ROMANS UNWRAPPED 162

"Thou wilt say then unto me, why does He yet find fault?   For who has resisted 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?"   Romans 9v19-21

Have Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way,

Thou art the potter, I am the clay,

Mould me and make me, after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

So sang the legendary folk singer, the late Jim Reeves.

Now Paul goes to the very heart of things; who is God?    and what will that mean for us?   Still blinded by their own self-righteousness the sceptics will say why does God find fault with me because He made me this way, and who can resist His will?   Paul's answer is to say who are we to question God?  

We must get this in context here, once again; Paul is not discussing individual salvation, he is talking about God's right to accept or reject national Israel who have rejected Messiah.   God is not unfair; He does not require men and women to account for something over which they have no control.   He only requires us to account for the sins that we have committed and in this context, Israel have committed a great sin in rejecting Christ as Messiah and because of that, God has rejected physical Israel from being His messengers to the world.   We shall see later that this is a temporary situation but for now Israel has been by-passed.   Paul's ultimate argument is even more potent, because God is God and He is able to do what He will with His creatures without explaining to them.   We are for ever trying to bring God down to the level of our thinking, and Paul reminds us here that God is the Creator and we are the creatures. In picture form God is the potter and we are the clay.   The potter can mould the clay into whatever shape he wants to achieve his purposes, so God can do with His creatures whatever is necessary to achieve His ends.   That is the ultimate answer to all objectors.   This imagery of God as the potter, is discussed in Isaiah chapter 29v16 and in Jeremiah chapters 18/19; a small extract from the chapters in Jeremiah is as follows:

"O house of Israel cannot I not 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.   At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy; if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them.  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant; if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them."    Jeremiah 18v6-10

God is able to do with His creatures whatever and whenever he will do it, the message is clear.    The context in Romans 9 is that Israel who were chosen to bring Messianic blessing to the world have rejected Messiah and God has every right to thus lay them aside and turn to the Gentiles.   This is the whole point of Romans chapters 9 - 11.

We could extend this principle to our individual lives and in the song of Hannah in 1st Samuel chapter 2 the sovereignty of God in connection with our individual lives is proclaimed  " the Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up.   The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich; He bringeth low and lifteth up; He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and to inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and He hath set the world upon them.   He will keep the feet of His saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength shall no man prevail; the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them; the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed."   1st Samuel 2v6-10

Whatever our situation in life, we are where we are because a sovereign God has allowed it, and if our situation is because of personal evil against Him we need to repent of our sins and seek His face for forgiveness.   HE IS THE POTTER AND WE ARE THE CLAY.

Any apparent unfairness on the part of God exists only in our minds, who have only self gratification at heart.   God has higher objectives than we could ever have, and we must learn to trust Him and to honour Him as the creator of all things including ourselves.