Ep 863 – Isaiah 64:8-12

The potter and the clay. This imagery is used throughout the Bible and is always intended to juxtapose the sovereignty of God over His creation, especially humanity. And this relationship between the potter and the clay is used repeatedly to remind the people of God that they are to live in willful submission to God. In Isaiah 64:8-12, the prophet addresses God as the divine potter and confesses that he and the rest of the people of Judah are little more than clay in the Almighty's hands. He recognizes that their circumstances were out of their control and that any hope they had of redemption and restoration was up to the one who had made them. Their fate was in God's hands. So, Isaiah pleads for God to be lenient and to remember that they are His chosen people. The prophet appeals to God as a Father, calling on Him to show mercy to His children. And Isaiah paints the scene surrounding Judah in a very tragic light, describing the city as a desolation, Mount Zion as a wilderness, and all the pleasant places as ruins. Isaiah saw Judah as clay in need of the potter. They were flawed and required reshaping at the hands of the Master.