1.
Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2.
And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
3.
And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
4.
Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5.
They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
6.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
7.
And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8.
And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9.
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10.
Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
11.
And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
A BROKEN VESSEL
‘A potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again.’
Jeremiah 19:11
I. An earthen vessel is a true emblem of human life, so frail, so brittle.—But there is something frailer yet in our resolutions and efforts after holiness. And when once these have failed us, we can never be again what we were. Always the crack, the rivets, the mark of the join.
II. In Gideon’s days there was a light within the earthen vessels, and when these were broken it shone forth.—There is, therefore, a breaking of the vessel which is salutary and desirable. And it is of this that Miss Taylor sings:—
‘Oh to be nothing, nothing!
Only to lie at His feet,
A broken and emptied vessel,
For the Master’s use made meet.
Broken, that so unhindered
His life through me might flow.’
It reminds me of a piece of pottery I saw in the mountain burn, which was in the water and the water in it. If there be in any one of us a proud and evil disposition, a masterful self-will, which frets for its own way and makes itself strong against God, then indeed we may ask to be so broken as never to be whole again. ‘Take me—break me—make me!’ is a very wholesome prayer for us all.
III. The apostle speaks of the heavenly treasure in the earthen vessel.—How wonderful it is that God should put so much of His spiritual ointment into such common and ordinary receptacles! No one detects what is in the saints till they are broken by sickness, pain, trouble; then the house is filled with the odour of the ointment.
Illustration
‘But Thou art making me, I thank Thee, sire,
What Thou hast done and doest, Thou knowest well,
And I will help Thee; gently in Thy fire
I will be burning; on Thy potter’s wheel
I will whirl patient, tho’ my brain should reel;
Thy grace shall be enough the grief to quell,
And growing strength perfect through weakness dire.’
12.
Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13.
And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
14.
Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,
15.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.