Clay Pots
Read Jeremiah 16:1–20:18
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1. The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said,
2. “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.”
3. So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel.
4. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5. Then the Lord gave me this message:
6. “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.
7. If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed,
8. but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned.
9. And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom,
10. but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.” Jeremiah 18:1-10
Cute, furry creatures talk, sing, and dance across the screen and entertain children. Mom and Dad know, however, that the entertainers are just puppets, controlled by puppeteers offstage and off camera. Have you ever wondered whether you are just a puppet in God’s hand? He is, after all, sovereign. Doesn’t that mean he controls your every move?
This passage answers that question directly. In one prophecy delivered by Jeremiah, he compares people to living clay in the hands of God.
Jeremiah’s other prophecies tell of impending doom, but also how the people can avoid it. Jeremiah gets a rude reception anyway. (Aren’t you glad you’re not a prophet?)
Because the people of Judah did not repent of their sins and return to the Lord, they were like a jar that didn’t turn out as the potter had intended (Jeremiah 18:4-6). Defective jars are not useful. And even as a potter takes a defective jar and kneads it back into a lump of clay, so also was the Lord planning to destroy Judah and reshape it.
Choosing to live in sin makes our lives less moldable and more defective to God. He wants us to be useful to him—he wants to shape us into a beautiful creation. But he will only do so if we allow ourselves to be moldable.
The shape your life takes is a cooperative effort between you and God. Do not become hard and unreceptive to his molding, but be soft and receptive to his hand on you. As you yield to God, he will shape you into a valuable vessel. Submit to him, the divine, loving Potter.
