JUST DUST!

Isaiah 64:8  Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Genesis 2:7  the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

William Blake's strange interpretation of the Creation of Man

It is extremely re-assuring to know that God knows – that we are just dust! We are, physically, no more than the basic elements of the earth.  This is taken up in many places in the Bible where we are likened to a lump of clay – to be shaped by the Potter as he chooses.

Recently I have been teaching about Art and Pottery and the Biblical lessons contained within these things.  I used to teach Art, particularly Ceramics, for many years before I became immersed in church leadership.  So, Scriptures about creativity and pottery have a special meaning for me.  I love to read about Bezaleel being filled with the Spirit so that he could supervise and make the many artefacts needed for the Tabernacle.  I take special meaning from the words about Adam being clay – his name derived from the red earth.  I understand what Jeremiah saw at the Potter’s House.  I understand what Paul was driving at when he stated that the Potter has authority over the clay to make with it what he will and there is no possibility of the clay answering back or challenging this! I can see the meaning of the Scripture that tells us we are merely pottery vessels that can hold the treasure of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact there are many allusions to clay as a spiritual example in Scripture.  The lessons are not all the same and it is not sensible to take an illustration too far.  For example clay remains clay until it goes through the furnace.  Once fired the vessel remains a vessel and cannot be returned to clay – it has been transformed into another element.  Pottery is “indestructible"– archaeologists rely on ceramic artefacts to identify and date their findings.  Indestructible but not unbreakable!  Most ancient pottery is found broken – or shattered!

The idea that a Christian is shaped and “fired” in the kiln for service on earth is one way of seeing the illustration that we are clay and our Father is the Potter.  It carries ideas of permanence, eternal salvation, we bear the Potter’s Mark – stamped with the guarantee of the Holy Spirit.  However, there is also the idea of being taken as dry clay and becoming a lump of clay that the Potter can shape as he chooses.  This can be made a parallel of our whole Christian experience!  Then, the firing in the kiln becomes a parallel of the BEMA – the judgement Seat of Christ where we experience his loving fire and get through with whatever stands the test of the fire. 

So, analogies need care and, like the parables that Jesus taught, we need to keep them in a context and not get too mixed up with different applications.

This is the first part of this theme – more soon …