WWUTT 2429 God is the Potter, We Are the Clay (Jeremiah 18:1-23)

Jeremiah’s Call to the Potter’s House

God tells Jeremiah to go to the potter's house, and it's there where God uses the potter's wheel as an analogy. That we are clay in the potter's hands, and God has the right to do with us as He pleases when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gate.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we come to chapter 18, where God is going to direct Jeremiah where to go, and the words that He is supposed to say to His people. But as we've seen time and time again, though, this people is called to repentance, they do not listen, and they will reject the word of the prophet and go about their own way, as we will see in the text today.

So let me begin by reading verses 1 through 12. Hear the word of the Lord. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel, and the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Then the word of the Lord came to me. O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done, declares the Lord? Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

Now therefore say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.

But they say, That is vain. We will follow our own plans, and will everyone act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. That's not what they say outright, of course, but that becomes the attitude of the people.

We're not going to listen to God. We're instead going to go along with our evil, and we see that all over the place in our culture today. We have one of the most Christianized nations in history, speaking in the context of the United States of America.

This has been the case in much of Europe as well, as long as the church has been there. And yet though there are many symbols all around us of our Christian heritage, even the churches in communities all across America, is there a community anywhere in America that doesn't have a church?

Yet all of these symbols that stand there and remind us of Christian roots, the people would reject that and go along with their own way. I think the average in the United States of America is something like three Bibles per household.

So most Americans have a Bible. They have the word of God in their home, and they don't read it. They reject it and go their own way. And this is as the people respond to Jeremiah and to God's word through Jeremiah, here in this call in Jeremiah 18.

The Potter, the Clay, and God’s Right to Judge Nations

So let me start again in verse 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words. Now, we don't know where the potter's house is exactly, but it could be the potter's field.

So the house where the potter's field is at, which is referenced in Zechariah 11, Matthew 27, and some other places. So this would have been a place where like the clay of the ground would have been perfect for taking up and shaping into vessels.

And so you have a potter's house right there where the clay is best. So this was obviously a landmark that would have been known to Jeremiah. God tells Jeremiah to go there. He knows exactly where he's going.

So Jeremiah went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel, and the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Now, he's working at a wheel. You've maybe done this before, maybe when you were in school. It was the case when I was in school. I don't know anybody who's never done like a little vase or a bowl with clay.

It seems like if you were in school, you had a project at some point where they taught you how to do this. I had a friend who actually majored in this in college, so he was very enthusiastic about working with clay and making vessels and bowls and vases and things like that.

He was very good at it as well, knew exactly how to heat a kiln, how to heat certain clay, how to even mix certain colors for the glaze on the clay. It was really fascinating, and he was very proud of his work.

So whenever you shape a vessel on a potter's wheel, it's that wheel that spins, right? And you are kind of shaping the clay as it spins so that it's all even on every side. You've probably seen this done, even if you haven't done it yourself.

And if at some point in that shaping process it just doesn't work out, maybe it begins to wobble, maybe you get air bubbles in it. I remember my friend explaining that to me as well. You get air bubbles inside the vessel that you're making, and when you put it in the kiln, it's going to explode because those air bubbles will expand.

So something in the process of making that, in the clay phase, in the shaping phase, it's spoiled, and so you just have to mash it down, shape it into something else, and start all over. And that's what Jeremiah witnesses here.

I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. Same sort of thing. So even, you know, however many thousands of years it's been, we're still making clay pots and bowls the same way they were doing it thousands of years ago.

So after Jeremiah witnesses this, the spoiled vessel that he then goes into making into something else, the word of the Lord came to me. Oh, house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done, declares the Lord?

Now, as I'm kind of trying to envision the scene, here's what I think is going on. I think that there are a lot of people that are standing there watching the potter, and this may be the case on a fairly regular basis, like a day-by-day basis, where people will come to the potter's house to buy pots and vessels and vases and things like that.

