Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: When my youngest was a freshman in high school, she had the brilliant idea to sign up for a very easy class. And so she took pottery. Now, anyone who's ever taken pottery knows there is no such thing as an easy pottery class. I have her first thing. She told me I could use this. Here's the very first.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Beautiful. Love it.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Beautiful. But it came with a little asterisk, a little clause. Mom, don't put water in it. Whatever you do a careful examination. I'll look, let you look at.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: It's beautiful.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: She did a great job.
But she'll tell you, I couldn't quite put it together. And there are some cracks and it didn't, it didn't cook very well together or anything. And so my poor child learned pottery is not easy. In our discussion today, we are going to show you what pottery and this vase has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. And thankfully, he's the one who's doing the molding. Welcome to Jesus Christ in Finding Christ on Every Page. I'm Tammy Usulak hall with Donald W. Perry. And in this series, we are going to take the scriptures, teach you some Hebrew and talk about Jesus. So grab your scriptures and make sure you have something to mark them with. And we're going to dive into the idea behind an easy pottery class and the best molder of all.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: The objective of this particular episode is to demonstrate that Jehovah is all powerful.
Here's a big word. He's omnipotent, all powerful. He has unlimited power. So I'm going to show from using the Scriptures and Isaiah has a lot to say about this. For thus saith the Lord. And once again in caps, that's Jehovah that created the heavens. God himself that formed the earth and made it. He hath established it. He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. We're going to get to that topic later in another presentation. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Now, I want you to notice the source for this is NASA. I thought I'd go to the top. Source contains at least 100 billion stars.
And the observable universe contains at least 100 billion galaxies. If galaxies were all the same size, that would give us 10,000 billion billion stars in the universe. And Jehovah made these.
I want to read from Isaiah.
And he demonstrated using symbols the great power of Jehovah. Behold. Pay attention.
The nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as a small dust of balance. So if you have an experiment at home and you have a bucket or Say you have a salad bowl, put some water in it and then put one drop. And that's the power of the great nations of the earth from the ancient times till now with their military might and their stockpile of ammunition or whatever powers they have, they're just like a drop in a bucket compared to Jehovah.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: That's a beautiful imagery. I was surprised to learn that the saying a drop in the bucket comes from this scripture. Yes, right here from Isaiah. So thanks for teaching that.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Here's another example. Isaiah 40. All nations before Jehovah are as nothing in comparison to his might and power and holiness, and they are accounted to him less than nothing. And vanity. We're speaking of the nations, not individuals.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Yeah, and this word vanity, it stood out to me because I want to immediately think like vainness, people who are fancy and pretty. But we look this word up in Hebrew and the word means emptiness or worthless. So it's important to know that in your scriptures, mark that and put him less than nothing and just worthless or emptiness.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: So excellent.
Now Isaiah also compared this. It is Jehovah that stretches out the heavens as a curtain. So this is what this means to me. And I have Alice in Wonderland here, a famous little image. So as easily as Alice opens the curtain, stretches it out. That's how easily Jehovah made the heavens.
Wow. Here's another image also from Isaiah. It is Jehovah that spreadeth the heavens out as a tent to dwell in. Now I pitched hundreds of tents in my day because I was a boy scout. And then we went camping a lot as a family.
And it's a bit of a chore to pitch a tent, but as easy as we pitch a tent, that's how easily Jehovah in comparison created the heavens.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: It's probably a pop up tent, right?
[00:04:25] Speaker B: I wish it was. I wish it was.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: That's some solid imagery.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: So I'm going to share a story of a potter. I'm with a group of students on a Hebrew study abroad in Israel. We went to Hebron, Israel, and we went to a shop that sells pottery and cups and. And fancy things made out of pottery. And while my students were over here shopping and getting things for their loved ones, I watched the potter. I'm in the back room and I watched this exact guy. This is the guy. And I watched him and you see the cups right here below.
So I watched and then I started timing him with my watch.
On average, he made a cup every 45 seconds.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: He made a cup out of just the wheel and the clay, a blob of clay. And then he made another cup and another cup. And he's doing this with his hands. He doesn't have a template. And look at how they all look the same.
