The Pot and the Potter

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 (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

If there is any lesson to be learned from the Wheel, it is that God can accomplish His purpose without any knowledge, let alone consent, on the part of the people He uses in the process. Of course, this can be quite offensive the human ego which easily rises to such heights as to teach that human freedom is so great it actually limits what God can do! The Lord leaves no doubt about His thoughts on such matters. When Scripture addresses the question of God's sovereignty, not only does it present God as the absolute ruler over all the affairs of men, great and small, but it goes on to chastise those who pose the question in willful ignorance that they are mere creatures, clay in the hands of the Potter. The classic example is found in Romans 9.20, where Paul responds to the question of how God can find fault with anyone if no one is able to resist His will:

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

In all the Bible, only four other verses speak of God as the Potter and we as the clay. In a vision given to Jeremiah, the Lord shows him a potter who reforms a marred pot into "another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it." The Lord then asks:

O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

The other three are all from Isaiah. One is quoted at the head of this section. Another is found in Isaiah 29.15:

Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

The third is found in Isaiah 45.9f:

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

The three verses from Romans 9, Isaiah 29, and Isaiah 45 differ from the others in that they present the clay as posing questions to the potter. They form a KeySet, a unique set that links these two great books, Isaiah and Romans, on Spoke 1. The parallelism is striking:

These three verses form a double Spoke 1