I was reading in Romans and came upon a passage that said, “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,”. Paul is speaking here of people, not pottery, but using an analogy of a potter who creates some vessels to be honored and some to be destroyed. It took me aback a bit: does God create some people with the intention of destroying them or using them in diabolical ways, such as Judas Iscariot was? Let’s take a closer look at this passage.
Romans 9:18-24
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (NKJV).
Verse 18 calls to mind the story in Exodus where the Pharaoh was resisting the request of Moses to let the Hebrews go into the desert to worship their God. Through the first eight plagues it says ‘Pharaoh’s heart was hard” or “Pharaoh hardened his heart” (meaning that Pharaoh was pridefully denying that God was more powerful than he). But in Exodus 10, after the eighth plague, Pharaoh had had enough and was willing to relent,”20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.” Why? Would it not have been easier to let Pharaoh be compliant so he’d say, “Okay, I’ve seen enough: you folks just run along and have a good time worshiping in the desert”? God wasn’t done demonstrating His might to Pharaoh and the Egyptians (and to the Hebrews). Pharaoh’s pride started the process, God finished it.
In verses 19 through 21, Paul asks and answers the question, “If God hardens someone, is not that person being in compliance with God’s will? How can God then punish someone who is obeying?” He opens the answer with the accusation of, “Who are YOU to argue with God?” The word “power” in verse 21 means “right or authority”: God, as creator of the universe, has the authority to make anything He wants of anything in His creation. Proverbs 16:4 backs up this claim:
“The Lord has made all for Himself,
Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.” (NKJV)
But, it’s not as cold-hearted as it might seem. In verses 22 and 23 Paul talks about some vessels being prepared for destruction and others being prepared for mercy. If we dig into the Greek behind these verses we find that the two instances of “prepared” are not the same. The grammatical structure of the first instance means “prepared themselves” and the second means “which He prepared”.
Once again we confront that idea of predestination. This does not mean that God has scripted out everyone’s lives and we have no choice. The bible clearly states that we have free will (Ezekiel 18:30-32; Deuteronomy 30:19; Mark 8:34; Romans 13:2; Revelation 3:20 just to cite a few). But God is not constrained by time as we are. All we can see of the universe’s existence is one tiny bubble on that river: our past and present. God is capable of seeing everything that would ever happen, even before he laid the foundations of the Earth (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:3-4, 5, 11). He knows before we are born what choices we will make. He can then have things prepared to use those choices in accomplishing His plan.
God knew Judas had a political agenda and would try to push Jesus into bringing about the Jewish messianic kingdom by betraying Jesus to the Pharisees. God knew that Pilot, who found no fault in Jesus and wanted to let Him go, would knuckle-under to the pressure of the Jewish crowd to execute an innocent man. God used those traits to bring about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus so that salvation could be offered to all mankind. God used Pharaoh’s pride to demonstrate His power to the Hebrews who were about to undertake an arduous journey.
Does that mean these men should be considered innocent of their sins? No. But God can use even wicked people to further His kingdom. God does not make them evil, but He will utilize their traits to steer events.
It’s a little like bouncing a ping-pong ball off the side window of a passing car on a little used road. If you throw the ball out there and hope, you will lose a lot of ping-pong balls. But if you can know that a car will be in just the right place at just the right moment, and will have its side window rolled up, you can toss the ball at just the right time so it will be in the right place to meet the car window and the ball will return to you. But you have to know! Do it once and it’s amazing. Do it a billion times in a row and that’s God.
