Jeremiah 18:1

The Bible says in Jeremiah 18:1-6, “The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” God is the Potter, and we are the clay. That truth has several ramifications to it. One is that we are all formed by God. Not only is He the Creator, but He has made each of us individually. We are all different according to His design. Also, once we come to know Jesus as Savior, the person that He has made us into comes into a perfect union with the spiritual gift or gifts that Jesus gives each believer. It says in Ephesians 4:7-8, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” It also says in First Corinthians 12:7-11, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”

God is the Potter, and we are the clay. One of the things that this means is that the Lord is continuously working in our lives to make us into the creatures that He wants us to be. We are still clay, and He is still working on us. It says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those that love God, to those that are the called according to His will.” What may seem to be a bad thing happening to us is actually a good thing because it is all a part of the Potter’s work, making the clay into what He wants it to become. Jesus is not as concerned about what you accomplish as He is about what you become as a spiritual person.

God is the Potter, and we are the clay. One of the things about the making of a piece of pottery is that during the process, the potter may decide that this piece of clay is not being formed properly. Something went wrong that caused the clay to be marred, or harmed, or disfigured such that the potter just takes it and pounds it back into a lump and starts over. That is what happened to Israel. That is why it says in Jeremiah 18:4-6, “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?” This is an important spiritual principle to understand. It supports the doctrine of eternal security, and it means that God never gives up on His children, not even if someone gets to the point of being totally messed up spiritually and entirely unusable. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 12:20, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, til he send forth judgment unto victory.” What this means is that if there was such a Christian who did not go God’s way for him or her, and who threw away their gifts and opportunities, such that it would appear that their life was ruined; yet in fact they might very well be given another opportunity. Why is this? It is this way because God is the Potter and we are the clay. God may have to take that lump of clay and start over, but that is what all potters do; so it should not be surprising. Why did God create clay and give to human beings the ability to become potters who formed vessels from that clay? God did this because God Himself is a potter, and because we are the clay.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 18:7-8, “At what instant 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.” God raises up one nation and “pulls” down another. The words that God uses to describe what He can do to a nation are “pluck up,” “pull down,” and “destroy.” Of course, the Almighty God is at work in this world, and one of the things that He is doing is lifting up some nations and pulling down others. In the case of Babylon the reason that God was lifting them up was so that they could be used as an instrument to warn Israel, and then ultimately to punish Israel. In the case of the nation of Israel God decided to pull them down because of their sinfulness. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people,” it says in Proverbs 14:34.

God is the Judge of the whole earth, and He must punish sin because He is holy. Thankfully, God is also very patient and merciful. That is why Jesus came and died on the cross of Calvary: to provide salvation and forgiveness for all who will repent and believe in Him. It says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” After reading just how wicked the nation of Israel had become in the days on Jeremiah, anyone would be hard-pressed to find another nation even in today’s wicked world that has descended into the depths of ungodliness to the same degree as Israel. Therefore, we can honestly say that if ever a nation deserved to be destroyed, it was Israel as it had become in the days of Jeremiah. And yet just before the judgment was to fall upon them, God said in Jeremiah 18:8, “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.”

If only they would repent of their sins, the Lord would forgive them. Jesus taught the importance of repentance when He said in Luke 13:1-5, “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” To repent means “to change one’s mind.” For example, before a person is converted to Jesus Christ, that person is going on in his or her own way. But when they repent, they change their mind, and in effect they decide to turn from his or her own way and turn to Jesus. That is why someone who is really converted has a change of life. This repentance involves much more than a superficial belief in God’s existence. It involves a change of mind, and the mind guides the life. That is why it says in Second Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

It is revealing that God uses the word “repent” about Himself in Jeremiah 18:8. God said, “I will repent.” If the Israelites would repent of their sins, then God would repent of His judgments that He had planned. In other words, if the Israelites would change their minds about their sins, then God would change His mind about brining judgment upon them. God said in Jeremiah 18:8, “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.”

Right up to the end God gave them a chance to repent. That is because God’s primary purpose is to forgive. The fact that God still offered the chance to repent up to the very time that the judgment came shows what God is like. That is why there can be deathbed conversions. Even at the very end of life Jesus will give an opportunity to repent. That happened with one of the thieves on the cross. It says in Luke 23:36-43, “And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” What a picture of the human race: two sinners, each with the chance to believe in Jesus. One of them did believe on the last day of his life, and because he did believe he was given the great promise that everyone needs. Jesus said to him, “To day thou shalt be with me in paradise.”

The Bible says in Jeremiah 18:9-10, “And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” These two verses reveal an interesting truth and an important truth. First God said in verse 9, “I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it.” Of course, we know that God lifts up nations and casts them down at His choosing. Everything that exists comes from God. It says about God in Romans 11:36, “For of him, through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.” The two verses in Jeremiah imply very strongly that when God creates something or sets up something, He does so for a good reason. If the will of God gets fulfilled, then that goodness will get manifested in the final accomplishments of that which God created. If this is true about nations, then it is also true about every individual. God has given you life for a good reason. One of the challenges of life is to find out what that reason is. You will never find that reason without knowing Jesus as Savior, and you will never find the reasons for your life unless you learn to walk faithfully in fellowship with Jesus. Sin will ruin you, but the daily confession of sin will keep you walking with the Savior. It says in First John 1:6-9, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

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