Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews with it? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? That is as if the rod wields itself against those who lift it up, or as if the staff should lift itself up as if it were not wood.
Woe to him who strives with his maker, the potsherd with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?” Or the thing you are making say, “He has no hands”?
Is this man Koniah a despised broken jar? Is he a vessel in which is no desire? Why are he and his seed cast out and thrown into a land which they had not known?
But the Lord said to him, “Go your way. For this man is a chosen vessel of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and their kings, and before the Israelites.
For before the children had been born, having done neither evil nor good, so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but through Him who calls,