The Potter's House

I. Introduction

Jeremiah 18-19 serve as one of the physical object lessons for which Jeremiah is well known.

Setting:

The date is difficult to discern.

The setting is a potter’s workshop near the southern end of Jerusalem, along the Hinnom valley.

Loc: https://www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/11-hinnom-valley.html

The clay in the Hinnom valley was of a fine nature and suitable for making pottery.

The southernmost gate of the old city is called both the “dung gate” and the “potsherd” gate.

The tower just to the northwest of that gate was called the “tower of ovens” because it overlooked an area populated by pottery shops and kilns (Neh 3:11; 12:38).

The potsherd or dung gate was also the exit to the city’s dump. Refuse was typically hurled into the valley below, and fires were kept burning there to consume the rubbish.

Lastly, the valley was also the chosen location for the worship of Molech, a Caananite fertility god, which involved child sacrifice.

Structure

Jer 18:1-4, object lesson and observation.

Jer 18:5-6,Divine oracle and explanation.

Jer 18:7-10, two examples.

Jer 18:11-12, final doom.

Jer 18:13-God calling for witnesses to the justice of His doom.

Jer 18:18, Jews run to do evil, not to repent.

Jer 18:19-23, Jeremiah’s imprecatory prayer.

Jer 19:1-9, Jeremiah’s sermon to the leaders in the valley of Hinnom.

Jer 19:10-13, Object lesson of breaking the flask

Jer 19:14-15, Repeat of sermon in the temple court.

II. Body

The possibilities of pliability, Jer 18:1-11.

The clay in the potter’s hand is able to be molded and shaped at His will.

When it spoils “in his hand” he can reshape it as he chooses.

The clay is submitted to the Lordship of God and becomes what He wants it to become.

The pressures that the potter brings against the clay can be gentle or severe, depending on His intention with the clay.

Examples of positive and negative enticements are given in vs 7-10.

Promises of planting and blessing.

Promises of destruction and uprooting.

All verbs from Jeremiah’s call in Jer 1:10.

The possibility of God “repenting” or “relenting has caused great confusion.

Certainly not Open Theism, where God waits to see what will happen, where His action is contingent upon our changing will or desires.

The verb here, nāḥam 108× [N] to relent, repent, change one’s mind; be grieved; [P] to comfort, console, express sympathy; [Pu] to be comforted, be consoled; [Ht] to console oneself; to change one’s mind; avenge oneself

Derived from a root word meaning to sigh audibly. Onomatopoeia.

It does not always mean that a plan has changed, in fact, it can be part of the plan in the first place.

Jer 23:1-3, 13, 19.

Deut 28:36-37.

Deut 30:1-3.

However, God knows the hardness of man’s heart in their sin (evidence to follow), and is not surprised at the outcome.

The pressures on the clay can be horrible (kneading, punching, pinching, plunging). But God’s will is at work to make us into something that seems good to the potter (vs 4).

Submission to the will of God is the key to continuing to stay useful.

James 4:7.

1 Pet 5:6.

God offers them an opportunity to repent and be molded, but they resist profoundly!

The doom of durability, Jer 18:12-19:15.

The answer of the people must be a paraphrase and interpretation of the actions and attitudes that Jeremiah saw around him. (vs 12).

God’s response (vs 13-17).

Draws back to the original condition when Israel had pledged to follow God (virgin daughter).

Compare Jer 2:1-3.

Now, though, although God is still faithful to provide for them (vs 14), they have turned their back on him (vs 15-16), (Jer 2:27)

So now He will turn his back on them (vs 17).

As vs 12 indicated, the hearts of the people are in no way ready to repent. Instead, they devise ways to punish Jeremiah for bringing the message (vs 18).

This prompts an imprecatory prayer from Jeremiah (vs 19-23).

He has been instructed not to pray for mercy (Jer 7:16; 11:14; 14:11).

Now Jeremiah’s prayers are in line with God’s will for the people.

Chapter 19, the broken flask.

If the pressure of God fails to meet resistance and submission as it does in soft clay, it will break the resistant hardened clay of a completed vessel.

The flask is one with a narrow neck used for pouring liquids, baqbuq. Another onomatopoetic name. The sound it makes when liquid comes out in spurts.

The potter’s shop was outside the city, on the brow of the hill of Jerusalem, above the valley of Hinnom. Jeremiah takes a field trip down the hill.

He brings a representative of the Jewish leadership to see the monuments to foreign gods and the place of child sacrifice.

Specifically prohibited in Lev 18:21.

Began under Solomon. 1 Kings 11:1-8.

Practiced by several evil kings of Judah, including Manasseh, 2 Kings 21:1-6.

Jeremiah records several instances of this same rebuke (Jer 7:31, for instance).

Several names for the valley.

Valley of the sons of Hinnom: Hinnom was the patriarch of a Caananite tribe that pre-existed the Jewish invasion who lived in the valley and worshipped Molech there.

“Valley” in Hebrew is “Ge.” Ge Hinnom—> Gehenna in Greek naming.

Valley of Topheth. Toph in Hebrew means “drum.” They would beat drums during child sacrifice to drown out the sounds of the cries of the children (or their mothers).

Jeremiah draws a connection between the horror of child sacrifice and the horrors of a seige, when people will resort to cannibalism to find food (vs 9).

(vs 10) Jeremiah breaks the flask in their presence as an object lesson to what happens when the clay refuses to be moved by the potter.

Jeremiah repeats his sermon to a wider audience in the temple courts (vs 14).

The final verse (15) reiterates the root of the problem: stubbornness. They knew what would bring peace, but they will not repent.

Where We See Jesus

Superficially, the potter’s field, the setting for destruction, was where Judas killed himself Acts 1:18.

Christ taught extensively about Hell, and he used Gehenna as a picture of hell in several instances (Matt 5:21-23).

Jesus, God in flesh, practiced submission.

To his parents (Luke 2:51-52).

To governmental authorities (Mk 12:13-17).

To God-ordained religious formalities (Matt 26:17-19).

Even to Righteous man-made religious formalities (John 10:22).

Christ, in his humanity, did not want to go to the cross, but He submitted to the will of His father (Luke 22:42).

Christ, in his divinity, was perfect already, but his humanity still learned and grew (Luke 2:52).

God used suffering in Christ’s life, just as he uses it in ours.Heb 2:10.

In fact, in several places, the New Testament connects the obedience of Christ through suffering with our salvation.

Rom 5:19.

Phil 2:8.

Heb 5:8-9

III. Conclusion/Application

If Christ, in his perfection, still needed to remain pliable and submissive in the hands of the potter, we do all the more!

Life is hard, and the world is broken, but we ought to be sensitive to what the Lord might be doing in our lives when He allows hardship to bring pressures on us.

Pride is the first and most fundamental sin in our lives. Let us participate with God to work it out of our lives so that we don’t end up needing to be broken rather than molded.