On Rom 9:20//LXX Isa 29:16b and Rom 9:9:21/LXX Isa 45:9b (cf. Rom 9:20-24):
The potter and clay text from LXX Isa 29:16 that Paul
cites here is found in the immediate context of the God of Israel’s response to
those in Judah who only pay lip service to God, and think that they can hie
what they are doing from God (Isa 29:13-15). The potter and clay text therefore
comes to show how mistaken it is to think that one’s actions are hidden from God.
It is followed by the assurance that God’s people will treat God as holy and
come to divinely informed understanding (Isa 29:17-24). So the potter and clay
text that Paul quotes, according to its original context in Isaiah 29, is reminding
the people of Judah that God their creator knows them well, and that God will
restore their relationship to him. It is not primarily functioning as a
statement of determined or fixed natures. The potter and clay text in Isa 45:9
comes in the context of an oracle regarding Cyrus. God’s anointed one who will
bring the exile to an end and allow his people to return to Jerusalem. The
potter and clay remark is therefore a way of saying, “The potter knows what he
is doing with the clay, right? So don’t question God about his unexpected way
of ending our exile!” These potter and clay texts in Isaiah therefore fit as a
response to the interlocutor who has been saying, “It doesn’t matter what
people do, since God determines everything. God cannot even hold people accountable,
since his will cannot be resisted.” Paul’s respond is in effect saying, “Just
as God’s people had no right to question God’s dealings with them in the past,
so no one has the standing to question God’s dealings with Israel now.” The
potter and clay quotation is therefore not an endorsement of the determination
found in 9:15-18, but rather a correction of the accusation in 9:19 that God is
unjust in finding fault with his people.
This coheres with the longest potter and clay text in the
prophets, found in Jeremiah. Of the potter and clay texts available to Paul in
his Scriptures, Jer 18:6 most explicitly identifies God’s people as the clay in
the potter’s hand. Jer 18:1-11 describes God’s relationship with any nation as
dynamic. The nation does not have a fixed destiny, but its behavior prompts
varied responses from God, just as a potter forms a vessel in response to how
the clay shapes up on the potter’s wheel. Jeremiah’s paragraph on the potter
and clay ends with a call to Judah to return to God from evil ways (18:11). The
whole metaphor in Jeremiah is therefore based on the presupposition that
nations make actual choices that affect how God deals with them. And so like
the potter and clay texts in Isaiah, the metaphor in Jer 18:1-11 functions not
to teach that God predestines individuals’ eternal destinies, but to motivate
God’s people to trust God and stay in relationship with him. (Mark Reasoner, Now
Shown Mercy: A Commentary on Romans 9-11 [Lectio Sacra; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade
Books, 2024], 77-78)
Further Reading:
An
Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed
Theology
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