And then it reminded me of Isaiah, who says this, O Lord, you, Jehovah, you are our Father. We are the clay. Now that's a symbol. We're not really clay. You are our potter. We are all the work of your hands. The reason I'm presenting this verse is the Lord, who created worlds without number is also a potter to each of us. And if we'll let him mold us and form us, and if we'll obey his will and we'll be humble before him, we'll turn out wonderful, useful vessels.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Which I love connecting to my daughter because it's not an easy class to mold us. And how much do we love that an all powerful Jehovah is taking the time? And I remember asking her, tell me some things that made it difficult. And she said, well, first of all, you have to get the clay right in the middle. And if it's off to the side, you can't even start the project. And so just the placement of the clay he knows how to do. And he does it perfectly every time for us. And then he takes the time to build us, to mold us, and to create us into what he needs us to be. And just this imagery is beautiful and he's dirty. I mean, that's the thing my daughter said, you get really messy. And I thought, I bet it is messy building people.
But the Lord's willing to do it and he has all the power in the world and he's the best at it. He doesn't make mistakes.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah, like, talk about perfect little cups. I think that's what the Lord does with us. He just makes us perfect as he needs us to be.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: After this experience, I came home months later and I enrolled in a pottery class for one hour.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: You did?
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yes, and I tried it. And here's what happened.
You press a wheel with your foot and it goes around, it goes faster. And. And I tried to mold something and the clay would.
Just a piece of clay would go like this on the wall in this one and on my shirt.
And it's hard. This is a master. But of course, the Lord is the great potter. Now, just while we're here, I want to mention this Lord here is Jehovah. And once again, this is one usage of Jehovah.
Now let's look at the passage in Isaiah 45. So Jehovah is all, all powerful. And yet the day will come when we'll be privileged to bow down to him. I, Jehovah, has sworn by myself.
The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall, shall swear.
And notice this.
Notice the first person forms. It's his self testimony. So I put in red font, I, myself, my, and me.
And this is a prophecy about himself.
Now, Paul the apostle took this prophecy and instead of saying Jehovah, he says, Jesus Christ, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. And he's paraphrasing Isaiah of things in heaven. So who's going to bow? Every knee. Things in heaven, things in the earth, things under the earth. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, the glory of God the Father.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Oh, I like that. I like how you. Because sometimes when you read this, you'll say that every knee shall bow. But I like how you said, whose knee? All things in the earth. All things under the earth. Like every knee, he quantifies that.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: So every good person, every bad person, every evil person, every evil dictator, king or president, or every person, all the prisoners, everyone's going to bow. Now, when will this take place? Would you please read that?
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Yes, I will. For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written as I live, saith the Lord. Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: And thank you.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: That's a little scary. Not gonna lie. Yeah, every person will give accounts.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I love it.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: I have one more slide.
Even though Jehovah is all powerful, he's very personal.
Now, if you look at all of these, I'm not going to read everyone. But notice he knows their names. He says, Jacob. Jacob. He says it twice. Moses. Moses.
Samuel. Samuel. See, he knows our names and he's using our names. He's created worlds and universes without end, and yet he knows our names. And notice this in mortality. Martha, Martha. Notice the enemy. Who's persecuting Saul? Saul, why are you persecuting me? And then in Luke 22. Simon. Simon.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: What I love about this Don is when you taught us, he knows our names. I think that is such a vital truth for every one of us to really, truly believe. Like right now. Let that sit with you. Like he knows your name. This. This being that has all power to create all things, knows little bitty you and he knows your power. And the beauty of this then helps me to trust in a loving father and in an ineffable name of Jesus Christ, this powerful Savior, who knows me and knows me really well.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: So.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: So that when we do stand before him and we have to reckon with him and say everything about our lives, they'll know me. I don't. Like I said, that seems a little scary. And while it does, I also know that they know me and love me and they know my name. And how great that day will be when the Father says, tammy, Tammy, and can speak to me. And then we have a conversation and we talk about my life. And I'm hoping all the stupid things I've done, they're just like, ah, forget about it, you're good. Because they have all power to do that too, which makes them so wonderful. So thanks for teaching us this idea that they know our name. Names. Thank you so much for joining us. I loved learning about the power that our Father has and that our Savior, Jesus Christ, has this idea that he is the potter and we are the clay. So take that with you and just know that he knows your name and that he loves you. And we leave this with you and we say shalom and goodbye.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Sam.