As we've seen elsewhere in Scripture, like the way that the Apostle Paul uses this analogy with Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, there are some vessels for honorable use and some for dishonorable use. The dishonorable vessels are like potty pots, and then the honorable vessels are those that are done up real nice and have gold and other precious stones in them, and you're going to use them and reuse them over and over again, whereas the tattered clay vessels that can be just thrown away, they'll be used for refuse or something like that.

So there are people there to buy pots for different purposes, and there's probably a number of people that are ready to buy whatever it is that the potter is making. So as this happens, he tries to make a pot.

It doesn't work out. He refashions the clay to make it into something else. That's when the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, and he begins to speak in the hearing of the people. They're right there to see that, and they hear Jeremiah speak, O house of 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, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

Now, notice there that God speaks of any nation in that sense. This is not just talking about Israel, but any nation can turn from their sin to God, and the disaster that God had planned for that nation because of their wickedness, he will relent.

That's hopeful news. That's a good message to hear. Even in our Old Testament context, it would still apply today, to hear that our nation can turn from its sin to the Lord, and he will relent from the disaster that he would plan to bring on it because of its evil.

The United States of America is guilty of great evils, especially the murder of the unborn through abortion, thousands of babies that are murdered every day, this altar of sacrifice to the sex gods because of sexual immorality.

The blood sacrifice that Americans have offered up has been the blood of infant children, and God will certainly wet his sword and will strike down this nation if it does not repent. Or the sexual immorality that persists in this nation, the LGBTQ movement being celebrated this particular month as Pride Month, or even the sins of adultery, other sexual immorality includes lust and porn, fornication, sex outside of marriage, and then that's not to speak even of the greed and debauchery and drunkenness and drug use and all different other manner of sins that is going on every single day in such a wicked nation.

God's judgment will come upon it unless this people repent. And they must hear the gospel. They must hear of their sin and the salvation that comes only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we must be out there preaching the gospel, telling this world to turn from their sin or they will be destroyed and turn to Jesus Christ.

You know, the word repentance in the book of Jeremiah comes up more than a hundred times. God promises to forgive and heal his people. But that promise of forgiveness is not just for Israel. It's a promise of forgiveness that comes to all the nations.

And that is especially the case in the new covenant with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ going out. All who believe in Jesus will be saved. And so God continues here to say, At any time, I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it.

And if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you.

You have the Potter reference again and devising a plan against you. Return everyone from his evil way and amend your ways and your deeds. Now, this Potter example doesn't just appear here in Jeremiah 18.

When we were in Isaiah, we saw it there as well. Isaiah 29, You turn things upside down. Shall the Potter be regarded as the clay that the thing made should say to its maker, He did not make me or the thing formed to say of him who formed it.

He has no understanding. And this comes up again in Isaiah 64 8. But now, oh, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay. You are the Potter. We are all the work of your hand. That is a humble response there in Isaiah 64.

And you're probably also familiar with the reference in Romans 9, which is really borrowing from these examples given in Isaiah and Jeremiah, where it is said, starting in Romans 9, verse 19. You will say to me, then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, Why have you made me like this? Has the Potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

As indeed he says in Hosea, Those who are not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.

So we are vessels in the Potter's hand to do with what he pleases. And yet it is said here by God, If I intend disaster against them and they repent and turn back to me, I will relent of the disaster that I plan to bring upon them.

But how do the people respond? But they say that is vain. We will follow our own plans. They're saying the words of God are empty. He won't actually do what he's saying that he will do. So we're going to go with what we want to do.

And every one of us will act according to the stubbornness of our own evil hearts. And so listen to what the Lord says in response. Verses 13 to 17. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Ask among the nations, who has heard the like of this?

The Virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing. Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry? The cold flowing streams? But my people have forgotten me. They make offerings to false gods.

They made them stumble in their ways, in their ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway, making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. And as I said in the beginning, we see the same thing happen in our own nation.

