Drew
Member
Here are some texts demonstrating the Old Testament precedent of the potter metaphor. All of them are about the nation of Israel. From Isaiah 29:
The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
"Who sees us? Who will know?" 16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter,
"He knows nothing"?
This is about the Jews - the nation of Israel.
This next text is from Isaiah 30. The NIV translators gave the title "Woe to the Obstinate Nation" to this chapter. Again, this is about Israel:
Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
"Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant. 14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
Note that in the above text from Isaiah 30, the connection to Romans 9 is even tighter. Not only do we note Isaiah’s identification of the pot with Israel, we can appeal to the more refined point that this pot has broken or shattered. This coheres perfectly well with the argument in chapter 9 where Paul not only invokes the potter / pot metaphor, he makes the further point that some pots are “fitted for destructionâ€. Therefore, seeing the pots “fitted for destruction†as Israel maps cleanly to Isaiah 30 both in regard to the identity of the pot and in regard to what happens to it.
And this one from Jeremiah is particularly clear:
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : 2 "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
Here we have another example of a correlation to Romans 9 that works at multiple levels. First, we have the pot clearly identified as Israel. But beyond this, we have the potter marring the pot in order to make another pot. Note how, in Romans 9, Paul is making the very same point about the pots – the vessels of destruction are “fitted for destruction†precisely for the benefit of the vessels of mercy:
if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory
The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
"Who sees us? Who will know?" 16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter,
"He knows nothing"?
This is about the Jews - the nation of Israel.
This next text is from Isaiah 30. The NIV translators gave the title "Woe to the Obstinate Nation" to this chapter. Again, this is about Israel:
Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
"Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant. 14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
Note that in the above text from Isaiah 30, the connection to Romans 9 is even tighter. Not only do we note Isaiah’s identification of the pot with Israel, we can appeal to the more refined point that this pot has broken or shattered. This coheres perfectly well with the argument in chapter 9 where Paul not only invokes the potter / pot metaphor, he makes the further point that some pots are “fitted for destructionâ€. Therefore, seeing the pots “fitted for destruction†as Israel maps cleanly to Isaiah 30 both in regard to the identity of the pot and in regard to what happens to it.
And this one from Jeremiah is particularly clear:
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : 2 "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
Here we have another example of a correlation to Romans 9 that works at multiple levels. First, we have the pot clearly identified as Israel. But beyond this, we have the potter marring the pot in order to make another pot. Note how, in Romans 9, Paul is making the very same point about the pots – the vessels of destruction are “fitted for destruction†precisely for the benefit of the vessels of mercy:
if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory