“God told Jeremiah, “Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.” (Jeremiah 18:1-2 MSG)
I love that the book of Jeremiah is included in the Old Testament canon. Why do I say that? Because God’s relationship with Jeremiah is strange. He’s endlessly asking the prophet to do odd things for the sake of prophetic storytelling: buy some underwear and bury it under a rock then dig it up a year later, wear a yoke and then break it, buy a field even though the city is under siege and about to be destroyed, read a scroll and throw it in a river. So now do you believe me? God dealt with Jeremiah in unusual ways. He spoke through the prophet with vision, drama and a little eccentricity. For some reason, this comforts me. It solidifies the truth that God asks His people to do strange things, things that make the world scratch their heads and run their mouths.
In today’s reading, Jeremiah is asked to drop everything and go to the potter’s house. Who does he expect to find there? The potter. Not surprisingly, the potter dwells and works and destroys and reworks in his house. Similarly, the Creator, the One who’s story is so carefully recorded in both Testaments; dwells and works and destroys and reworks in His Creation. The observations that unfold in Jeremiah’s visit to the potter’s house hold true to the Creator and thus the class field trip.
“So I went to the potter’s house and sure enough, the potter was there working away at his wheel.” (Jeremiah 18:3 MSG)
We should never be surprised by God’s presence and involvement in His world. He created it. He sustains it. He’s always at the wheel. Even in His holy rest, His systems are still so well-ordered that the world moves forward according to His sovereignty. How easily we forget that He is near and He is at work.
“Whenever the pot the potter was working on turnout badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.” (Jeremiah 18:4 MSG)
Having taken my share of pottery classes, I know firsthand that clay, though uncomplicated by it’s very nature, can be volatile to work with. This is an expected variant, potters are not surprised when the clay becomes too wet or too dry to work with. It often holds air bubbles, that left undiscovered all the way to the kiln, can blow up and bring destruction to everything in the oven. Sometimes clay folds under pressure, unwilling to be coaxed by the potter’s hands.
We are the clay in this Creator-Creation metaphor. Uncomplicated, common, yet volatile. Our free will makes us a wildcard on the wheel, even in the patient and capable hands of the Creator.
But note the redemption clause built right into the text: “the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.” I think of Eden and I think of us. We are never too far gone for the Creator. He specializes in restoration, in taking clay and recreating it into His image.
We may miss it in our current culture, but the pot was most commonplace and essential in the Old Testament way of life. It was used for cooking, baking, storing, carrying, drinking and discarding. Think rubbermaid / cookware / canister / trashbin. And the pots themselves weren’t particular well made. How could they be? Ovens were primitive and heating temperatures fluctuated, making pots subject to cracking, leaking and shattering under the pressures of daily use. Broken pots were such a normal part of life that Jerusalem had an entire gate dedicated to their discarding. The potter was expected to be at his house because he was slammed trying to keep up with the endless demand.
It must be noted, that even a broken pot is not beyond redemption. A fired pot is only clay in a more solid form. It can be ground down, rewet and used again if time and patience allow for it.
“Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works with his clay,
I work with you…” (Jeremiah 18:5 MSG)
Creator has a plan for His Creation. He is close and we are in His hands being worked into something Kingdom. We can either cooperate with His agenda and allow ourselves to be pulled towards holy purpose, or we can go our own way as Israel did and discover how it leads to captivity and death.
O Lord, thank You for the lessons from the potters house. We see You as Creator dwelling amidst Your Creation. We recognize You hand on our lives, close and intentional. We commit to cooperation; Your plans are so much better than our insistence for independence. Thank You for Your restorative work in our lives, even when we’ve strayed, cracked or crumbled. We surrender anew to Your plans for us. You are good and everything You do is good. Amen.