Explore the Bible: July 2

Shapes • Jeremiah 18:1-12

By Don Schuman

I recently saw a picture of a pile of dirt with a rib bone next to it. The caption said, “Adam and Eve’s baby pictures.” That humorous depiction reminds us that God made Adam from the dust of the earth, Eve from Adam’s rib, and to dust we will return.

Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones reminds us that the Lord God can take whatever He wants and make whatever He wants, whether a rib to make Eve or dry bones to raise up an army.

This lesson in Jeremiah 18 teaches that, like a potter at the wheel with a pile of clay to fashion his vessel, so God can fashion a nation and individuals according to His purposes.

Remade (Jeremiah 18:1-4). The Lord sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house not to teach Jeremiah a new occupation but to teach Jeremiah a new illustration about who is who. Compared to the power of God, His creatures are but clay in a potter’s hands. The Creator Potter can do whatever He wants according to His righteousness, grace, and purposes.

Jeremiah observed that the vessel the potter was making was flawed. The flaw was not in the potter’s abilities. The flaw was not in the potter’s wheel. The flaw was in the clay.

Perhaps the clay had hard, dry chunks that needed to be softened. Perhaps the clay was not firm enough to stand up. Perhaps it had contaminants that needed to be removed. The vessel needed to be remade.

The Creator Potter needed to remake the people of Israel. He needed to mold them into a people who would love and serve Him and Him alone. He desired clay that was neither hard, dry, too soft to stand, nor contaminated with idolatry and other sins.

The Creator Potter desires people through whom He can accomplish His purposes. Believers are remade — born again — by the Potter’s grace through faith in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are created in Christ Jesus, remade to be His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). God then works through believers whom He molds and makes into useful vessels.

Sovereign (Jeremiah 18:5-10). God created mankind for fellowship with Him. When the creation from dust sinned and hid from God, God judged the creature but also had a plan for our redemption.

He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the sin debt we owed and, by His blood, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God maintained His sovereignty but demonstrates grace and mercy toward whosoever trusts in the Son.

Maybe because of our limited understanding of God, some people might question the sovereignty of God to fashion people according to His purposes. The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, addresses that issue in Romans 9:14-24.

The Sovereign Potter is righteous to have mercy and compassion upon whom He will. The passage recalled God’s raising up Pharaoh in order that the Lord would demonstrate His power and the Name of the Lord might be declared throughout the earth.

The conclusion of the discourse is that we, as clay, are in no position to accuse God. Romans 9:20-21 says, Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonor” (KJV).

The proper response to the Potter’s sovereign will is submission. Unlike Pharoah’s hard heart, our hearts should be soft for the Potter’s purposes. The concept of our being clay in the hands of a Sovereign God is popular in hymns and gospel songs.

Two particular songs — Have Thine Own Way, Lord, and Change My Heart, O God — promote the believer’s desire to be molded and fashioned in the image of Jesus. We long for Christ’s return to be changed to be like Christ.

We don’t know all the Sovereign Potter’s changes for believers, but we know that we will be like Christ (1 John 3:2).

Warned (Jeremiah 18:11-12).The illustration of the potter was to remind the nation of Judah that the Lord had the power and right to build them up for His purposes and to tear them down if they would not yield to His will with repentance and faith.

Likewise, the Lord has the power and right to bless us if we trust in Him or tear us down if “walk after our own devices” (Jeremiah 18:12). May we learn to trust the Potter’s hands and plans.

Schuman is pastor of Temple Church, Myrtle.