The Merciful Potter (Jeremiah 18:1-11)
This sermon was preached on 30/1/2011
Very often in the Bible, the Lord uses everyday events to depict his way of working with humans. We are familiar with God being describes as a king, as a shepherd, as a redeemer, and as a metal-worker, to mention a few. In this chapter the Lord is likened to a potter.
Jeremiah was commanded by God to go a potter’s house and observe him making a pot or similar utensil out of clay. When he reached there he observed that the potter was working on a piece of clay. During the process, something went wrong, but instead of throwing the clay away the potter continued to work on it until he had made a suitable vessel (vv. 1-4). This incident had many lessons for Jeremiah, and for us.
Perhaps the first point to note is the sense of urgency with which the Lord speaks to the prophet when he tells him to arise and go down to the potter’s house. Whether Jeremiah was in bed or merely sitting down cannot be known, but what is clear is that he was to obey God immediately, which he did. While it is always the case that God should be obeyed promptly, the reason for the haste is was caused by the impending judgement on Judah for its sins. Jeremiah was to learn that God was ready to forgive his wayward people.
An obvious lesson from this incident is that the Lord is sovereign. It is not the clay that is in control of events, even although its defects cause the potter to adjust his original plan. The failure of the clay does not mean that God has ceased to be sovereign. In fact, his sovereignty is shown in his decision to continue working on the clay because he also had the option of throwing the clay away. An obvious application to us is that, at this moment, God could decide to throw us away in the sense that he would cease working for our good. We could not prevent him doing so. If God decides to end your life at this moment, you cannot prevent him. God can do what he wants, although it is important to realise that God only desires to do good.
Another lesson from this incident is that the Lord is personally involved in each stage of the process. There was never a moment when the clay was not in the potter’s hand. This is true of each of us as well. Through all of our existence, his hands as it were have been upon us. He shaped our individual characters, gave to each of us the particular traits that we have. He gave to us commandments to obey that would result in our profit.
A further lesson that Jeremiah could have seen was the tenderness of God. A potter usually has to be gentle, otherwise the clay will no be shaped. Sometimes he has to exercise additional pressure to smooth a piece of clay, but he never uses all of his power; if he did, the clay would disintegrate. Similarly, the Lord deals with us according to what we can bear. He works in our lives according to his loving care, being tender and gentle with us, and according to his limitless wisdom, so there is nothing he cannot solve. But he does not work within us according to his great power because we would be like a moth about to be crushed by an elephant.
A fifth lesson that comes clearly from this incident is that the Lord does not wish to destroy a rebellious people. He says that the damaged clay is like rebellious Israel, about to undergo his judgement because of her persistent sins. Yet he says that if Israel repents, he will remake her into a beautiful utensil.
There is a sixth lesson here as well, which is that God’s offer of mercy was not limited to the professing people of God. In his explanation to Jeremiah the Lord refers to any nation who repents. Even the most wicked people on the earth would experience the Lord’s restoring power if it would turn to him in repentance. This is of great encouragement as we see the state of things in our country today. If our nation were to repent, then the Lord would remake her very quickly. How important it is for us to pray that the Lord would fulfil in our nation’s experience the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10: ‘And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.’
In addition, we can see that this incident represents the patience and long-suffering of God. The potter did not immediately through the damaged clay away; instead he continued to work on it. So also with the Lord. He ‘is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance’ (2 Pet. 3:9).
These are some general principles that can be seen in this passage. But I want to look at two others more closely.
The first is that each of us is on the potter’s wheel. At every moment, the Lord is working in our lives either to bless us or to punish us. His working is according to our spiritual state. When we sin, God does something to us, described by Paul as hardening us. In this service, two things are happening. These two effects are described by Paul in Colossians 2:15-17, when he described the effects of his own ministry: ‘For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.’ Sometimes we say, I wish that God would do something. But God is doing something. Each of us will leave this service tonight a different person from the way we came in, as far as our relationship with God is concerned.
The second principle is that God never punishes those who repent of their sins. This leads us to discuss whether or not God changes his mind. Obviously, God does not change his eternal purpose. But that purpose is secret and never revealed to creatures. Instead God deals with as rational creatures according to his revealed will. His revealed will is stated in verses 7-10. Put simply, if we depart from God and his ways he will punish us; if we return to God he will pardon and remake us.
It is important to note that repentance is the only way to avoid the judgement of God. We recall the incident in the life of Jesus when he spoke about those on whom the tower in Siloam fell. ‘Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish’ (Luke 13:4-5).
It is also important to note that repentance will protect the most evil of sinners from the wrath of God. We can see this in the case of the city of Nineveh. It was an evil city, the capital of a cruel empire. God told Jonah that within forty days the city would be destroyed. Jonah thought that was very good until he was told to go and warn them of their danger. Eventually he went and preached to them, and the inhabitants repented and were spared divine judgement. As Jesus says in Matthew 12:41: ‘The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’
We also see this deliverance in the example of Manasseh, the evil king of Judah. He had been taken prisoner to Babylon and there ‘when he was in distress, he entreated the favour of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God’ (2 Chron. 33:12-13). Repentance reversed the judgement that the king was under.
Perhaps the most graphic illustration of how repentance changes a situation is told in the parable of the prodigal son. He was a rebel who through his folly landed in the gutter ( a picture of the great loss that sinful living brings). Yet when he repented, the father ran to meet him and restored him to a place of great honour in the family home.
The third principle is that God commands them to repent immediately. He tells Jeremiah to inform the people, ‘Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds’ (v. 11).
What does it mean to repent?
Many people confuse it with reform. They hear God’s warnings and are affected by them. Yet they imagine that what they should do is reform their behaviour and turn over a new leaf. For a while they become diligent in trying to obey God’s commands. Yet their response is wrong, and that for two reasons. First, it ignores the past and, second, it takes a wrong view of the future. Repentance has to do with our past and our future is taken care off by the God who will remould us from the inside out.
Repentance involves a change of mind. This is the basic meaning of the word. The penitent person sees his sins in a different way. No longer are they harmful expressions of personal preferences, but attitudes and actions of rebellion against God. He realises that he is guilty of disobeying God.
Yet repentance involves more than the sinner’s mind. It affects his whole person, so it also influences his affections or emotions. He becomes sorry for his sin. He cannot be indifferent about it; he sees it as offensive against God. He is grieved, and from his heart tears will flow. It used to be said of penitent sinners that they wept their way to Calvary.
The previous sentence illustrates that repentance also affects the will of the sinner. As with the prodigal son, he resolves to arise and go to God and confess his sin. The slightest glance of a penitent in the direction of God will bring God running towards him to embrace him and forgive him all his sins.
This journey to God is a specific road. It takes the sinner to Calvary (not literally, but spiritually). That is where the running Father and the hobbling penitent meet. There at the foot of the cross, the penitent sinner becomes a pardoned sinner, embraced in the Father’s arms. If you but knew the sweetness of his welcome, you would leave your sins at this moment.
At that moment, the heavenly Potter begins his work of remaking the deformed shape that sin has made us. This remaking will culminate in a work of great beauty because each person who believes in Jesus will become like him in character. Only God can turn an ugly lump of clay into a beautiful work of art. At present, he may have to deal with some aspects of our characters that require smoothing, but we trust him to bring about the completed change.
What did Jeremiah’s listeners say? Their answer is given in verse 12: ‘But they say, “That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.”’ Of course, they did not say these words literally, but this is what their failure to repent signified. They refused to come to the Potter for mercy and very soon afterwards they experienced his judgement in the captivity in Babylon.