THE Apostle Paul (in Romans 9. 21 to 24) declares, “Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour ? What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles ?”
No doubt when the Apostle penned this, he would be mindful of the words spoken in Jeremiah 18 and 19, where the symbol of the potter is used by the Spirit in showing to the wayward nation of Israel the conditions of repentance which God was offering them.
A Work On The Wheels
Jeremiah, having been commanded (in verse 2) to go down to the potter”s house where he would be caused to hear the words of Yahweh, finds upon arrival that the potter was “fashioning a work on the wheels”. The vessel, when completed, did not prove satisfactory : it was “marred in the hand of the potter : so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it”. From this simple incident is developed one of the most striking figures that we find in the Scripture. This story can at once lift the mind in vision to the heights of the glory that is to be revealed in the vessels of honour, and create yet a feeling of deepest humility when we recognise how entirely dependent we are upon the Creator, even as the clay in the potter”s hands is dependent.
Our consideration of these chapters will be viewed from two separate aspects : one, from the view-point of warnings and corrections given to wayward Israel ; and the other, from the view-point of personal exhortation in the actions of this wonderful man, Jeremiah, as he meets the situations with which he is confronted.
As we saw in our consideration of chapter 13 Israel was symbolised as an unwashed linen girdle, so in our consideration of chapters 18 and 19, the nation is represented by a “potter’s vessel”. Verse 6 declares, “Oh House of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter ? Behold as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, Oh House of Israel”. No more fitting symbol could be employed than the one which is here used to show the way in which God has complete power to do as He wills with His Creation. As He further declares,
“At what instance I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
This immediately brings to mind the words spoken so long beforehand to Moses and which he passed on to Israel, as recorded in Deuteronomy 28 to 30, when he stated, “I set before thee this day, both blessing and cursing”. It was dependant upon the people themselves as to which they would receive—the blessing or the cursing.
Thou Our Potter
This symbol of the potter is used extensively in this manner by the writers of the Scripture. The prophet Isaiah (in chapter 64. 8) has recorded, “But now, 0 Yahweh, Thou art our father, we are the clay and Thou our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand”. Similarly, in Isaiah 45. 9, 29. 16, Job 4. 18 and 19, 33.6. In II Cor. 4.6 and 7, Paul brings the symbol of the potter’s vessel right down to us in our day :
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. BUT WE HAVE THIS TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS, that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us”.
So then, not only does the vessel used by Jeremiah serve as a symbol of Israel of old, but once again we are forcibly reminded that these things of the past have their counterpart in the Ecclesia of Christ, even until the time of the end.
With this symbol now clearly fixed in our mind, and our heart suitably prepared to receive the admonition that is to follow, we will proceed to consider next the work which Jeremiah was commanded to do in order that Israel might have their minds forcibly brought to bear upon the true character of the situation.
And so Jeremiah, by nature a young, inexperienced and very frightened man, but strengthened by the greatest means that God has provided for mankind, even HIS WORD, sets forth on what is probably the most frightening and dangerous mission that he had to accomplish in the period of his ministry.
Go And Buy A Vessel
In the opening words of chapter 19, Jeremiah is commanded byYahweh to go and buy a potter”s earthen vessel, and to gather the ancients of the people and of the priests, and to go forth unto the valley of the Son of Hinnom which is by the entry of the East gate (or Potter”s Gate—R.V.), and proclaim there the words that he would be told.
