The Potter and the Clay
Jeremiah 18-19
Introduction: In our culture, the word “artist” is commonly used. A great songwriter or singer is called an artist. A person who writes bestselling books is called an artist. Truly, we are amazed at these abilities. But the one thing I do not hear very much is how artistic God is. God is without question the greatest artist ever. We see it in his physical creation—we know that. But his artistry is also seen in his mind. It is seen in the way he reveals his inspired words, and it is especially seen in how he preaches. We love to hear Jesus’ sermons. We need also to appreciate God’s preaching in the OT prophets.
- The Clay in the Potter’s Hand (18:1-11)
- It is first important to note that God does not begin his sermon by illustrating a potter making a vessel, he tells Jeremiah to go watch the potter in his artistic work.
- I have watched my son work with clay as he forms his own pottery. It isn’t an exact art. How the clay responds to the potters hands depends on a number variables. Many times what Robb intended must be reformed into a different kind of vessel. And sometimes he must just throw the clay away and start again. Those are the things God wanted Jeremiah to see.
- Thus, God’s message is clear:
- Just like the potter, God is working the clay to make a useful and beautiful vessel. And just as the potter, the vessel doesn’t always cooperate with the potter’s intentions.
- When the vessel is marred/spoiled in the potter’s hand, the potter will rework the vessel “as it seemed good to the potter to do.”
- Then not God’s direct, bold, look-me-in-the-eye challenge to Israel: “Can I not do with you as this potter has done? Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand!” In the beginning, God had declared good for Israel; but he can now he has just as easily declare destruction. But now that he has declared destruction on them, he also has the power to “relent of the disaster he intended to do to it.”
- We so often pay almost exclusive attention to how God urges us to choose life and good. Because of this, we can forget one major message: Judah needs to understand and we need to understand God is the Potter, we are the clay! Our humanness can be so arrogant. Since God has given us freewill, we so easily convince ourselves that we are in control.
- “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? (Isaiah 29:16 ESV). This is the essence of idolatry; making God into our own image.
- James 4:13-17, ESV “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
- This principle should magnify our need for prayer. It is foundational for why God repeatedly tells us how important it is for us to “pray without ceasing.” He is the Potter, and we are the clay!
- “Who Has Ever Heard Anything Like This?” (18:12-23)
- As the Hebrew suggests in verse 12, “But they keep on saying…” It reminds me of what a cartoon might look like with the clay suddenly opening its eyes with a mean, wicked look, and saying, “We will follow our own plans…!”
- Notice God’s reply in verse 13 as he turns and asks the nations, “Who has ever heard anything like this!” The clay actually tells the Potter that He has no control over them, and they will do whatever they want!
- Here is where we need to be careful. We have done that. Note the words of God: “Israel has done a very horrible thing.” They are acting against basic laws of nature: the snow of Lebanon never ceases to give cold flowing streams. But Israel has forgotten “the fountain of living water.”
- Verse 15: they had left the “ancient roads” and the “highway” and walked on the side roads. How many have ridiculed the scriptures, calling it some old, ancient, and antiquated. Well, those side roads you are following will dump you off a cliff and to utter destruction. God is the Potter!
- 18-23 Notice how Jeremiah now understands God’s plans to destroy his people! Jeremiah had been arguing with God’s destruction plans and repeatedly praying for the people. But now the people are proclaiming their desire to not only disregard God’s warning, they now plot to kill Jeremiah.
- Jeremiah’s prayer has completely changed: “Therefore, deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.” It is similar to what we might say today: “These people are crazy!”
- Their reaction explains persecution and hatred against Jesus and those who serve God and will not compromise his word. The reactions today against Biblical teachings have been the same: “Give us a safe space. We don’t want to hear anything that is uncomfortable.”
- The Broken Flask that Can Never Be Mended (19:1-14)
- God’s final picture of the work of the potter. “Go buy a potter’s earthenware flask…” Now that God has convinced his prophet of the unchangeable wickedness of the nation, Jeremiah is ready to preach the message to the people.
- God has Jeremiah take the flask and the elders of the priests! Yes, these are the “holy ones” who were to instruct the people! Maybe if Jeremiah details the sins of the people, they will join him in warning of destruction.
- Vs. 4 In their offerings to their gods, “they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings.”
- Vs. 6 “this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of he Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.” Verse 8, “I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds…beasts.” Verse 9, “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters…”
- Vs. 10: “Then you shall break the flask…”
- Verse 11, “So will I break this people and this city…so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will no place else to bury.”
- Note the stark contrast between the clay that was being formed by the potter and the broken flask. They people are no longer clay on a wheel that can be formed and mended. Now they are a flawed jar that will be shattered!
- At present, every living human being is clay in the Potter’s hand. But if a stubborn heart persists, one day we will be as the broken flask “that never can be mended.”
- Conclusion: Did you notice the where the “innocents” were sacrificed as burnt offerings, and where the dead bodies would be after destruction? Yes, the Valley of Hinnom. Jesus made reference to this valley in Mark 9:43-48. The Greek is Gehenna.
- “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off…if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out…it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one hand, one foot, one eye than with two hands, two feet, two eyes, to be thrown into hell (Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom), where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched!”
- Yes, there is still a Valley of Hinnom, and there is still a choice to make. Who is the Potter and who is the clay in our lives?
Berry Kercheville
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