The Messiah Anna Longed For

Questioning the Potter

Isaiah 29:16, 18-19 16You have turned things around,
as if the potter were the same as the clay.
How can what is made say about its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
How can what is formed
say about the one who formed it,
“He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?

18On that day the deaf will hear
the words of a document,
and out of a deep darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The humble will have joy
after joy in the Lord,
and the poor people will rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel.

We humans are often like the clay pot saying to its maker, “You’re not doing it right.” We see what we want for our lives and say to God ‘this way, not that.’ Or we tell him to make better use of the talents he gave us. While at the time, we don’t (and cannot) realize how he plans to use our faults and weaknesses to serve him.

In this prophecy, the blind see and the dear hear… after questioning the potter. It reminds me of the account in the ninth chapter of John about the man born blind. The rabbis were trying to figure out whose fault it was that he was born with a defect. In other words, they were questioning the potter.

But Jesus set them straight, and, in essence, pointed back to this prophecy. His blindness was done to show the hand of the potter.

And once his hand is shown, the humble rejoice. The humble will include those who watched the hand of God show itself, plus many like Anna who looked forward to the redemption and had faith in the promises of the prophets.

Anna may have questioned earlier in her life, but by the time she saw the Christ child, she knew what she knew that she knew. She had no confidence left in herself—it was all in the potter and his hand upon her life.

Not only this blind man and Anna, but many humble and poor throughout the centuries rejoiced in the Holy One of Israel.

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