Absurd Questioning of God

January 16th, 2025
by Dr. D. Lance Waldie

Romans 9:19-21 You might ask, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 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? 21 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?

So if God has mercy on some yet hardens others, why would He still find fault with those He hardens, who reject Him? After all, if they are not chosen to believe, then how can God still hold them liable for unbelief? This is of course a legitimate question in light of Paul’s teaching on God’s sovereignty. But in Paul’s context, these questions are presented as sarcastic and self-righteous. Therefore, Paul’s answer is simply, “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Clearly, it is offensive and irreverent to question God’s divine right to do as He pleases with what He alone has created. Paul never truly answers the question, for he is addressing a reprehensible spirit of rebellion, and no answer will satisfy those who refuse to let God be God. God is not answerable any man, any more so than a wise parent is to a rebellious child.

Paul then asks, “The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it?” How absurd that a sculpture might question its sculptor! If a potter has the right to do with his clay as he pleases (cf. Isa. 29:16; 45:9; 66:6-8), then God can do likewise. Clearly one who molds clay, builds houses, or cooks food has the right over his materials to do whatever he desires with them. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 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. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does? …Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel’ ” (Jer. 18:3-16).

Now in much the same way as a potter is to making clay vessels, yet on an infinitely higher level, God is the Creator of all mankind, all things, all doctrines, and all truth. It would be as absurd for a chocolate cake to sarcastically question the baker as to why he did not make a strawberry cake instead as it is when humans question God as to why He does what He does. How can mankind, who knows only how to think of himself, war with others, and fail to keep the basic math of his checkbook balanced, dare to question the Almighty God who sees and knows all things? Man has such a slight understanding of God, yet most rarely bother to seek and understand Him through study and prayer. Those in the Bible who experienced God directly—men like Noah, Moses, Job, and Isaiah—humbled themselves (Exod. 3:5), covered their mouths (Job 40:4; 42:3, 6), and even cursed themselves (Isa. 6:4-5) in the presence of God’s holiness.

Food for Thought

We humans are of course not simple lumps of clay, for we have far more value than that. After all, we were created by God in His image. Although we have marred the image of God in ourselves through sin, we are still rational, responsible, and moral beings designed to bring glory to the One whose image we bear. We have the God-given task of seeking to know Christ through His words and life as recorded in the Bible and to ask the deeper questions of life while trying to think Christ’s thoughts after Him. In so doing, we will most certainly fall on our faces in humble confusion, asking questions like, “Why does God still find fault, for who can resist Him?” Only when these questions come from humility—from Christians seeking to know the truth, can they bring glory to God. As to the sarcastic naysayers, F.F. Bruce says, “It is the God-defying rebel and not the bewildered seeker after the truth whose mouth Paul so peremptorily shuts.”