February 19, Jeremiah 18
Then the word of the LORD came to me: "0 house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” - Isaiah 18:5-6
A good illustration brings ideas from the abstract to the concrete, from theoretical uncertainty to practical reality. So Jesus told stories about seeds and harvests, salt and lamps, shepherds and sheep. He illustrated spiritual, heavenly realities by comparing them to objects and situations that the common people understood.
God used the same method to show Jeremiah and teach Israel about his sovereignty. The Lord sent the prophet to the potter's house to watch him work. Something went wrong with the lump of clay as he molded it with his hands on the wheel. But he reshaped it and made it into something different from the original design.
The potter and clay image has endured throughout the centuries as an illustration of God’s absolute and total control over everything in his universe, over every nation and every individual within those nations. God has a design, a will in mind for each of his “lumps of clay.” If he chooses and sees fit, he can change that thing or being to something else that suits his will and purpose. The clay is passive; it does not get a vote about what God will do.
The last remaining part of the once great kingdom of Israel was headed for destruction. God wanted Jeremiah and the people to realize that their future was in his hands. The Potter would do whatever he pleased with the clay. It all belonged to him, and his design and purpose for it could change if he so chose. The same mighty Potter's hands that fashioned Israel into a vessel of honor could reshape and repurpose the same vessel into something less honorable. Paul employed the idea of the potter and the clay to show how God changed the nation of Israel. They would no longer enjoy the distinction of being the chosen people of God, with an exclusive covenant between them and the LORD. Israel had not obeyed God with any degree of consistency for centuries. Finally, their national rejection of Jesus as the Christ was the climax of their rebellion.
When God threatened to destroy a nation, but that nation repented after God warned them, then God could change his mind and bless them. That happened after Jonah went to Nineveh and preached against the mighty Assyrian capital. They repented, and God relented from destroying them for another century.
God would rather save than condemn. If individual Israelites would listen to God’s warnings and turn, God would acknowledge their turn to him. But he warned the people who stubbornly turned their backs to God, he would turn his back on them when they cried out in the day of calamity.
Repentance involves change, first in the heart and mind, then in actions. People do not like to change. So Jeremiah‘s call to repentance provoked an angry, hateful response from most of his hearers. Jeremiah asked God to take vengeance on those who attacked and wounded him. These people made themselves enemies of God's faithful prophet. They opposed God himself. But they were still under God's shaping, guiding hand. If they did not submit, he could use them in other ways to accomplish his purpose. The same was true of individual Israelites, and it is still true of us today. Will we listen? Will we turn? Will we give God glory in our lives?
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—February 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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