We Are the Clay: Think On That!

One of the most known and popular verses, thanks to a song, follows:

But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. (Isa 64:8). 

     That seems to refer to the creation, and that may apply. Since man came from the dust (Gen 3:19), God did mix water with the dust and made clay. That is known because the name "Adam" means,

Comes from the classical Hebrew word for earth, man, soil (Genesis 2 speaks of God forming Adam out of "the dust of the ground".) This word is related to adamah which means "ground" and dam which is the Hebrew word for blood.(englishstackexchange.com). 

     Many interpret that name to mean both "mankind" and "red clay," and perhaps it does have a double meaning, as it seems from the Bible.
     Thus the genesis if mankind was from red clay from which God molded mankind much as a potter would. In fact the prophet Jeremiah was inspired by God to visit the potter, and then spoke to him:

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. (Jer18:1-6). 

     God, when He spoke to Isaiah, was using the same allegory as He did with Jeremiah. In this case, the potter on his wheel, made a vessel with his own hands. The "potter" is symbolic of Jesus in that Jesus made everything (John 3:3).
     Potters use their hands to "shape" vessels.  In Psalm 51, David uses the word "shapen" to signify his original sin. Jesus shaped Adam, or mankind, in perfection. The "hand" of God is Jesus in that Jesus is God in the flesh.
     The genesis of Adam, representing mankind, was that he was shapen perfectly; in the very image of Jesus (Gem 1:26-27). The contest of those two verses is that Adam was molded as one "vessel" but with three characteristics; "image of God" (El), and "our image" (Elohim). Adam's (man's) original molding was "very good." (Gen 1:31). That is extremely like God in that, "There is none good but one, that is, God" (Mat 19:17). Jesus implied that he is God and validated that to the one who called him "good." Adam was made in the image of Jesus since both were molded "very good."
     How "good" is "very good?" Glorified - perfect and non-perishable just as God. Adam, like God, had his own will. The Designer's intention was for Adam to use his will to do His Will. He created Adam providing complete freedom; God, indeed, was permissive in trusting his creature.
     Now back to Jeremiah and the potter: "The vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter." Now is the time for critical analysis: Satan did not cause Adam and Eve to sin. Firstly, the sin is assigned to Adam for several reasons, but primarily, Adam is the one molded from clay. Eve was just a copy of the original pattern with some alterations to allow many such "vessels" to be reproduced!
     The story of Job relates that God allows Satan to mess with his vessels, but unlike Jesus, Satan cannot lay a hand on Job. (Job 1:12). Satan, then, must have no hand on either molding nor remolding Adam. Satan never touched Adam; it was his own choice, and free will was from God. Satan is not God and has no power to change the vessel. 
     Ironically, just as Jeremiah was shown, God's hand molded Israel, he touched Israel and the nation was despoiled. However, the prophecy was that God would remold Israel back to the original perfection. (This is why I believe that Israel is the locale of the Garden of Eden; that nation in the apocolpyse will be remolded to the original.)
     That allegory applies nationally, but also individually. David was shapen in iniquity. God remolded him again to what he once was - a man after God's own heart. David sinned because he was prone to sin in that Adam (mankind) was cursed to do so. Satan has no power to create flaws; Adam, back in the Garden, was given dominion over the other animals, but included himself in that dominance. 
    Sin came into the world because of one man, and just as that, sin will be eliminated from the world by one Man. (Rom 5:12).Along with sin came death. Death was caused by God as punishment; that's the way God marred the clay. He used sin to marr the clay and man was no more "very good" or "glorious." 
     The first man was born of perfect clay and molded in a perfect image! God allowed him to despoil himself since Satan could not touch him. Face it, the Devil can't make people imperfect, only we can, and that's because God tests our fidelity. Fidelity is true to the original glorious design! Infidels are the despoiled vessels. The world is full of "vessels" which cannot contain the Holy Spirit.
     The three characteristics of the vessel God made were creative, spiritual, and matter. The matter of mankind is the clay, the creative is like the Father, and the spiritual is the Spirit of God within. Marred clay vessels lack God's Spirit. The vessel "leaks" Holy Spirit but retains the more "visceral" evil spirit. 
    "Born again" is Jesus putting the marred vessel back on his Potter's Wheel and remolding back to the original design intent. God fixes what we have marred. We must take responsibilty for our own despoilation and cease blaming the Devil. He can merely influence the marring of the vessel since he is not a molder, but we're the "cup" which implodes because we expose ouselves to the elements of tne world. 
    Jesus's purpose is taking that brittle clay, mixing a little water and blood with it to make it pliable, and then remolding the marred clay back to the glorious shape which God had in His Mind in the beginning. Salvation is a return to God's intent, not merely back to the iniquitous condition of our birth. Hence, regeneration commences with God remolding and terminates when He is finished with us. 
     Whether or not to go to the Potter's wheel is our choice. The realizaton that we are flawed is the first step, and the second is that God can remold us. Thirdly, is allowing God to remold without resisting, then God has a free hand to make a new vessel to the original design; one that retains His Holy Spirit, is pleasing to Him (not us), and is "good" in His eyes (not our own.)
     God made Israel limp, if you remember. Jacob (Israel) wrestled with Jesus and Jesus marred the pliable vessel:

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. (Gen 32:24-25). 

     With that, the man, Israel, limped thereafter. God marred the clay of the both the man and nation of Israel just as he marred the clay of Adam. As we see from Isaiah, Israel the nation, will be remolded, and so will Adam and all mankind with one-provision - that we get on the Potter's wheel and be receptive to remolding! That is rebirth, and is the start of a process of remolding.
     When God is finished, us creatures will be remolded back to the original design. Regeneration, then, is finished when God is finished with us. The blood and water were provided by the Potter on the cross, and before we are pliable, our vessel must be restored with the water and the blood. (John 19:34; 1 John 5:6-8). The regeneration on God's "wheel" is complete when our life ends: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phi 1:21).
     "To live" is the "wheel" in that passage, Christ is the "Potter", and we are the finished vessel, as to die is gain! That's when the Potter finishes the vessel, and it becomes a glorious new spirit but is still in need of a container. The Potter's entire project is complete at the General Resurrection when the spirit is put in the clay as God breathes life into the clay again.
    Regeneration is the finished "vessel." The finished vessel is unmarred and imperishable; it is remolded to last for eternity! Isaiah saw that process; he saw Israel, representing Adam, Jacob, and us "saved." Salvation is the completion of the vessel, but it's not over until we can no longer marr the vessel again by sinning. Once the vessel is complete, it will be kept safe forever on God's shelf in a room in His many Mansions (John 14:2). I look forward for my remolded "vessel" to become safe in one of those rooms in Heaven!
     We sing songs and read scripture, often without much thought. Life is that wheel, and Jesus is the Potter; always was! Back when He was remolding Israel, God was foreshowing a Plan for our own remolding, and it was Jesus all the time, as can be seen below:

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. (Isa 64:5).