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The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
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Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
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Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
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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.
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Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
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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.
THE POTTER AND THE CLAY
‘As the clay is in the potter’s hand.’
Jeremiah 18:6
I. Disheartened with his fruitless attempts to bring his people to repentance, Jeremiah was bidden to watch the potter at his work in the valley of Hinnom.—A piece of clay placed on the wheel yielded to his touch, and reached very nearly its completion, when, through some fault in the clay, its entire structure suddenly collapsed. The wheel and the ground beneath were littered by broken pieces. Not despairing, however, the potter took the broken remnants, and made them again! It is thus that God deals with men. They may have grieved His Holy Spirit and spoiled His ideal, but so long as they will be plastic to His hand He will re-make them.
II. God wants to make the very best He can of each of his children.—He puts us on His wheel, and subjects us to the discipline which He deems most likely to secure our greatest blessedness and usefulness. But, alas! how often He finds a marred vessel left on His hands when He desired and sought perfect beauty and strength! This is through no failure on His part, but because some bubble of vanity or grit of self-will has hindered Him.
When, however, this is the case He does not cast us utterly away, but puts us afresh upon the wheel, and ‘makes us again.’ If He cannot do what He desired at the first, He will still make the best of us, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Let God take a life which has proved a failure; He can make of what remains of it more than men could make with all earthly advantages on their side, and with nothing to hinder its regular development.
III. When Jeremiah approached the men of Judah with a fresh message they said, ‘There is no hope.’—We must take care not to drive people to renounce hope. But what a terrible mistake it is to leave the flowing water from the rock smitten on Calvary, refreshing as ice-cold water in a sultry land.
IV. The people turned against their best friend; because he warned them, they hated him; when he spoke good for them, they returned evil.—He had not fully learned that law which our Master Christ laid down, that we were to forgive until seventy times seven. His expression savours of a vindictiveness which grates upon the ears attuned to the voice and spirit of Jesus; but we must never forget that he stood as the representative of God, amidst a godless nation, and was eager that God should vindicate Himself in His judgments upon His persecutors.
Illustration
‘If there is any force or worth in the analogy at all, it must mean that there is a form according to which God is seeking to mould men and nations. It must imply that He is patiently, continually, working for the accomplishment of this purpose. Here, then, was the mystery of a people’s repentance. If they acknowledged the Will which was working upon them, if at any time they yielded to it and desired to be formed by it, this was that conversion and inward change which He was seeking to produce.’
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At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
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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.
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And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
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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.
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Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
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And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
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Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
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Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
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Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
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To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
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I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
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Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
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Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
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Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
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Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
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Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
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Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.