God tells Jeremiah to go to the potters house. That might be good advice for all of us. Let's watch this potter as he makes a mistake and starts over.




The message from Jeremiah is fairly simple, we are the clay, God is the Potter. As you watch the potter, you see the care and hope the potter has for his creation. He has a clear vision in his mind what he is about to form and create. The image is burnt into his mind, waiting there to be drawn out and onto the potters wheel.

He works the clay with care and skill until it starts to take shape and we can recognize it as a vessel, useful for containing something and displaying that something. It has a purpose, to provide some kind of service. The creation of this vessel is art with a purpose. It is a grand piece of work, even if it appears simple in the making.

Great skill works the piece until it stands tall enough, wide enough, appropriately shaped for its purpose. Then the thin work begins. A kind of pruning, final shaping of the clay whereby it will take on its final form. Large amounts of material will be removed and the tolerances for the piece will take over as the creator cleans and molds the clay into a delicate but whole expression of perfection.

Suddenly, painfully, discouragingly, a small wound turns into a deep cut, finally an open gash that cannot be repaired. Instantly the potter smashes the work of his hands and starts over. The clay is still good. The image was fine. The dream in the potters mind is still alive. The ingredients were good. The outcome was not.

There are numerous lessons in this analogy, aren't there? Spend some time watching some of these pottery video's and you'll see more of them. Imagine you are watching God shape His people. One of the great words to explain this work is Sovereignty. God is sovereign. He rules, He shapes, He reigns, what He says goes. When He decides it's time to build up, then we will see a building. When He decides it's time to tear down, then we will see destruction.

Remember this, He doesn't crave destruction nor relish it. He delights in building and beauty. He is the artist of the universe. But all artists meet with failure. Most go on, some give up. Some give up on art because it is so disappointing at times. Fortunately for us, there is no give up in God. He will start over again. For this persistence in God, we can be confident and certain that He will accomplish His purposes. He will complete His art. Our interest is to be included in His final works, not on display in a museum, but carrying water in the thirsty world, sharing the glory of a vase filled with glorious flowers, bringing sustenance and joy to those who are not yet on the potters wheel.

Go down to the potters house. God is there. He's working.

Jeremiah 18

At the Potter's House

 ¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : ² "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." ³ So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

 ⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ⁶ "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, ⁸ and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. ⁹ And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

 ¹¹ "Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' ¹² But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.' "

 ¹³ Therefore this is what the LORD says:
       "Inquire among the nations:
       Who has ever heard anything like this?
       A most horrible thing has been done
       by Virgin Israel.

 ¹⁴ Does the snow of Lebanon
       ever vanish from its rocky slopes?
       Do its cool waters from distant sources
       ever cease to flow? ^[a]

 ¹⁵ Yet my people have forgotten me;
       they burn incense to worthless idols,
       which made them stumble in their ways
       and in the ancient paths.
       They made them walk in bypaths
       and on roads not built up.

 ¹⁶ Their land will be laid waste,
       an object of lasting scorn;
       all who pass by will be appalled
       and will shake their heads.

 ¹⁷ Like a wind from the east,
       I will scatter them before their enemies;
       I will show them my back and not my face
       in the day of their disaster."

 ¹⁸ They said, "Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not be lost, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says."

 ¹⁹ Listen to me, O LORD;
       hear what my accusers are saying!

 ²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil?
       Yet they have dug a pit for me.
       Remember that I stood before you
       and spoke in their behalf
       to turn your wrath away from them.

 ²¹ So give their children over to famine;
       hand them over to the power of the sword.
       Let their wives be made childless and widows;
       let their men be put to death,
       their young men slain by the sword in battle.

 ²² Let a cry be heard from their houses
       when you suddenly bring invaders against them,
       for they have dug a pit to capture me
       and have hidden snares for my feet.

 ²³ But you know, O LORD,
       all their plots to kill me.
       Do not forgive their crimes
       or blot out their sins from your sight.
       Let them be overthrown before you;
       deal with them in the time of your anger.