Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let a potsherd [strive] with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that formeth it, What makest thou? Or thy work, He hath no hands?
Here God names Cyrus, the Persian king He will raise up, and insists that He alone is God. Into that declaration comes a woe — aimed not at idols this time, but at any creature who argues with the One who made him.
The woe has a setting in worship. One writer reads verses 9 and 10 as God's warning to idolaters, and names what a man does when he trades his Maker for a made thing.
In view of the judgments coming on idolatry, God warns the idolaters. In turning from God to idols, man is striving with his Maker. Let created men — mere potsherds — strive among themselves, but woe to them if they call God's works and God's ways into question.
Older translations call the man here a potsherd, where the ESV has "a pot among earthen pots." A Bible dictionary defines the word, and points to where it turns up again.
A fragment of pottery, to which man is compared when he strives with his Maker. Isaiah 45:9. David uses the word in the Psalm that foretells the Lord's sacrificial sufferings. There he says, "my strength is dried up like a potsherd." Psalm 22:15.
Shards may grind against shards; what they cannot do is take the potter to court. Yet that Psalm likens the Lord Himself to a potsherd.
One writer starts from the bare idea of a Creator, and shows what that idea gives Him the right to do. He then names the one Man who ever gave God that place.
It is important to get right ideas of God. I do not mean only in His grace, which must be learned in the gospel, but as Creator... I am only seeking to show one thing. If you allow the idea of a Creator at all — and a man must be mad who does not — you must allow He has a right to do just as He pleases. He may make what He pleases, and do what He pleases with what He has made. No one ever gave God this rightful place but Christ. He took the place of man and held it fast, to the glory of God, from the manger to the cross... That it was the will of God was explanation enough for every circumstance in which He found Himself.
So the clay that never once asked "What are you making?" was the Lord Jesus Himself.
One writer treats the potter's image as God's own reply to every objection reason can raise.
The potter has power over the lump of clay he holds in his hand. No one would think of disputing that. How much more, then, has the Creator of all things power over the creatures His hand has formed! Men may reason and argue without end about why God permitted sin to enter. They ask why He did not destroy Satan and his angels at once. They ask why He allowed the serpent to tempt Eve... In short, the hows and whys are endless; but the answer is one: "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?"
One writer sets two postures side by side: the learner at the Master's feet, and the judge. He hears the clay's question still today.
Anyone who does not want to sit at the Master's feet and say, "I will ask You, and You answer me," takes the place of judge against his God. The vessel says to the potter, "What are you making?" Foolish as the question is, we still find it often among the children of Adam... In our day the spirit of independence forces its way in everywhere. Everyone wants to be free to think and do as they please. So this basic error is almost universal.
The chapter does not stop at the woe. God then invites the very people He has just silenced to bring Him their questions about the future.
The Lord rebukes with woe upon woe all striving with Himself and fault-finding with His ways. Yet how graciously He calls on His people in the very next verse! He tells them to ask Him about things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands!
God shuts the door on the arguer and opens it to the asker.
- Clay — Scripture likens man to a potsherd, a broken piece of pottery. Shards may strive with shards, but never with the hand that shaped them.
- Cause — The woe answers idolatry: turning from God to a made thing is itself striving with the Maker.
- Claim — Grant that there is a Creator, and you must grant His rights. He may make what He pleases, and do as He pleases with what He has made.
- Christ — Only One ever gave God that place. From the manger to the cross, God's will was explanation enough for Him.
- Call — The same chapter that pronounces woe on the arguer invites God's people to ask Him about what is coming. Arguing is shut out; asking is welcomed.
Woe unto him that saith unto [his] father, What begettest thou? Or to [his] mother, What hast thou brought forth?
God has just named Cyrus, a foreign king, as the man He will use to set His people free. The verse before answers the objectors with a picture: broken pieces of pottery arguing with the potter. This verse moves the picture indoors. A child turns on his own father and mother for ever giving him life.
Verses 9 and 10 belong together. Both speak to people who had swapped the living God for idols. One writer explains what such a swap really is:
In view of the judgments coming on idolatry, God warns the idolaters. In turning from God to idols, man is striving with his Maker. Let created men — mere potsherds — strive with each other, but woe to them if they call God's works and God's ways into question.
God does not forbid strife between people here. He forbids the creature putting God's works and ways on trial.
