African PCYFM students handed in as homework in 1996. She had chosen to do a study on the word delight, seeking to have more understanding of what the psalmist meant when he wrote in Psalm 37: 4 that if we delight in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart.

She expected to discover that the Hebrew and Greek words in the original text would be something to do with rejoicing and enjoying God... and this was in fact a common meaning of the original words. But she was puzzled when she looked up the dictionary definition of עָנַג ʿānaḡ, the verb used in Psalm 37: 4, and discovered that it also meant, "to be soft and pliable." That didn't seem to fit our usual understanding of delight.

God revealed to her that truly delighting in Him means that we will cooperate with Him; we will be willing and pliable clay in the hands of the Potter. As He moulds our desires and ambitions to be the same as His dreams for us, then we will regularly find that He is fulfilling the desires of our heart.

God is the perfect Potter. What kind of clay am I in His hands?