Introduction: clay jars, or “earthen vessels (KJV)” have been in use for thousands of years. These jars came and still come in various sizes, colors, and so on. Even when these jars were broken (they’re just clay, after all) the pieces could be and were used for notes, receipts, and the like (according to several books on Bible study, customs and manners, e,g,).
The LORD told Jeremiah to buy a clay jar. He did so, but then the LORD told him to do something rather unusual.
The text gives more details:
1 The command to buy the jar
Text, Jeremiah 19:1-2, KJV: 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,
How many of us have received a command from the Lord to do something unusual? Jeremiah had at least three of these during his ministry. The first one was to buy a new linen waistband, wear it, then take to the Euphrates River and basically bury it in a hole near that river! Now he’s told to purchase a clay jar (“earthen bottle”, KJV) and bring it along with some of the elders (“ancients”, KJV) to a strange location—then, while there, preach to them!
The location for the message was the “valley of the son of Hinnom”, which was outside the walls of Jerusalem itself. Later this valley became known as “Gehenna”, and by extension a picture of everlasting fire and destruction. Worse, some years before during Manasseh’s reign, he burned some of his children to death even as Ahaz had done about 100 years before. How many other parents did this to how many other children, we may never know. One would be too many. The thoughts of each elder, as they walked to this place, are not described, either.
Now, then, Jeremiah seems to have bought the clay jar, then took the jar and the elders of the people and priests out towards the valley of the son of Hinnom. God had told Jeremiah that He would give Jeremiah a message once they got there. Verses 3 and following contain this message that Jeremiah was to declare to the people.
2 The command to bring God’s message
Text, Jeremiah 19:3-9, KJV: 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. 8 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.
The LORD once again told it like it was in these verses. Every one of the people there with Jeremiah knew all this. They all knew about the burning of incense to other pagan deities and it would have been difficult to avoid the smell of burning human flesh from the children burned in the fire to other deities. After this brief review, the LORD told them about what was going to happen in the future. As gruesome as verse 9 might have seemed to the people, this very thing had happened before, in Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom.
Jehoram, king at the time, heard a woman complain that she and another woman had agreed to kill and eat each other’s son. This first woman gave her child, and the two “mothers” ate. But the second woman reneged on the deal, hiding her son (2 Kings 6:24-29). That may not have been the only situation even though no other such occasions are recorded. Of note, this is one of the curses the LORD promised would happen to Israel if they ever “forgot” or abandoned Him (Deuteronomy 28, verses 52-53 in particular). In just a few years, Jerusalem would truly be surrounded, this time by Babylon, and this time there would be no escape.
Judgment was coming.
3 The command to break the clay jar in front of the people
Text, Jeremiah 19:10-15, KJV: 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. 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.
Jeremiah had heard the LORD tell him, “buy a clay jar”, and then preach to the people. After the LORD gave him the words, Jeremiah then was told to break the very same jar! I don’t know enough of the original language to know if Jeremiah was to simply drop the jar and let gravity basically do the work for him, or if he was to pick it up and throw it down, or if he was to use a hammer or some other tool and manually break the jar. There are similar examples and instances in Scripture: Moses threw down the original Ten Commandments, which God Himself wrote, when he heard the sound and saw the Israelites worshiping the golden calf they had made (Exodus 32). Jeremiah himself would hear the LORD tell him, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:29)” at, perhaps, a later time. The important thing is that however Jeremiah did it, he was commanded to break the jar he had purchased as an object lesson to those who were there with him.
And Jeremiah wasn’t finished with just speaking to the elders who had gone with him out to the Valley of the son of Hinnom. According to verse 14, Jeremiah then left Tophet (another name for the place) and “stood in the court of the LORD’s house” then preached a one-verse message to the people. That message was as simple and clear as it was brief: all that God had said was coming was going to happen, because Israel (Judah alone by this time) had “hardened their necks, that they might not hear (God’s) words.”
Conclusion: Jeremiah bought a clay jar, at God’s command, and then broke that same jar, also at God’s command. This was an object lesson for the people, reminding them that first, God was still in charge and second, the punishment for their sins had never been canceled but would be coming in full. Looking back, had they repented, none of the bad things mentioned in the messages from God through Jeremiah would likely have happened. They didn’t, they kept on sinning, and eventually suffered the penalty for their sins.
May we too always listen to God’s message and then take whatever corrective action is needed.
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
