“But you know, O LORD, all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.”
~ Jeremiah 18:23
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever watched a guy or gal take moist, kneaded clay and then using a potter’s wheel form out of the nondescript clay glob a flower vase, fruit bowl, coffee cup or . . . if you have never seen a guy or gal form a vase, bowl, cup or . . . out of an unimpressive lump of clay, ask your dad and/or ma to take you to a place where a guy or gal is making vases, bowls, cups and . . . out of clay. Potter is the name that was used in Jeremiah’s day – which was about 2600 years ago, for a guy or gal who made vases, bowls, cups and . . . out of clay. A potter today uses the same kind of pottery making apparatus that potters used in Jeremiah’s day. The apparatus that a potter uses to make pottery has two round flat stones that are spaced on a single shaft some distance apart from each other. The shaft is firmly stabilized to keep it from wobbling. The bottom round flat stone is turned by a potter’s foot. The potter will place a ball of moistened clay on the top round flat stone. While causing the bottom round flat stone to spin with his or her foot – which in turn causes the top round flat stone to also spin, the potter will begin – using his or her hands, to cause the clump of moistened clay that he or she has plunked on top of the round flat stone to begin taking on the desired form – such as what a vase, bowl, cup or . . . looks like. In his Jeremiah Book – in Jeremiah 18, Jeremiah recounts a visit that he made to the house of a potter. God – as God the Father, had explicitly told Jeremiah to go to that specific potter’s house. God – as God the Father, had told Jeremiah that once he was at the potter’s house that He would give Jeremiah a special message. As Jeremiah was watching the potter redo a pot that had not turned out exactly how the potter had visualized it turning out, God – as God the Father, told Jeremiah that just as the potter is able to redo a pot that he or she is forming out of moist clay, that He can redo what He has begun doing with the house of Israel – who He chose to be His specially chosen guys and gals. Just as a potter – in Jeremiah’s time, used moist clay for making a pot, God – as God the Father, used clay as a metaphor to explain how He has formed you.
Just as a potter is in control of the moistened clay that he or she is molding into something, so is God in control of the plan that He has for His specially chosen guys and gals and that He has for His specially elected guys, gals and kids. Just as a potter – in Jeremiah’s day, knew the kind of clay needed to make the best pot, how wet the clay needed to be so that it could be molded into a pot and how hot the fire needed to be to fire the pot so that it could be usable for making stews, carrying water, storing wine, etc., God – because He can do it His way, formed you to be who He wants you to be and hardwired you to perform the functions that He has exclusively ordained, predestined and preprogrammed you to do. God through this time of forming or molding you tests you – to hone you, through regular, unscheduled life lesson exams. The message that God – as God the Father, wanted Jeremiah to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem was that just as a potter could decide if the pot he or she was forming was not turning out as he or she had envisioned that he or she could ball up the clay and begin again to reform the pot. God – as God the Father, wanted to communicate to His special chosen guys and gals that if they continued to follow the disobedient sinful path that they were following that in His unique way, that He would start all over again with them. When Jeremiah told God’s specially chosen guys and gals what God – as God the Father, had told him to pass on to them, Jeremiah was verbally attacked by God’s specially chosen guys and gals. God had told Jeremiah that this would take place but . . . verse 23 is Jeremiah’s very frustrated response to the death wish that God’s specially chosen guys and gals opted for when they tried to make him out as the bad guy, “But you know, O LORD, all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.”
Ask your ma if she likes pottery. Your grandmaa and Aunt Lynn like pottery. Your grandmaa was able to get several seconds from a place in Colorado Springs that was called the Clay Pot. Your grandmaa and grandpaa would go to the Clay Pot warehouse just to look for good seconds. A second in pottery is a vase, bowl, cup or . . . that after being fired is found to have some kind of blemish or a small crack – which makes the piece imperfect albeit usable. Your Aunt Lynn has been collecting plates so that she can put out a setting of plates that will be all different from each other. You are both like pottery seconds. Every kid who is born on planet Earth is born with blemishes and imperfections that have been caused by inherited sin DNA. Even though every kid who is born on planet Earth has been born with blemishes and imperfections, God is able to still use the kids for His kingdom’s sake. Once a vase, bowl, cup or . . . has been formed by a potter and fired – and does not turn out as the potter had designed it to be, the intended vase, bowl, cup or . . . cannot become clay again. The vase, bowl, cup or . . . if not destroyed by the potter, will always have a blemish if used. If you opt to trusting only in yourselves versus totally accepting God’s desire to help you, God will see to it that you end up as His specially chosen guys and gals did – smashed, when they opted to worship idols instead of worshipping Him. So – how does it feel to be like a blob of clay that God is molding. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were your age, there was no way for them to know that God’s plan for them was to meet, marry and . . . your grandmaa and grandpaa are grateful that God is continually molding them into His image.
Jeremiah 18 (838)