“You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” -Romans 9:19–21
Paul once again uses the hypothetical interlocutor to make his point. It is an effective rhetorician who anticipates potential objections from one’s audience and then addresses them in such a tactful manner. By speaking to a hypothetical objector, the rhetorician can address his objector strongly, and in effect, “school him,” while allowing his audience to listen in and learn the lesson from the hypothetical person’s mistake without feeling belittled themselves.
The lesson Paul is teaching is that God is God and we are not! We are created beings and God is not unjust to do with his creation as he pleases. Paul retorts,
who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”
In his response, Paul is drawing upon a longstanding Jewish understanding of the relationship between creator and the created. It is an example every Jew who had even the slightest knowledge of the Holy Scriptures would have immediately recognized, that of the potter and the clay.
“You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?” -Isaiah 29:16
““Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?” -Isaiah 45:9
“So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” -Jeremiah 18:3–6
The example is even used in the the Wisdom of Solomon and the Sirach:
“A potter kneads the soft earth and laboriously molds each vessel for our service, fashioning out of the same clay both the vessels that serve clean uses and those for contrary uses, making all alike; but which shall be the use of each of them the worker in clay decides.” -Wisdom of Solomon 15:7
“All human beings come from the ground, and humankind was created out of the dust. In the fullness of his knowledge the Lord distinguished them and appointed their different ways. Some he blessed and exalted, and some he made holy and brought near to himself; but some he cursed and brought low, and turned them out of their place. Like clay in the hand of the potter, to be molded as he pleases, so all are in the hand of their Maker, to be given whatever he decides.” -Sirach 33:10–13
In his commentary, Byrne puts it this way: ‘The force of the image as Paul employs it … stems from the fact that the potter has to make vessels for a wide variety of uses, some noble (the banquet cup), some homely (the chamber pot); he will turn the same lump of clay in either direction as he sees fit. Like the potter, the Creator has a perfect right to turn the creature in whatsoever direction he chooses’.42
All this being said, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that in none of what Paul is arguing does he suggest that God’s will is capricious or even absolute. He doesn’t treat his creation as a plaything; neither is he malicious or uncaring. Paul is only arguing that God, in his transcendent goodness and wisdom, is free to create and subsequently deal with his creation as he sees fit.
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