Emotions of the Potter
Does the Potter have emotions?
God made man to be in His image and
likeness. Therefore, we can be assured that God does indeed have emotions, due
to the fact that man has them. There are various types of emotions that God
displayed in the Bible. What are they? Let’s break some of them down in order
to have a better understanding of the Potter in regards to who He is.
Happiness
When God created the universe, He took great pleasure in all
that He had made. Out of darkness, He created light. A separation of water
became the sky and the sea. He made dry land on which the trees, flowers and
plants would grow. He created birds in the sky, beasts of the field and animals
that lived in the sea. God made the sun to light the day and the moon and stars
to light the night. And finally, He created man from the dust of the ground.
God took a look at all that He had created and as an earthly potter, who has
completed a masterpiece, our Potter declared that everything was good. Genesis
1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was
evening, and there was morning the sixth day. (NIV) There was a sense
of satisfaction that God felt. The Potter was therefore, happy with His one of a
kind work of genius.
Grief
After the fall
of man, the human race became increasingly wicked over time. There seemed to be
nothing that man’s evil mind would not think of doing. This grieved the heart
of God that His wonderful creation had turned into an infestation of filth and
depravity of every kind. Genesis 6:5-6 And GOD saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (NIV)
God took this to heart. He wanted nothing but the absolute best for His
creation. He knew that life would be different, outside of the perfect garden
that He had originally placed man in, due to the damaging effects of sin.
Nevertheless, God still wanted man to live a happy and prosperous life free of
sinful indulgences. He never wanted man to embrace such wickedness on the high
level that they did. Unfortunately, man was not concerned with how his evil
choices affected God. In his selfishness, he allowed evil to reign supreme and
God grieved so much, that the pain stirred at the core of His heart where man’s
choices affected Him the most.
Anger
The Children of Israel had been
enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years, but God sent Moses to save His
children from bondage. After they were led through the Red Sea, God had them to
go to the desert where they stayed for 40 years. While there, God gave Moses
the 10 Commandments for them to abide by as part of His ordinances that He took
out the time to write with His own finger on tables made of stone. Exodus
31:18 When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him
the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger
of God. (NIV) These were not just mere suggestions that were
handwritten, but were guidelines that the Lord required as part of their
obedience to Him because they were His chosen people and were to set an example
for other nations. As part of these commandments, they were told to not have
foreign gods, but to worship Him alone. Exodus 20:1-4 (1)And God
spoke all these words: (2)”I am the Lord you God, who brought you
out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (3)You shall have not
other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of
anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” (NIV)
God had a requirement of His
children and that was to remain faithful to Him alone. He did not want them to
worship others gods made of wood and stone that could do nothing for them. He
was the One who rescued them from slavery and to whom they owed their total
adoration to. Despite the guidelines that God had given them, Israel rebelled
and turned against God time and time again. This angered the Lord. 2
Kings 17:10-12 (10)They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles
on every high hill and under every spreading tree. (11)At every high
place they burned incense , as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before
them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the Lord to anger. (12)They
worshipped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.”
(NIV) Due to their disobedience, God allowed them to be taken captive
by their enemies every time they turned from Him. God is not quick to anger,
but in His anger He shows the love that He has for His children. Psalm
103:7-10 (7)He made known to Moses, his deeds to the people of
Israel: (8)The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,
abounding in love. (9)He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor
his anger forever; (10)he does not treat us as our sins deserve or
repay us according to our iniquities. (NIV)
God’s anger is not like man’s anger
in which it can cause a person to sin. God’s anger is a righteous anger in
which He wants our total obedience to Him. Because He is our Potter, He desires
that His children be faithful and honor the guidelines that He set forth for
our lives due to His love and concern for us. Underneath the anger that God
feels in grief in knowing that we did not accept His absolute best for our
lives.
Jealousy
With
understanding the anger of God comes understanding His jealousy towards His
children. God does not display jealousy in the sense that man does, for we
could never possess anything that God would be jealous of. Nevertheless, He is
jealous for His children in that He wants us to serve only Him because He knows
that to worship another god is to condemn ourselves to death and destruction. Exodus
20:5-6 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your
God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a
thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (NIV)
The jealousy that God displays for His children is actually His manifestation
of compassion in that He protects us from harm that would otherwise occur if He
did not have His hands of protection in place. That protection can be in both
the spiritual and the natural. Psalm 91:1-3 He who dwells in the
shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadows of the Almighty. I will say
of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely
he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. (NIV)
When
God created man, He knew that the devil was lurking around to destroy him. God
in all His splendor wanted nothing but the absolute best for His children and
as with any good parent, He, who is our Heavenly Father, wanted to protect us
from what He knew would lead to destruction and death. Therefore, when God gave
the Ten Commandments, and within them said that we were not to worship any
other gods but Him, it was for our own protection. God knew that the devil
would try to infiltrate the minds of His people by having them to do every kind
of wicked because their minds would not be on pleasing God, but on pleasing
themselves. Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human
race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the
human heart was only evil all the time. (NIV) The devil could not succeed
in turning all of Heaven against God, so in what he failed to do in
Heaven, he tried to complete here on earth.
There
are only two choices of worship and God refuses to be second place. He burns
with jealousy when we turn from His ordinances for He knows that the devil is
always lurking around to harm us. 1 Peter 5:8 Be self-controlled and
alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. (NIV) The devil’s theme is to “Do as thou wilt,” but
God says to humble yourself and obey Him for loves and cares for you. Deuteronomy
4:23-24 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he
made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the
Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a
jealous God. (NIV)
Compassion
The
Potter is a God of compassion. He shows grace and mercy towards His children
regardless of how many times we mess up. Psalm 145:8-9 The Lord is gracious
and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he
has compassion on all he has made. (NIV) God could have easily wiped
man off the face of the earth when he sinned, but God did not do that. He
showed such great concern for man that He devised a plan to save him from
experiencing an eternity without Him. God’s compassion for His children is
shown all throughout nature and beyond. From the touch of a flower to the fresh
breeze that blows by, God’s heart can be felt everywhere.
God’s
compassion was shown for the Children of Israel when they had been taken into
captivity for 400 years. They suffered mightily at the hands of Pharaoh and cried
out to God to deliver them from their oppression. The Egyptians were very harsh
with them and made their lives miserable, but God had empathy for their pain
and instructed Moses to deliver them. Exodus 34:5-7 (5)Then the
Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name,
the Lord. (6)And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, “The Lord,
the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love
and faithfulness, (7)maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving
wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he
punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the
third and fourth generation.” (NIV) God does not turn a deaf ear to His
children when they walk in obedience to His will, but He shows Himself in the
tiniest of ways that He is there and that He cares.
God shows compassion in many ways
for this is who He is. God’s compassion is not based upon our deserving it for
we have failed Him many times. Nevertheless, He is our Creator and picks us
back up in His display of compassion towards us in order to help us to get back
on the right path. God’s kindness is manifested every day when we wake up and
have the ability to say, “Thank you.” Joel 2:13 Rend your heart and not
your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and
compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents form sending
calamity. (NIV) There have been many times that God could have punished
man due to his wickedness by sending judgments. But due to His great
compassion, God has withheld what was rightly due in an effort to give us time
to repent and to turn our hearts back towards Him.
JOIN US TOMORROW FOR MORE ON THE POTTER'S EMOTIONS.
No comments:
Post a Comment