If God made you, He has the right to make you as He pleased. One writer builds the whole argument from that one admission, and names the only Man who never disputed it:
It is important to get right ideas of God. I do not mean only in His grace, which must be learned in the gospel, but as a Creator. I have not yet come to consider what God makes, or what He does with what He makes. I am only seeking to show one thing. If you allow the idea of a Creator at all — and a man must be mad who does not — you must allow that He has a right to do just as He pleases. He may make what He pleases, and do what He pleases with the thing He has made. No one ever yet gave God this His rightful place except Christ. He took the place of man, and He kept that place without fail, to the glory of God, from the manger to the cross.
The Hebrew verb on the mother's side of the verse means more than giving birth. The ESV renders it "in labor." One writer traces the word through its fifty uses:
The Revisers of 1881 changed the words "have you brought forth" here to "travail." Probably this was because the verb means the pains of bearing that come before the birth more than the bringing forth itself. Translators render this word in many ways across its fifty uses: fear (of God), grief, anguish, pain, sorrow, wounding, travail, tremble (at God's presence), dance, shake, and so on. The thought is not so much bearing a child, as the different forms of suffering that go with a certain action or event.
So the complaint God rebukes here targets parents who suffered to bring the complainer into the world.
One man in Scripture said almost exactly what this verse forbids. Job asked why he had ever come into the world:
Why do I live at all? Would it not be better if I had never been born? See Job 3:10-20. In Isaiah 45:9-12 we see a serious woe pronounced on those who ask such questions.
The reason the woe is so heavy becomes clear once you follow the question to its end — and so does the way God answered it:
Job's first great question implies a doubt about the purpose of human existence. So it doubts the wisdom of the Creator too. This is an insult against God Himself. At the end of the book God answers it with a series of counter-questions. Then Job submits, and his tormenting questions find a satisfactory answer in the power and goodness of God.
The woe does not mean God refuses to be spoken to. Read on one verse and the tone changes:
The LORD rebukes with woe upon woe all striving with Himself and all fault-finding with His ways. Yet how graciously He calls on His people in the very next verse! He tells them to ask Him about things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands. He who made heaven and its host, earth and man on it raised up Cyrus to build His city and set His captives free, "not for price or reward, says the LORD of hosts."
- Maker. The woe falls on the creature who puts God's works and ways on trial. Turning from God to idols is that same quarrel with our Maker.
- Right. Admit a Creator at all, and you must admit His right to make what He pleases. Christ alone gave God that place, from the manger to the cross.
- Labor. The verb on the mother's side of the verse speaks of pain and travail. The complaint God rebukes lands on the parents who suffered to give the complainer life.
- Job. "Why was I ever born?" is the living form of this woe. It doubts the wisdom of the Creator. God answered Job with questions of His own, until Job submitted.
- Ask. The very next verse invites the same people to ask God about things to come. He forbids fault-finding; He welcomes questions.
Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker Ask me of the things to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.
Isaiah 45 has just pronounced woe after woe on anyone who argues with his Maker; now the same God invites His people to ask. That raises two questions: what may we ask about, and how does a creature dare speak to his Creator like this?
A note on translation: the ESV reads the second half as a question — "will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?" Other translations read it as an invitation: "command me." The comments below follow that reading.
Before God says anything about asking, He names Himself. One of these names runs through the whole book.
Throughout Isaiah He is called "the Holy One of Israel." This title of the Lord, who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy, appears twenty-five times in the book… The Holy One of Israel is Jehovah; He is the Redeemer of His people. "Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel" (47:4)… This Holy One is the Creator.
What makes the invitation striking is where it stands. It comes straight after the woes.
Jehovah rebukes with woe after woe everyone who fights against Him and finds fault with His ways. Yet how gracious He is in the very next verse! There He calls His people to ask Him about the things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands.
The invitation has a subject: God's own people and His work for them. It stands against the alternative — idols.
God warns those who turn to idols. But He encourages Israel to ask Him about those who are in relationship with Himself, and about His work on their behalf. God created the earth and everyone in it, and the heavens with all their host. He alone can foretell their destiny. God can also "direct" man's ways, and use men to carry out His purposes. So God raises up Cyrus and "will direct all his ways," to carry out His purpose of rebuilding Jerusalem and setting His captive people free.
Who are these sons, this "work of my hands"? One writer sets them beside their opposite.
…the generation of promise, the children who are the work of Jehovah's hands (Isa. 29:23; 45:11). In that day they seek and find the light of life in Jesus. They stand in contrast with those who had not sought the Lord, but had tried to establish their own righteousness.
Cyrus, the king God raised up to free the exiles, is the near answer. He is not the whole one.
The judgment of Babylon, and the partial deliverance of God's people under Cyrus, is only a foreshadowing. It points to the worldwide judgment of the nations and the regathering of Israel under the reign of Christ… In the way He governs the nation, God may hide Himself for a season. Still, He is the "God of Israel, the Saviour," who arranges all men and events to display His own glory.
