The Potter’s House Jeremiah 18:1-6
God the creator of all things provided Jeremiah this illustration of what He would do to the nation Israel and we can extract from it great truths of how God deals with us today. As Jeremiah peers through a window into the potter’s house, he sees what the verses describe as a vessel remade. Notice:
The Potter….
God as the potter in this parable made the vessel into what he wanted it to be. In the creators mind before we are created, he has an idea of what we are to be. Who we are , and even where we are is all in the providence of God. We should not despise our lives who we are or even what happens to us. We should be sure we stay in the hands of God. His hands form us and as told to Jeremiah and Isaiah God knew us as we were formed in the womb (Isaiah 49:1 & Jeremiah 1-5). Every believer is in the hands of God and being shaped according to His perfect will. As the potter pats the clay for a purpose, so is the Lord in shaping us sometimes through chastisement, not to destroy us, but to teach, discipline and strengthen us. It is a wonderful manifestation of His great love for His creation.
The Clay…
The clay is the perfect position to be form into something useful to God. Notice that the clay is on the wheels which could intimate the world. We as clay are influenced by the experiences and circumstances of life. The clay is in His hands and as long as we are in his hands we will be molded and shaped by the purpose and power of God. He is molding us in to the image of Jesus and as long as we don’t resist, we will be formed into his image as in the beginning (Genesis 1:26-27) .
The Vessel
The focus of Jeremiah’s view is when the clay became marred “in his hands”. It is so true that this something happens to us even while in his hands. Life causes us to question His purpose and design. We resist His workings and the vessel we become is not what God intended. In the potters house there is perhaps a shelf of vessels that are useless or a pile of clay out back that was thrown out because it could not be formed. But notice that when we become marred, He re-forms us in to a new vessel. In the example set forth, Israel would not become what God had planned for them and they became a vessel of unrighteous (Romans 9:18-24). We however have Jesus Christ who has made us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
God Formed Satan Deformed Jesus transforms
