CLAY PEOPLE
SCRIPTURE: Genesis 3:19; Jeremiah 18:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:7
Introduction
Ever felt like a grasshopper?
Unimportant, inferior, low-down?
Israel felt that way when Moses’ spies reported back from their excursion into the Promised Land. They said, "And there we saw the giants, . . . and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers" (Numbers 13:33).
These people were impressed with the land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of unbelievable fertility, a land of incalculable promise. They were also impressed with the inhabitants of the land, so impressed in fact that they were whipped before they started.
The princes of Israel were overwhelmed with their own inferiority. It was inevitable that they projected inferiority upon the inhabitants. They said, "We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
This was not really true, as subsequent events revealed, but it highlights the double deception of an inferiority complex. The man who trusts in himself sooner or later feels like a grasshopper in his own sight, and he thinks everybody else feels the same way about him. As long as circumstances are all right, he makes out; but when life tumbles in, he crawls. The confidence he has is self-confidence and is sheer illusion.
What a difference in the person who has God-confidence! He’s invincible because he counts on the resources of God, not on his own weak, limited assets. He’s certain of victory because he’s absolutely sure of the victor! Paul wrote, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).
Just what are you? Are you an accidental, evolved, compilation of male and female genes? Some people think so! Are you an animal? With blood and organs and breath? With instincts and muscular reactions? No less and really no more than an ape in the African jungle? Some people think so! Are you a lonely, isolated universal happening? A blob soon to dry? A ripple soon to cease? A speck soon to be blown away? Some people think so!
But what are you? Really and truly!
Ask your doctor. He’ll tell you one thing. Ask your science professor. He’ll tell you another. Ask the chemist and he will tell you something else. But ask God and God will tell you that you are the creation of His hands. You are the fruit of His labor. You are the apple of His eye. You are the pride of His heart. You are the choice object of God’s eternal love.
Just like each of us, the prophet Jeremiah wrestled with this whole concept of man. What is he? Where is he going? Why the dilemma of life? Jeremiah was especially disturbed that God’s people had deaf ears and hard hearts. They would neither listen nor heed the warnings Jeremiah preached day after day.
God spoke to Jeremiah: "Go down to the potters house, Jeremiah. Watch him work. Learn a lesson" (see Jeremiah
18:2).
Numerous songs have been written and many sermons preached about the potter and the clay. It remains yet a beautiful lesson.
Pottery is a science of man rather than of manufacturing. The potter himself is the most important element. The clay next. God said: "I am the potter. You are the clay."
Picture it in your mind. The potter is seated on the ground, with a mass of clay nearby, a vessel of water by his side, and in front of him the potter’s wheel. After moistening and softening the clay, he puts it on the horizontal wheel, and then with the wheel turning, he touches the revolving lump of clay and begins to shape the vessel. Sometimes, when the vessel Is near completion, the potter discovers a serious flaw. But because the clay Is still pliable, the potter is able to form the vessel again and place the clay once more on the wheel, where he forms a new vessel.
Ever hear someone say, "Mr. Jones is a self-made man." I’ve heard it and I know what is generally meant, but it’s not really true. There are no self-made men. We are all the work of God’s hand. "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."
THE ORIGINAL PLAN
long before the house you presently dwell in was erected, the house existed in the mind, in the thoughts, of an architect or builder. Also, long before the world existed in material form, long before you became flesh and blood, you existed in the mind of God.
God is knowledgeable. In fact, He knows all things. God also wills. He decrees. He plans. Not only has God planned what you presently are, but God is planning what you are capable of becoming. God knows the precise processes needed to make you a vessel of honor.
At this very moment I can almost hear someone asking, "What if I’m to be a vessel of dishonor?" I’d like to answer such a question with a question of my own.
Do you want to be a vessel of dishonor? Is your heart set on evil? Have you no desire at all to be worthy? If not, then that’s exactly what your life is going to be: a vessel of dishonor. However, don’t mark God off. God sets even vessels of dishonor up before the world as examples, and God uses even the evil schemes of the devil for contrasting and then beautifying His own plan.
If you desire the good, if you desire beauty, if you desire perfection, God has a plan. He is the potter. He Is the master workman. He Is able to perfect that work already begun in you. And He will perfect it if you yield to the artistry of His hands.
