Jeremiah
Chapter 18
Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:
Jeremiah 18:2 "Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words."
Jeremiah 18:3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.
Jeremiah 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
Introduction
God takes you down to the potter's house, then out to the potter's field:
It is all a picture of God's dealings with the nation of Israel:
Jeremiah 18:6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!"
The Jews were about to be taken captive by the Babylonian's as a judgment for their sins. Even though God had twice told Jeremiah to quit praying for them, God still held out hope that they could avert their coming captivity. Like a potter working with marred clay, He was ready to make them again; but He was also ready to break them in the end.
Whether God would make them again or break them in the end was up to them:
Jeremiah 18:7 "The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
Jeremiah 18:8 "if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
Jeremiah 18:9 "And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,
Jeremiah 18:10 "if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it."
God could not change; He must break them for their sins. But, if they would change, God could make them again according to His grace and mercy.
The Jews are not the only pottery vessels on God's wheel! You are compared to pottery vessels in Second Corinthians 4:7, where you read,
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
The question is, Are you a pottery vessel that God is making again? or are you one that will be broken in the end? As with Israel, it's up to you.
#1 God Will Make You Again If You
Choose To Yield Yourself To Him
The potter's equipment consisted of two stone discs placed horizontally and joined by a vertical shaft. The lower disc would be spun using the feet; the other disc, at waist level, had on it the clay for the potter's hands to shape.
You are clay in the Master Potter's hands. The Master Potter is fully in charge: He determines the vessel to be made out of your life, then spins the wheel at the perfect speed and applies the appropriate pressure to mold and shape you into the vessel He has in mind.
Anyone who has done pottery, or other crafts, knows that hidden flaws exist in the materials you are working with. Human clay is no exception:
Jeremiah 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
The clay was "marred" in the potter's hands. The word can mean ruined, corrupted, destroyed, or wasted. You are not told the precise problem, only that the clay is really unfit for the vessel the potter has in mind.
The Jews were marred clay in God's hands. So are you! It goes without saying that you are less than perfect. Anything less than perfect is marred clay in God's infinitely perfect hands.
Don't be discouraged, though. God only works with marred clay. He formed Adam from the earth; ever since Adam sinned, every lump of clay that has ever been on His wheel has been marred by inherited sin.
You are marred clay, but God can "make you again!" Since He is longsuffering and patient, gracious and full of tender mercies, God continues to work with you! He "makes you again." He takes what you have ruined, corrupted, destroyed, or wasted and remakes you through it.
What do you have to do for God to make you again? You have only to be like clay that easily yields itself to the Potter's masterful touch.
The Master's touch is described for you in these next few verses. Mercy and moisture come to you by His masterful touch.
The Master Potter touches you with His mercy:
Jeremiah 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Jeremiah 18:6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
Jeremiah 18:7 "The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
Jeremiah 18:8 "if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
Jeremiah 18:9 "And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,
Jeremiah 18:10 "if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.
Jeremiah 18:11 "Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good."' "
Let's talk for a moment about God's dealings with nations. God here tells you that the success of any nation depends upon its relationship to God. God cannot change; but nations can change, and God deals differently according to a nation's beliefs and behaviors.
The United States is in trouble! We are a nation that God "built" and "planted," as evidenced by the blessings we have enjoyed. But we are "doing evil in God's sight" and are "not obeying His voice." He is "relenting of the good" which He once showered upon us. It is only a matter of time until God must "pluck up, pull down, and destroy" our nation - unless we "turn from our evil" and repent. I believe that God's message for America is in verse eleven: "Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good."
These verses are about God's mercy. If you do evil in His sight and disobey His voice, God will give you what you deserve. But He would rather not give you what you deserve! "Not giving you what you deserve" is the definition of mercy.
When you have ruined, corrupted, destroyed, or wasted a marriage, a family, or some other precious gift from God, He would rather not give you what you deserve. He would rather give you mercy. All you have to do is acknowledge that mercy is what you need and you will receive it. You must simply be humble and broken before God. When you are, He will touch you with His mercy and "make you again."
The Master Potter touches you with His moisture:
Skip verses twelve and thirteen for a moment and look at verse fourteen:
Jeremiah 18:14 Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, Which comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?"
The New International Version gives this translation:
Jeremiah 18:14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? Do its cool waters from distant sources ever cease to flow?
The idea is that the people of Judah could always expect the limitless resources of the Lebanon snowpack, with its cool, refreshing, pure water.
I've never worked as a potter with clay, so I hope I don't say anything too stupid. I do know that moisture is important; keeping the clay properly and constantly moistened allows the potter to work with it.
The moisture illustrates the work of God’s Spirit in your life. When the Bible tries to describe your relationship to the Holy Spirit, it does so in terms of water and moisture:
John 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
John 7:39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive...
If you are a Christian, God's Holy Spirit lives inside of you. The Holy Spirit is like an inexhaustible snowpack, supplying cool, refreshing, pure water to you as God spins the wheel of your life and presses His fingers into you. You are able to yield to the Master’s touch to the extent you walk in the Spirit and not according to your own fleshly wisdom and desires.
