Created Questioning the Creator?

God also said, "Can the vessel ask the Potter?"

You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, Romans 9:19-23 NASB

"Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'?...  Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: "Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward," says the LORD of hosts. Isaiah 45:9, 11-13 ESV

It is okay to ask God questions-

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. "Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? "Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:7-11 NASB

And, if we don't understand, we can ask God-

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5 NASB

God wants us to understand-

Wisdom is the main thing; get wisdom, and with all your getting, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7 LITV

There is a time we need to be quiet-

You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, "He did not make me"; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? Isaiah 29:16 ESV

We can be asking too many questions and enter into insubordination-

For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped." Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! Isaiah 10:13-15 ESV

We are the instruments of God; He is not our instrument.

We are proud, haughty, high-minded, judgmental, and out of line.

We keep asking questions because we want answers, but there comes a point where we need to shut our mouths and start doing something (not just "something", but specifically what God sends us to do!).

Check this out-

always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes's and Jambres's folly was also. 2 Timothy 3:7-9 NASB

"rejected in regard to the faith"???

Does that scare anybody?

Better is a dry morsel with quiet... Proverbs 17:1 ESV

Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. Ecclesiastes 4:6 ESV

Here's the clincher-

therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern." For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." But you were unwilling, Isaiah 30:13-15 ESV

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The Heart Is Sick

Sunday morning was quite busy...

God said,

"The heart is sick"

The heart is sick?


"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds." Jeremiah 17:9-10 NASB

This reminds me of how/what started all of this-

Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick And the whole heart is faint. Isaiah 1:5 NASB

If you continue to read in that chapter-

"So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good... Isaiah 1:15-17 NASB


In the Bible, the words "Heart" and "spirit" can be readily interchanged.

All of this is referring to the spiritual condition of the people.

These staunch warnings keep coming and the worship is confounded in the house of God.

Someone said that they kept hearing a trumpet when God was speaking-

'They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all their multitude. 'The sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within... Ezekiel 7:14-15 NASB

This goes back to what God was saying on December 4th; it starts in Ezekiel 7, is reiterated in Ezekiel 21, and is broken down for the New Testament church in Hebrews 12.

I don't know how else to say this-

But you have forgotten that the Scriptures say to God's children, "When the Lord punishes you, don't make light of it... Hebrews 12:5 CEV

We have all been warned.

God says "Take heed"

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If "The Head" Is Sick, What Is "The Head"?

Previously, God had said the "head is sick" (Isaiah 1:5) then, "go to the potter's house" two days later (Jeremiah 18:4).

Today I got an explanation of what "the head" is.

"For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body." Ephesians 5:23 NASB

So the "head" is the husband, and he is sick. This is not a physical sickness, but a spiritual condition.

AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. Mark 10:8 NASB


Husbands and wives become one in marriage. The head or husband is sick. Since they are now one, the whole thing is sick...

"But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make." Jeremiah 18:4 NASB


Is this making sense?

Our marriages are no good; they are not what God designed them to be.

You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. 1 Peter 3:7 NASB

According to the passage in 1 Peter, the condition of our marriages may be the hindrance in our prayer time. 

So, the problem is in the home; it is a top-down problem. We need to let God take the marriage, destroy it, then remake it.

Can anybody say OUCH!?

Marriage was given to us to be an example of our relationship with Jesus Christ, and fathers are supposed to be representative of our Heavenly Father.

How can we expect to be effective in church work or doing anything for the cause of Christ if our marriages and homes are an abomination to God?

Husbands, get right with God!

Then, get right with your wives!

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The Head Is Sick

Sunday morning God said,

"the head is sick"...

That is Isaiah -
"Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick And the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head There is nothing sound in it, Only bruises, welts and raw wounds, Not pressed out or bandaged, Nor softened with oil."  Isaiah 1:5-6 NASB

There is a problem. The head is sick and the body is feeling the pain.
One rendering of the passage puts it as the body has been punished so much there isn't a fresh spot to scourge; the continual punishment has beaten it to a pulp.

Joel comes to mind. Joel 1:16 says gladness and joy have been cut off from God's house.

"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent And leave a blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God? Blow a trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room And the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests, the LORD'S ministers, Weep between the porch and the altar, And let them say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not make Your inheritance a reproach, A byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, 'Where is their God?'" Joel 2:12-17 NASB

That sounds like a great game plan, but it doesn't jive with the first chapter of Isaiah.

"What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. "I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. "So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Isaiah 1:11-15 NASB

As I was waking up Tuesday, God said,

"go to the potter's house"

"Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce My words to you." Jeremiah 18:2 NASB

 Here is the answer-

But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Jeremiah 18:4 NASB

The head is sick, the vessel is spoiled.

We must let God make us a new vessel, in whatever manner pleases Him!

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