Vaso
A metáfora do vaso é uma das mais belas da Bíblia. Assim como o oleiro molda o barro, Deus nos forma segundo seus propósitos, fazendo de nós vasos úteis para sua glória.
Nas mãos do oleiro
Deus é o Oleiro e nós somos o barro. Ele tem autoridade e sabedoria para nos moldar conforme sua vontade perfeita, e não devemos questionar sua obra.
But you, Lord, are our Father. We’re the clay, you’re the potter. You made us all with your own hands.
This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Go down right away to the potter’s house. I will give you my message there.
I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at his potter’s wheel. But the pot that he was making from the clay went wrong. So he made it into something different as he thought best.
The Lord’s message came to me, saying, People of Israel, declares the Lord, can’t I deal with you just like this potter does with his clay? I hold you in my hand just like clay in the potter’s hand, people of Israel.
That’s no way to speak, for who are you—a mere mortal—to contradict God? Can something that is created say to its creator, "Why did you make me like this?" Doesn’t a potter have the right to use the same batch of clay to make both a decorative bowl and an everyday pot?
What trouble people face when they fight with their Creator—they’re just pots among all the other pots on earth! Does the clay tell the potter who is shaping it, "What are you doing?" or "What you’re making is so bad it’s like you have no hands!"
How perverse you are! It’s as if the clay was thought of as making the potter! Should something made say to its maker, "You didn’t make me"? Can the pot tell the potter, "You don’t understand anything"?
Vasos para honra
O cristão é chamado a ser um vaso de honra, purificado e preparado para toda boa obra. Nosso valor está em quem nos formou e no que carregamos.
A stately home doesn’t just have cups and bowls made of gold and silver. It also has ones made from wood and clay. Some are made for special use; others for more commonplace functions. So if you get rid of what is evil, you will become a cup or bowl that is holy and special, useful to the Lord, ready to do all that’s good.
But we have this treasure in clay jars, to show that this supreme power comes from God and not from ourselves.
Look at how the precious people of Zion, worth their weight in gold, are now valued like cheap clay jars made by a potter!
Moldados pela graça
Mesmo quando nos sentimos frágeis e imperfeitos, o poder de Deus se aperfeiçoa em nossa fraqueza. Ele nos restaura e nos renova continuamente.
You made me and shaped me with your own hands, and yet you destroy me. Remember that you shaped me like a piece of clay—are you now going to turn me back into dust?
Smooth talking with evil intent is like a shiny lead glaze on an earthenware pot.
Cry out and weep, you shepherds! Roll around on the ground mourning, you leaders of the flock. The time for you to be killed has come; you will fall, smashed like the finest pottery.