part0242

In Jeremiah 18:1-6, Jeremiah 9:1-15, and Romans 9:20-24, the Lord taught His people that He was and is the boss, just like a potter that oversees his work. During the Prophet Jeremiah’s time, the potter made, worked, and shaped vessels from clay. If the vessel was not turning out the way that he wanted, then he could reshape it into a different form. In Jeremiah 18:4, the prophet wrote, "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." In similar fashion, the Lord wanted His people to know that He could also shape, work, and reshape them into the manner of people that seemed best to Him.

In Jeremiah 19:1-15, the Lord was still speaking of the work of a potter, but His tone had suddenly changed to one of judgment. In those verses, He was no longer describing Himself as the One that could reshape an unsatisfactory vessel into a different form but as the One that could also break the hardened vessel and throw it away. Once a pot has been formed and has had time to harden, it cannot be reworked into a different shape. Therefore, if it is still not desirable, then it can only be destroyed and thrown out. Jeremiah was told to deliver that message to Judah and Jerusalem because they had hardened their hearts towards the Lord and had become idolators. Jeremiah 19:4 says, "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."

The Lord was very upset with His people because they had not responded, as they should have, to His shaping hands. He tries to bring each person to a saving knowledge of Christ and to then teach everyone to live for Him. But like the hardened vessels of clay, many people still refuse His shaping hands.