Clay in the Hands of the Potter
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Last week Krista taught on the prophet Jeremiah - do you remember what she said he is known as - his nickname?
The weeping prophet! That is right.
And why did he weep?
Jeremiah grieved over the wickedness of his people, knowing that the nation’s sins had provoked God to anger. He knew judgment was coming, and despite his warnings - no one seemed to be listening. He weeped in grief for his people.
This past Monday was September 11th. Imagine for a minute receiving a vision on September 1, 2001 of what was going to happen in eleven days. You saw it all - the plane crashes, the twin towers falling, the smoke and debris, the loss of life, the grief of the nation. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was going to happen - and you try to warn whoever would listen to what is going occur.
What do you think the response would be?
How frustrating do you think you would be?
At what point would frustration turn to tremendous grief?
Honestly, I would not want to be a prophet.
No one signs up to be a prophet. But God does call certain people to be his spokesperson.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
In the Bible, when God has a word to say, he puts his words in the mouth of a chosen speaker. And the speaker has to speak it.
Remember the story of Jonah? God tells Jonah to go to Ninevah and speak His word. What did Jonah do? He went in the complete opposite direction. Yet, in the end, what did Jonah do? He went to Ninevah and delivered God’s message.
In the Bible, God uses prophecy at least six different ways.
As a rebuke: More than half the prophecies in the OT are in this category. The purpose is always to rebuke sin and call people to repentance. That speaks to love of God as Father - he corrects his children. Some folks think the God of the OT is mean, but what does love require - to let your children continue down a path that will destroy them, or to correct them?
As a revelation of facts about God and His creation: Interestingly, the seemingly most important facts about God and His character are usually imbedded in the messages of rebuke or encouragement. The totality of the prophecies provide a huge resource of knowledge about God and creation, but this information rarely stands alone. For instance, Nehemiah 9:30
Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
We see that God is long-suffering and desires people to turn to him.
3. As an encouragement to God’s people: Although most prophecy comes in the form of rebuke, there are those that are messages of encouragement and are essential to the prophet’s work. They usually follow a rebuke - and sometimes that changes happens abruptly. Isaiah 4:1-6
And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.” In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.
Isaiah is describing the day of the Lord, a day of judgement - for some, a time of distress, but for some a day to be redeemed.
4. to inform the people of action to be taken on a specific occasion. This is a small part of the prophet’s message but it was an important part for those who were receiving the message to hear. We find examples of this when Moses was leading the people through the wilderness.
5. Through the prophets voice, God validated the authenticity of the divinely appointed leader or prophet. Like when the prophet Samuel was told to anoint Saul as king of Israel. That gave authenticity to Saul - the people knew God had spoken and chose him to be king.
6. Prophecies of the future Messiah is the sixth purpose. These prophecies were also found imbedded in the current events of the people. They do not occur as announcements outside the context of a historical situation. In other words, the prophet was speaking to a real life situation for those listening, but also alluded to what would one day happen. For example, when King Ahaz proved to be an unworthy head of the nation, Isaiah prophesied of a better king to come in the future. Isa 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Because these prophecies also related to future events, the prophets often did not fully understand the messages they spoke. How could Isaiah have conceived that God would come in person to be head of His Church?
“Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”
Even the prophet had to obey God’s specific instructions. Jeremiah had to go to a certain place to receive God’s message. In this case, the object lesson was for Jeremiah too. He needed to see the lesson of the potter in order to imprint it on his own heart and mind to better deliver it to the people.
Have any of you either created pottery or watched someone else do so? My cousin Kim, who lives in NC, is a professional potter. When we visit the old family holler near the Smokies, we stop by her house and often will go down stairs to her studio. The has a kiln, potter’s wheel, buckets of clay and water, and shelves of her work.
It is fascinating to watch her mold a lump of clay into a beautiful and useful finished product. Whether a dish, basin, wine goblet, coffee mug, whatever end product she has in her head, it all starts as a lump of clay that she kneads with her hands, then begins to shape as it spins. As just as Jeremiah witnessed, Kim will know if a piece is marred in some way. If it is too weak in one area or whatever her trained eye will pick up - she then crumples up the clay and starts over.
Watching the potter work, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah and gave him the words to speak.
“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.
Just as Jeremiah could see the potter working, making something out of clay, first Jeremiah and then the people were to understand that God was working to make something out of them. God wanted them to be His Missionaries to the rest of the world. He meant for them to be a beautiful “vessel” to hold his presence and display his glory to the nations around them.
The potter saw that his pot was marred. (v.4) This word marred in Hebrew has rich meaning for the analogy being presented here. It basically means decayed, destroyed, or ruined. But it also carries a connotation of acting perversely or wickedly and destroying. This aptly describes the actions of the Israelites, who had acted wickedly and thus ruined what God was trying to fashion them into.
Neither God nor the potter can abide a marred pot. Just as the potter crumpled the clay into a ball and shaped a new pot, so God was attempting to reshape the sinful Israelites into a new pot to better represent Himself. What seemed best to Him was not what Israel expected, exile in a foreign country. But God was using adversity and exile to make them appreciate what they could have - a land of their own and all the prosperity promised in the covenant - if only they would obey him.
God never judges without warning.
People were repeatedly warned by the prophets.
Again, the book of Jonah is a great example. The people of Ninevah were warned and they took heed to the warning. They repented and God relented. He did not punish.
God delights in repentance, not judgment.
Questions:
What is God’s role in repentance?
What is your role?
How have you experienced repentance? From what did you repent? Why? What happened afterwards?
IS there something in your life right now that calls for repentance?