I cracked open my Bible last night to Jeremiah 18. In this chapter, the prophet Jeremiah is sent by God to visit a potter’s house because God wanted to give him a message there. Jeremiah writes: “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 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. Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘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.'”
What I love about this passage is that God basically sends Jeremiah on a field trip to check out a potter at work. While Jeremiah is observing the potter work his magic with a clay pot, God uses this scene as a visual aid for the message that He then tells Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived during a turbulent time in Israel’s history when the Israelities had largely forgotten about God and were practicing pagan worship and ritual sacrifice. In the next chapter, God points this out, saying, “For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal–something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.”
Because of this, God decided to destroy the ugly, awful shape Israel was in. But, rather than chucking the whole pot in the trash and starting with new clay, God decided to keep the clay that was Israel and remold it into something else. He made it clear, though, it was up to them how painful the process would be: “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 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.”
In order to be an excellent potter, you need to possess concentration and patience in order to shape the clay in just the way you want it. There are no shortcuts in this vocation. The Bible repeatedly tells us that God is patient (see Romans 9:22; Exodus 34:6; Psalm 103:8; 1 Kings 21:29; and Nehemiah 9:17 just for a few examples). Out of all God’s wonderful attributes, this is the one I’m most thankful for! In a world that’s rapidly running out of patience (just sit and watch any traffic intersection), I’m thankful that the Lord is “long-suffering” because it literally means our salvation (see 2 Peter 3:9 and 15).
I know there are times when I’m sure God’s frustrated with me, the impatient and sinful clay, but I take security in knowing that He is molding me into something wonderful, just like He is for you. We need to trust His hands and patiently listen and follow His wisdom and Word while being quick to repent and forgive. The process may be difficult and painful as we are pushed, prodded and pulled into a shape we weren’t before, but at the end, we will be much better off than we were ever before. We will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, along with integrity and eternity permanently molded in us. That, to me, is worth everything.
– Matt
clayGodIsraelJeremiahmoldpatiencepottershape
The Patient Potter and the Impatient Clay
August 27, 2009
Calvary
Comments Off on The Patient Potter and the Impatient Clay
Matt
I cracked open my Bible last night to Jeremiah 18. In this chapter, the prophet Jeremiah is sent by God to visit a potter’s house because God wanted to give him a message there. Jeremiah writes: “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 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. Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘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.'”
What I love about this passage is that God basically sends Jeremiah on a field trip to check out a potter at work. While Jeremiah is observing the potter work his magic with a clay pot, God uses this scene as a visual aid for the message that He then tells Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived during a turbulent time in Israel’s history when the Israelities had largely forgotten about God and were practicing pagan worship and ritual sacrifice. In the next chapter, God points this out, saying, “For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal–something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.”
Because of this, God decided to destroy the ugly, awful shape Israel was in. But, rather than chucking the whole pot in the trash and starting with new clay, God decided to keep the clay that was Israel and remold it into something else. He made it clear, though, it was up to them how painful the process would be: “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 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.”
In order to be an excellent potter, you need to possess concentration and patience in order to shape the clay in just the way you want it. There are no shortcuts in this vocation. The Bible repeatedly tells us that God is patient (see Romans 9:22; Exodus 34:6; Psalm 103:8; 1 Kings 21:29; and Nehemiah 9:17 just for a few examples). Out of all God’s wonderful attributes, this is the one I’m most thankful for! In a world that’s rapidly running out of patience (just sit and watch any traffic intersection), I’m thankful that the Lord is “long-suffering” because it literally means our salvation (see 2 Peter 3:9 and 15).
I know there are times when I’m sure God’s frustrated with me, the impatient and sinful clay, but I take security in knowing that He is molding me into something wonderful, just like He is for you. We need to trust His hands and patiently listen and follow His wisdom and Word while being quick to repent and forgive. The process may be difficult and painful as we are pushed, prodded and pulled into a shape we weren’t before, but at the end, we will be much better off than we were ever before. We will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, along with integrity and eternity permanently molded in us. That, to me, is worth everything.
– Matt
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