ISAIAH 45: 8-13
RAISED UP FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
The Lord works sovereignly over the world and individuals because He created both the world and its people. It is His right as Creator and Sustainer. Those created have no right to rebelliously question the Creator’s ways. What God does He does in righteousness in order to bring forth righteousness.
People though like to dispute what God does, particularly when it comes to them. Israel wanted another Moses to deliver them. God didn’t see them as worthy of even this form of self-deliverance. Their deliverance would come from outside of themselves and their own power. They would not be able to take any credit for it.
I. THE PROPHET’S PRAYER, 8.
II. THE CLAY’S PROBLEM, 9-10.
III. THE POTTER’S PRODUCTION, 11-13.
Listen to the prophetic plea in verse 8. "Drip down, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, and righteousness spring up with it. I, the Lord, have created it.
The prophet prays that heaven and earth be enlisted to bring forth the salvation and righteousness of YAHWEH. God’s natural creation is called to serve the Lord of salvation. The picture is one of abundance (Hos. 10:12), an abundance of righteousness. The heavens pour down God’s righteousness and the people of the earth are to respond and be saved. Those saved bear the fruit of God’s salvation which is always accompanied with righteousness. God deals with mankind in righteousness and pours out His blessings upon them that they might become righteous. God always does right and deals righteously with others. Those who open up to His righteousness will have it take hold and grow in their life.
When God answer’s this prayer and rains down righteousness from heaven, if the inhabitants of the earth will open up, a great harvest of salvation will spring up. That is, people everywhere will know the Lord (6; 11:9; Hab. 2:14).
[God is the only one who can deliver. If Israel is in the darkness and trouble (ra ’) of exile, it is solely because of the Lord. Therefore it is to the Lord alone that Israel should look in order for the darkness to be turned to light and the trouble to well-being, v. 7.]
II. THE CLAY’S PROBLEM, 9-10.
Verse 9 discloses the clay’s rebellion against being clay. "Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?
Woe is a funeral cry and emphasizes the seriousness of God’s complaint. Just as it would not make godly sense and even be folly for a piece of pottery to challenge the potter, so would it be folly for frail man to challenge His Maker.
To disagree with God’s ordering of one’s life or one’s world is not merely a matter of preference or out look. It is a reversal of roles, a refusal to let God be God, when the created tries to make the Creator carry out their plans. A persistent attempt to force God to serve us will result in the pronouncement of a funeral, our own (Gen. 3) [Oswalt, Isaiah 40-66, 209].
His people needed to see more clearly that they were powerless to argue in court against the Creator, the heavenly Father. They were clay potsherds, broken pieces of pottery. They were useless, unless He would remold them, and He would remold them as He determined, not they determined. [See 29:16; 64:8; Jer. 18:6 for more thought of man being God’s clay.]
Verse10 brings the argument to a human plane. "Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’"
God is not merely the maker of the universe, He is the Father of the human races. Just as it would be an affront for a child to lambaste his parents for bringing him into the world, so would it be an affront for men to challenge the purposes of YAHWEH.
When someone who is created voices disapproval of the Creator’s work he risks receiving a pronouncement of impending doom (woe, 3:9) from the Lord. A potsherd, a broken, discarded piece of pottery, has no right to question the potter. Nor does a child have the right to question why his parents brought him into the world. In the same way Israel has no right to question God her Maker (45:9, 11), the world’s Creator (12), in His plans [to raise up Cyrus (v. 13).]
It says that to challenge God’s purpose in your life is as absurd as a piece of pottery criticizing the potter who formed it. To question or criticize God’s right to design, create, and empower is folly.
III. THE POTTER’S PRODUCTION, 11-13.
In verse 11 God’s begins closing His argument. Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons, and you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.
God uses His titles to make His authority unmistakable. The LORD, Israel’s holy Maker is responsible for dealing with His people. He asks if any could accuse Him of misusing His own children whom created by His own hands. Did anyone know what they had been created for other than the Creator, their Maker, their Heavenly Father. God molds His people according to the purpose He has for them.
You may ask God concerning things to come for He is able to inform you. You may trust His care for He has your best interests at heart.
You are the work of God’s hands because He is the Potter that molded you. He is:
the Potter that poured grace and mercy upon you…
the Potter that is fine tuning every spiritual channel on your dial so that the reception of the Word of God comes in clearer and clearer…
the Potter that is moving you to the next level in your purpose for Him…
the Potter who is pointing you in the direction that He has ordained, purposed and desires for you…
You’ve have been walking down the street of self-doubt…. But saints, God is right around the corner… Give God praise, not criticism.
Verse12 continues the emphasis on God’s right to do what He wishes with what He has created. "I made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands, and I ordained all their host.
God can be trusted because He is the craftsman of the earth and of man. These almighty hands that made man also stretched out the heavens. He set in ordered all the amazing starry "host" of the universe (40:26). God can be trusted because He created all things and has the unlimited power to carry out His promises and plans.
In verse 13 God concludes His decision. "I have aroused him (Cyrus) in righteousness, And I will make all his ways smooth. He will build My city, and will let My exiles go free, without any payment or reward," says the Lord of Hosts.
I have aroused him, meaning Cyrus. Cyrus did not arise by accident nor by his own choice. He would be divinely enabled to accomplish the purpose for which God made him. God had formed Cyrus and raised him up according to His sovereign purposes to act according to His will or in righteousness. He had done so that His exiled people might go free and that His city Jerusalem (44:28) might be rebuilt. God had needed no counsel nor would He accept any.
History is in the Hands of the Sovereign God. The Persian emperor would exist and be empowered because God so ordained it, like the earth and the stars exist and are governed because God so ordained it. Neither God’s people Israel or any one else is in any position to challenge God’s decisions.
CONCLUSION / RESPONSE
A king in an ancient Palace secured a famous musician to BUILD A WONDERFUL HARP. In the evenings the household would gather and spend happy hours listening to the peaceful music. Years went by, the king died and the prince took his family to live in the castle. A musician was found to play the harp, but the harp was out of tune. No one could tune it. With a heavy heart the prince had it covered - a useless relic.
One night an old man came to the castle seeking shelter. The prince took the stranger in. During supper the old man kept looking at the harp, and finally asked why it was covered. The prince sais the harp had lost its tune and no one could tune it. "May I try?" the visitor asked.
The prince agree and soon the harp brought forth beautiful music as in the days gone by. "How is it," the prince asked, " that you could tune the harp when no one else could?"
The stranger smiled as he replied, "I made the harp."
Who is better to get our lives, back "in tune" with God than the One who made us?"
Ask God to tune with His word each new day so that your life would be sweet music to His ears.
There are so many reasons we need God’s hands to remold us. We need His hands to shape us because:
My clay is difficult to fashion. I need seasoning. -like Moses.
My clay is lacks strength, I need heat from trails -like Esther.
My clay denies my faith. I need forgiveness - like Peter.
My play is prejudiced. I need Your patience - like Jonah.
My clay conforms to the world. I need to be separated - like Abraham.
My clay hesitates to risk.! need courage -like Rahab.
My clay wavers before obstacles. I need self-discipline like David.
My clay is not flashy or vocal, I need to accept myself for who I am like Andrew.
My clay is disillusioned. I need respect and acceptance like the Samaritan woman.
My clay is corrupted. I need purity - like Zacchaeus.
My clay is damaged and marred. I need a Redeemer like You Lord!
I am clay in Your hands, oh Lord. Mold me as You want me to be. Press, change, shape, transform me into a vessel to be fully filled and used by Thee.
