Israel's leaders to God: 'We made ourselves'

Here's a snippet from tonight's study at my church and will have new article tomorrow:

Isaiah 29: [15] Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

You hear people say, "Boy, that was deep." These guys are going to act like its deep: "We've got these deep thoughts."

They think they're going to keep God from knowing what's going on.

[16] Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

If the potter didn't make the pot but the pot says, "He didn't make me," the pot's saying, "I made myself." What they're doing is they're saying, "We're self-made; we're going to be God. We're going to be Creator." 

"Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?"

"He doesn't know what He's doing when He made me." These dudes don't understand the Creator is the creator, not them. They don't understand why He created.

The religious leaders of Israel had forgotten God's Word to them. They literally didn't understand why they were a nation. God created them as a nation and they didn't get it.

The illustration of the potter's house in Israel's program is very telling. In Romans 9 Paul quotes the passage in Isaiah 29. It's fascinating, Paul was very familiar with the prophets.

Jeremiah 18: [3] Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

[4] And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

The picture is you see the potter and he's got the wheel going and he's making a pot and then there's an imperfection in it. So he squeezes the clay back down and then reshapes it. He makes it according to his design.

[5] Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
[6] O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

God says, "I made you, I had a plan for you and you marred it up. Your unbelief wouldn't do it so I'm going to reshape you. I'm going to remake you."

The same clay, the same nation, but now He's going to reshape them into the vessel that He intended them to be to start with.

They're saying, "You didn't make me. It's not your design; we're making ourselves." He says, "You're nuts."

The Creator knew what He was making when He made the nation Israel. He's going to send you off into captivity, but then He's going to bring the nation back and reshape it the way He intends it to be.