NOTES
FROM THE UNDERGROUND: DISHONORED VESSELS REDEEMED
In the context of the larger argument
about God’s justice and mercy toward his people, the point is that even vessels
for dishonorable use ultimately serve God’s redemptive purposes. Like Isaiah’s
Suffering Servant, whose form was “without honor” (ατιμον; cf. Jer 22:28) and who was “dishonored and
not esteemed” (Isa 53:5 LXX)—God is using those who were dishonored as instruments
of mercy so that both the vessels of honor and dishonor can be redeemed. The
incorporation of transformed gentiles is the means by which formerly rejected Israel
is being restored from its dishonored, broken state. Far from representing God’s
departure from Israel, the incorporation of gentiles is the new covenant
community therefore serves as proof of God’s continuing fidelity to unfaithful
Israel. God’s mercy for his people runs so deeply that he has begun incorporating
gentiles to ensure the redemption of those Israelites who assimilated into the nations.
The implication of this redemptive action
also cuts the other way, as those who are now faithful and disobedient stand in
danger of the same dishonorable consequences experienced by disobedient Israel
in the past (e.g. Hos 8:8; Jer 19, 22:28). They may even be reshaped to serve
as vessels of God’s wrath akin to the gentile kings and empires of old. And as
suggested by the concluding “for destruction” in Rom 9:22, the typical fate of such
utensils for wrath after completing their purpose was—as for Pharaoh in Exodus—their
own destruction (e.g., Isa 10:12). It should be noted, however, that Paul
portrays the clay not as finished and hardened but rather as still in the
molding process. That is, he says nothing of the potter “breaking the flawed,
pot to reconstruct it” as though the pot were already formed. Rather, the process
of reshaping takes place before the pot is “hardened” (9:18), Once the clay has
been fired in the kiln, it can no longer be reshaped but only destroyed once it
is no longer of use.
Along these lines, “hardening” (σκληρυνειν; 9:18) therefore is best understood here as
the final step of judgment at which point the vessel is set in its given shape
and is hardened to remain that way permanently. “Hardening” does not involve reshaping;
it involves permanently setting the clay in the state in which it already
exists. But in Rom 9:20-24, the potter is depicted as still working with the clay,
which has not yet become hardened. God’s mercy entails showing patience with
the clay trying to form it into a better vessel prior to hardening it in its
final state. In light of God’s pathos and mercy, the potter/clay imagery
therefore serves as a call to repentance for those vessels that are as yet unfinished
and unhardened, as one second-century Christian explains:
For we are clay in the hand of the
craftsman. As in the case of a potter; if he makes a vessel that is turned or
crushed in his hands, he can reshape it again. But if he has already put it
into the kiln, he can no longer rescue it. Thus also with us. As long as we are
in this world, we should repent from the evil that we did in the flesh. (2
Clem. 8:2)
In this respect the lesson of the
potter and clay is although God does have the autonomy to show mercy to
whomever he chooses, God does not act arbitrarily but always in responsive relationship
with the vessel being formed. Each is therefore “to submit in creaturely humility
before the divine potter, and perhaps by implication, to submit thereby also to
his power to remake.” Paul therefore does not regard his contemporary fleshly
kin as already hardened beyond repair but rather as not-yet-fired clay still
having the opportunity to repent, hoping through his ministry “to save some of
them” (11:14).
But his redemptive hopes stretch still
further: even if they do not heed the message, Paul still appeals to God’s redemptive
action among the gentiles, as proof that God’s mercy may still prevail. If God
has made such redemptive use even of Israel’s past disobedience as to result in
the extension of the promise to gentiles, God can use present disobedience for
similarly redemptive purposes. That is, just as God is now redeeming previously
dishonored vessels through such an extreme step as the transformation and inclusion
of gentiles, so also he may show mercy in those currently resisting his
purposes. God’s redemption of the former group demonstrates has continued
concern for the latter also. Thus all stand on equal footing before a God whose
intention is to show mercy to al, and the present incorporation of the gentiles
paradoxically serves as the prime proof of God’s overarching mercy and
faithfulness to Israel. (Jason A. Staples, Paul and the Resurrection of
Israel: Jews, Former Gentiles, Israelites [Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2024], 209-11)
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