When you have ruined, corrupted, destroyed, or wasted a marriage, a family, or some other precious gift from God, the Holy Spirit is within you to empower you and enable you. All you have to do is yield yourself to His promptings.
All of us need to be made again in some area of our lives everyday! By His mercy and moisture, our Master Potter can make us again… and again, and again, and again.
The nation of Judah refused God's mercy and moisture. From them you learn that,
#2 God Will Break You In The End If
You Refuse To Yield Yourself To Him
God takes you out to the potter's field in Chapter Nineteen:
Jeremiah 19:1 Thus says the LORD: "Go and get a potter's earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests.
Jeremiah 19:2 "And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you...
Jeremiah 19:10 "...Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
Jeremiah 19:11 "and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury."
It was up to them. Would they repent? If so, God would relent. If not, He must give them what they deserved.
The verses surrounding these in Chapter Nineteen give you the characteristics of someone who is refusing to yield to God. Let's begin back in Chapter Eighteen, with verse twelve:
Your imaginations are indications you are refusing to yield yourself to God:
Jeremiah 18:12 And they said, "That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the imagination of his evil heart."
The word "imagination" means stubborn or obstinate. They describe a person who knows God's way but refuses to walk in it. They say, "That is hopeless." In other words, they say they can't change; they say things like, "That's the way I am." If you don't think you can change, then you are only being stubborn and obstinate, refusing to yield yourself to God.
Your idols are indications you are refusing to yield yourself to God:
Jeremiah 18:13 Therefore thus says the LORD: "Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing...
Jeremiah 18:15 "...Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
Jeremiah 18:16 To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head.
Jeremiah 18:17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face In the day of their calamity."
Israel was a virgin espoused to God, but had committed spiritual adultery by worshipping idols. They continued to worship God in His Temple, but refused to give up their idols.
Is there something you would refuse to give up if God asked you to? If so, it is an idol and you are refusing to yield yourself to God.
Your insubordination is an indication you are refusing to yield yourself to God:
Jeremiah 18:18 Then they said, "Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."
The people of Judah refused to submit to the authority God had placed over them. Jeremiah was sent by God to warn them; they "attacked him with their tongue." When you reject the authority that you know God has placed in your life, it is insubordination and you are refusing to yield yourself to God.
Instead of submitting to God’s authority, they substituted the authority of others that they were more comfortable with. You can always find someone who will agree with you when you are wrong!
Your injustice is an indication you are refusing to yield yourself to God
Jeremiah 19:3 "...'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.
Jeremiah 19:4 "Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents
Jeremiah 19:5 "(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind),
Jeremiah 19:6 "therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
Jeremiah 19:7 "And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.
Jeremiah 19:8 "I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
Jeremiah 19:9 "And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair."'
The people of Judah sacrificed their live infants to Molech, placing them on the burning hot bronze arms of his image. For their gross immorality God would cause many to die by the sword. Others would endure a long siege of their city and be forced to cannibalism - eating the flesh of sons, daughters, and friends who died around them. A fitting retribution for child killers.
Injustice is the violation of another's rights. Abortion is the greatest injustice the modern world has known. It is an indication that our nation is refusing to yield to God.
Judah would be broken for refusing to yield to God:
Jeremiah 19:10 "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
Jeremiah 19:11 "and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.
Jeremiah 19:12 "Thus I will do to this place," says the LORD, "and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet.
Jeremiah 19:13 "And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods."' "
Jeremiah 19:14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people,
Jeremiah 19:15 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.'"
I learned something that might help us better understand this scene. Apparently the Egyptians had a custom of writing the names of their enemies on pottery vessels, then breaking the vessels. God is borrowing that custom to tell the Jews that they have become His enemies.
When you refuse to yield to God, you are at enmity with Him. For example, in James 4:4 you read that "friendship with the world is enmity with God." When you are at enmity with God, He cannot work with you as He would like. You are refusing His mercy and rejecting His moisture. He must break you.
Broken pottery vessels were of little use; the pieces, called potsherds, were used for scraping. Instead of a beautiful pottery vessel, fit for the Master to fill and use, you become a potsherd.
I'm not saying you lose or forfeit your salvation. But you can become like a potsherd! Isaiah 45:9 says,
Isaiah 45:9 "Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' Or shall your handiwork say, 'He has no hands'?"
You can be a pottery vessel in the making; or you can be a broken potsherd. It's up to you! The Master cannot change; but you can. You can choose to yield, or you can refuse to yield.
Conclusion
Choose to yield yourself to God! You are marred, but God already sees you as you ought to be. He is working in your life with great purpose, molding and shaping you, then re-molding you and re-shaping you.
Some day people will see you the way God already sees you. You will be perfect. Right now, though, you are not perfect; you are being perfected on God's wheel. If you receive His mercy, and retain His moisture, He will work through the mars in you and "make you again," and again, and again, and again - right up until the coming of Jesus for you.