We've forgotten the ways of God. We'll see these churches, but it's like they've become museums, or mausoleums even. They are full of dead men's bones. They might be beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of people who are dead in heart.

They continue in their sin and their wickedness, thinking that if they check their religious box that they will be okay, but they do not fear God. They do not know that God sees all, and he searches mind and heart, and will give to each person according to their deeds.

The person who continues on in the passion of their flesh, God will bring judgment and wrath upon them. But the person who continues on in the way of Christ, who seeks God, and desires godliness, and turns from his wicked way, God will show mercy and compassion upon, and will lift him up in the day of judgment, and the wrath of God will not fall on him.

We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and him alone. Do not forget the great things that God has done for us, as proclaimed in the gospel of Christ. Hebrews 3 .12 gives this warning, Take care, brothers, lest there be in you, in any of you, an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

And so, as God goes on to speak here of Israel, promising the judgment that will come upon Judah, everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head, those who will perish in the judgment. Like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy.

I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity. All throughout the Psalms, you'll see references to seeking the face of God. In the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

But those who are wicked in heart, stubborn in heart, as it said here, they will not see the face of God. He will not show his favor to them. Verse 18, then they said, here's the people's response, Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.

Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words. So once again, this is why I believe that as Jeremiah is delivering this word, he's right there at the potter's house, where many people are gathered.

So they hear him say this and they reject his word and even devise evil against him. Verse 19 is Jeremiah's response. Hear me, oh Lord, and listen to the voice of my adversaries. Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. And you know, when we go out and share the gospel, that's ultimately what we want to have happen, right?

We want God's wrath to be turned away from them, which happens only if they put their trust in Jesus Christ. Verse 21, Jeremiah says, 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. Jeremiah loves his people and he wants this people to turn from their sin to God.

But what he loves even more is the justice of God. And so if this people is going to respond in this way to God's word and respond this way to God's servant, then may God's judgment come upon them, that God would be declared righteous, that evil will not have its way in its day, but the day of the Lord will prevail.

Verse 22, Jeremiah says, may a cry be heard from their houses when you bring the plunder suddenly upon them, for they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. Yet you, O Lord, know all their plotting to kill me.

Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger. Now this is something of a turning point for Jeremiah because previously he did not want God to wipe them out and he pled on their behalf, even to the point of God saying, do not pray for this people because he was not going to keep his hand of judgment from them.

He was going to bring this judgment, this nation from another place to come against Judah and drive them out of the land and they will become exiles. That's still to come here in the book of Jeremiah.

So Jeremiah had pled when God had said that he was going to do this, but now Jeremiah is saying, you've heard what they have said. You see the way that they behave. They reject this word and the righteous man.

And so may God's judgment fall on them. You know, when we pray with John, who says at the end of the book of Revelation, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Yes, we want Jesus to return, but do you understand what else is attached to that prayer?

You're also asking that God's judgment would come because when Christ returns, that's exactly what's going to happen. Second Thessalonians chapter one, where Paul talks about the Lord returning with angels and flaming fire to inflict judgment upon those who do not know God and do not obey his gospel.

And so we must go out with the message of the gospel, but those who rejected will perish in judgment. And the Lord is good who does so. He is good and righteous and merciful to deliver up his saints from his judgment and to place us with him in heaven forever, where we will dwell in the eternal kingdom with God.

And he is good and righteous and just also to inflict judgment upon those who do not repent. And in this, God does all things right. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read. And I pray that we would be filled with a holy reverent fear of God that we would understand you are just, you are good, but in being good, evil cannot stand before you.

You will not let the wicked endure. And so judgment will come upon those who have rejected God and gone their own way and done evil in this world. May we have the courage and the boldness to warn people about the judgment of God that is coming to turn from their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they may be saved.

Lord, may it be your will that revival would sweep this land, but knowing that people will repent only through the hearing of the gospel of Christ. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Closing Remarks and Ministry Information

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.