Daniel shows what this invitation looks like when someone takes it up.
So Daniel made the condition of his people his own, and shared the mind of God. He had the unspeakable privilege of praying for Israel, and for the fulfilment of God's promises. God heard his prayer. From it we learn that God in His grace lets His people enter into His own thoughts, and lets them share with Him in carrying out His purposes for His own glory.
- Maker. The One who invites is the Holy One of Israel — Creator and Redeemer, who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy.
- Mercy. The call to ask comes right after woe on everyone who quarrels with God. The same mouth that rebukes also opens the conversation.
- Mine. Relationship sets the subject — His sons, and His work on their behalf, not idols.
- Might. The God who made the heavens can also direct a king's ways. The future He invites you to ask about is a future He controls.
- Meeting. Cyrus was the near fulfilment; the reign of Christ is the full one. Prayer is how God lets His people enter His thoughts and share in carrying out His purposes.
It is I that have made the earth, and created man upon it; it is I, my hands, that have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
God answers a people who doubted His ways by naming what He has made: the earth, man, the heavens and all their host. The verse sits between a woe on those who argue with Him and a promise that a foreign king will rebuild His city.
The verse follows a woe on the person who quarrels with the One who formed him. Commentators pick up the picture used there — a broken piece of pottery.
Man is but a potsherd of the earth — the broken piece of a pot! Let man recognise his own littleness. Let him strive with another potsherd like himself if he will, but let him not strive with the Creator. It is not fitting that a man should strive with his father or mother, much less with his Maker.
Another writer connects that woe to idol-worship.
In turning from God to idols man is striving with his Maker. Let created men – mere potsherds – strive with each other, but woe to them if they question God's works and God's ways.
The tone changes at verse 11. God tells His people to ask Him about what is coming, and even to give Him orders concerning His sons. Our verse is the credential behind that offer.
If Jehovah rebukes with woe upon woe all striving with Himself and all fault-finding with His ways, how gracious He is in the very next verse! There He calls on His people to ask Him about the things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands. … He who made heaven and its host, earth and man upon it, was the raiser up of Cyrus to build His city and let His exiles go, "not for price nor reward, says Jehovah of hosts."
Why list the making of earth, man and the heavenly host at this point? Because the same God who stretched out the sky also directs history — including the ways of Cyrus, the king who overthrew Babylon.
The God who created the earth and those who live on it also created the heavens with all their host. He alone can foretell their destiny. God, too, can "direct" man's ways, and use men to carry out His purposes. So God raises up Cyrus and "will direct all his ways" to carry out His purpose to rebuild Jerusalem and set free His captive people.
There was a pointed edge to this. The Persians taught that good and evil, light and darkness, came from two rival powers. One Maker of everything leaves no room for that.
The challenge of Jehovah that begins with verse 5 does not appear to be a mere repetition… Under Cyrus, men overthrew Babylon and its worthless idols, but they themselves fell into a special evil. In a very interesting way this challenge meets it. For the Persians were famous for their dualistic scheme of good and evil, light and darkness.
"Created man on it" is not a throwaway line. Later in the chapter God says He did not create the earth as a waste. He formed it for people to live on, and He makes that the ground of His promise.
As Creator He had formed the earth for mankind to inhabit it. He did not create it "in vain," or "as waste"… He who had done this now guaranteed salvation for Israel. He promised openly and in righteousness. This made it certain that the salvation, when it came, would be worked out in a righteous way. It is the same with the righteousness in which every believer now stands before God: He brings it about on a righteous basis.
If God made man, His authority is not one opinion among others. It reaches the conscience of anyone who reads the verse.
Nor is the God that made all only a Creator. He is Lord of heaven and earth. His authority is constant everywhere. Fallen man squirms under this truth, because it speaks straight to his conscience. As a man, I am His creature, and that bond makes me His servant. Am I doing His will? Am I pleasing Him as the motive of my life?
- Maker. The person who argues with God is a broken piece of pottery arguing with his Maker. Quarrel with your equals if you must, but not with the One who formed you.
- Mercy. The same Maker who says "woe" also says "ask Me." Right after the woe on fault-finding comes an open invitation to ask about what is coming.
- Management. He who commanded the whole host of heaven also raised up Cyrus and directed his ways. A foreign king then rebuilt the city and freed the captives for no payment.
- Meaning. He created man on an earth He formed for people to live on, not as a waste — creation had a purpose, and so does His promised salvation.
- Mine. He made the earth and the man on it, so His authority holds everywhere. The honest response is not debate but "Am I doing His will?"