Verse 16

Your thinking is perverse! Should the potter be regarded as clay? Should the thing made say about its maker,“He didn’t make me”? Or should the pottery say about the potter,“He doesn’t understand”?

Referenced Verses

  • Rom 9:19-21 : 19 You will say to me then,“Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 20 But who indeed are you– a mere human being– to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder,“Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?
  • Ps 94:8-9 : 8 Take notice of this, you ignorant people! You fools, when will you ever understand? 9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear? Does the one who forms the human eye not see?
  • Isa 45:9-9 : 9 The Lord Gives a Warning One who argues with his Creator is in grave danger, one who is like a mere shard among the other shards on the ground! The clay should not say to the potter,“What in the world are you doing? Your work lacks skill!” 10 Danger awaits one who says to his father,“What in the world are you fathering?” and to his mother,“What in the world are you bringing forth?” 11 This is what the LORD says, the Holy One of Israel, the one who formed him, concerning things to come:“How dare you question me about my children! How dare you tell me what to do with the work of my own hands!
  • Isa 64:8 : 8 Yet, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the product of your labor.
  • Jer 18:1-9 : 1 An Object Lesson from the Making of Pottery The LORD said to Jeremiah: 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working at his wheel. 4 Now and then there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit. 5 Then the LORD’s message came to me, 6 “I, the LORD, say:‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’ 7 There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. 8 But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. 9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. 10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.
  • Acts 17:6 : 6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, screaming,“These people who have stirred up trouble throughout the world have come here too,
  • Isa 24:1 : 1 The Lord Will Judge the Earth Look, the LORD is ready to devastate the earth and leave it in ruins; he will mar its surface and scatter its inhabitants.