Clay doesn’t protest to the potter. A flower vase doesn’t instruct its maker to give it some handles or to widen the mouth or to paint it teal. Nor does an unborn child tell its parents to make it tall, blond, and handsome. The Maker has both power and freedom to do as he or she pleases.
It is interesting that Isaiah 40-55 is thick and rich with creation accounts. Our most profound texts about God as Maker and Creator are found, not in Genesis 1-2, but here, in an address to God’s people who are living in Exile.
Could it be that the Exiles are being bombarded by a competing story of creation, The Gilgamesh Epic? This ancient narrative credits the Babylonian gods, Tiamat and Bel-Marduk, with the creation of the heavens and earth. These gods, made by hands and enshrined in the Babylonian temples, are hoisted on shoulders and paraded up and down the royal highway. The people gather to celebrate them as the creators of the universe. This narrative of creation is believed by the Babylonians and is now being overheard by the captives in Exile.