The reason for Jeremiah”s getting a potter’s vessel is obvious from what has gone before : this is a symbol of Israel. Now, notice who he is instructed to address. He is instructed to address the rulers of the people, both political and religious. These were the people who were leading Israel astray. The elders of the people who should have been leading Israel according to the instruction of God”s word, were leading them only by the arm of the flesh —a way that is entirely contrary to the way of God. No doubt, in their misdirection, they thought they were doing what was right, and no doubt too, many of the people who followed them felt the same way ; but Jeremiah, a lone figure in the nation, was caused by Yahweh to stand up and declare the unrighteousness of that generation, because they had forsaken The WORD and had endeavoured instead to make themselves “respectable” and popular in the estimation of their Gentile neighbours. So he took the elders of Israel down into the valley which was on the south west corner of the city of Jerusalem. This valley has been the site of many famous events. It is known in the New Testament as “Gehenna. (hell), and when we consider Jeremiah”s position—a lone young man confronted by the political and religious leaders with the mission before him which he had to accomplish, surely the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 10. 28 find a fitting place here :
“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Here was Jeremiah standing in the very place of which Christ was speaking, and no doubt, this thought, which was here spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, would have been uppermost in the mind of Jeremiah. Do not fear these frail mortal creatures who for the moment would appear so strong and overwhelming. The most they can do is to destroy the body, which would be but a “bruise in the heel”, but rather fear him, “the Great Potter”, who is able to destroy completely, should he find it necessary, both soul and body in Gehenna.
This is the paramount lesson portrayed in these two chapters. The force of these words cannot escape us. They do not apply to only one isolated period of time, but to the Israel of God in all generations. The circumstances which forced the Lord Jesus Christ to utter these words were almost identical with those of Jeremiah. A few moments” reflection will bring to the mind many other instances where similar words have been penned. So in Jeremiah”s case, this lone man, having led the rulers into Gehenna, dashes the vessel to pieces in their sight, and by divine command says to them, “Thus saith Yahweh of Armies, even so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh a potter”s vessel that cannot be made whole again”.
As with the foolish virgins, the time of repentance had passed. God, who is merciful, longsuffering and ever ready to forgive iniquity, will not tolerate disobedience for ever ; and so, just as surely as He had spoken, that generation of the Ecclesia, because of their disobedience, perished.
How often this dismal picture is presented to us! This thought immediately brings to mind the well-known words of the second Psalm, where, speaking of the destruction which is yet to come upon the Gentile nations at the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Psalmist says, “Thou shalt dash them in pieces, like a potter’s vessel”.
Two thousand years ago, Israel received their opportunity to conform to the pattern of the potter ; but because they rejected the means supplied, the potter thought fit to bring destruction upon that nation. Likewise, in these closing days of Gentile times, when God is calling out of the Gentiles a people for His Name, the means provided through the Lord Jesus Christ is also being rejected : so the Psalmist declares that they will come to their end in the same way as Israel of old—namely, “they shall be dashed in pieces like a potter’s vessel”.
It now behoves each one of us to consider where we stand. If we should be rejected in the judgement at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we too, like so many in times past, will come under the condemnation and the out-pouring of God’s writh ; for we shall, with the nations of the world, “be broken to shivers as the vessels of a potter” (Rev. 2. 27). Six thousand years of history should indicate this lesson to any with ears to hear. The easy way ends in destruction. Only those who patiently labour and deny themselves the fleeting “pleasures of sin for a season” will at last be revealed as “vessels of honour” in the age to come. These are they who, Paul tell us, are vessels filled with the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God” reflected in the face of Jesus Christ : although now in earthen vessels, they are soon to be revealed in heavenly vessels after the pattern of the one who went before.
From our consideration of yet another incident in the life of Jeremiah, we see that the whole complex situation of the testings and trials of God”s people, and the continual infiltration of the ways of the Gentiles, can be combated in only one way—and that is, by the strength of FAITH manifested by each member of God”s family. But as Jeremiah shows us, “faith comes by hearing the Word of God”. The more we hear, so much the more is our faith developed ; and so much the stronger are we to combat the allurements of sin in its many avenues. This condition of things, as Paul tells us, is brought into being through the “knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”.
Jeremiah is a fit example of one who combined his knowledge of the Word and the lessons that he learnt in Anathoth (“Answers to prayers”) in his younger days : he had the perfect combination of the two greatest sources of strength—the Word and prayer—to fit him as an example to all of the man “whom Yah will appoint and exalt”.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One