THE BASIC MATERIALS
Clay is a mixture of common earth and silica. It is the presence of that silica which makes clay something more than common earth. So with the story of man. Man’s story begins with thunder and ends with glory. Man begins with dust, but breathed upon by God’s Spirit, he becomes a living soul.
There are, however, some steps by which God prepares the basic elements making up your personality. lot’s note some of them as they relate to the potter’s craft.
Clay, first of all, must be crushed. You, too, must be made pliable in the hands of God. The crushing process Is not pleasant. Life is often painful beyond description. But remember, until the lumps have been removed, until the foreign elements are screened out, until you have been sifted, you are not suitable material for the potter’s skill.
I’m sure that quite often there are those of us who wish for the potter to get on with the work. We want perfection and artistry now. At times, we may even try to move the plan along, as Moses did, but God demands a crushing in the wilderness first.
The potter can make no use of clay which Is too moist. He thus squeezes out excess water. One of the most difficult of all life’s lessons Is this matter of excess. Zeal Is good but It must be tempered. So many of our virtues pervert themselves when permitted to run wild. God has methods for squeezing out the excesses.
A man impatient and critical of today’s youth can suddenly learn kindness when his own son, or his own daughter, is beset with temptation.
Life can squeeze out a lot of excesses.
Customarily, the potter isolates the clay, hiding It away for a time, so that It might acquire Its true texture. This isolation process Is always important.
"What I can do for God seems very Insignificant," some folks say. Or, "My little part would never be missed." But don’t ever despair. It could well be that the dark corner where you are now isolated is only preparation for a spot in the sun. Isolation has proven spiritually helpful to many people. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness. Elijah often walked and talked with God in the solitude of the desert. John the Baptist discovered faith in the mountains. And Saul of Tarsus isolated himself with God prior to stepping forth to turn the Gentile world upside down for Christ.
Don’t fret over moments spent alone with God. Let them temper your soul. Let them bring out your true nature. Tomorrow, next week, next year the potter may set you forth as a fit example of His art.
THE CREATION PROCESS
Once the clay is prepared, once the basic materials are ready, then the potter creates. Then, and only then, does God take us in His hands for molding on the spinning wheel of life.
It is fascinating to watch a pile of raw clay take shape in the potter’s hand.
First, you observe the spinning wheel. Then, the master’s hand: smoothing, lifting, shaping, forming. The wheel turns fast. Miraculously the pottery takes shape. A vessel tall, a vessel short, a vessel with narrow neck and spout, a vessel with handle. Each an individual piece. Each standing alone. Each a work of art.
So is your life . . . and mine . . . a unique creation. Note it, the clay plays but a minor role In the process. We are just submissive to Him, not charged with creative responsibility. Did not Christ Himself say, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men" (Mark 1:17)?
John was a work of the Master’s hand. He lived past a hundred years. On Patmos he saw the heavens opened and God’s glory revealed. He was, indeed, a prince among men.
But let’s not forget that James, too, was a vessel of honor unto God. He preached but a few sermons, worked but a short while, and died on Herod’s chopping block. God fashioned both. In no way would we be justified in thinking John to have been better loved then James. They differed only In their allotted roles.
So it is with us!
THE TRIAL BY FIRE
Green pottery, or freshly created pottery, must yet be fired. Otherwise, it is useless.
Our faith too must be tried as by fire. It’s the furnace of life that tempers us. It’s the rocks and stones of the road which put toughness into our feet. It’s the action, the pain of muscles reaching to their full capacity, the strain of lungs gasping for air that makes us strong and creates stamina for the race ahead.
John Wesley came to America because he visualized himself a missionary to the Indians of Georgia. He returned to England a miserable failure, disheartened, discouraged, ready to give up. Then out of that fiery trial, even out of that failure, John Wesley received a vision that sparked revival throughout the entire church world.
The Bible declares: "I will bring [them] . . . through the fire, . . . and will try them as gold is tried" (Zechariah 13:9).
THE FINISHING TOUCHES
Do you ever ask yourself, what really makes a life beautiful? A good question, Isn’t it.
Surely we know it isn’t money that makes life beautiful. The rich, too, are plagued with ulcers, nervous disorders, alcoholism, and unhappiness.
Success doesn’t necessarily make life beautiful. Executives, starlets, athletic champions-these~ too, drink cups of bitterness.
Really, when you get right down to it, only God the Master Potter can beautify our lives. It is He who must give us those finishing touches that make for real living.
After the clay has been prepared. after the vessel has been formed, after the fire has made it strong, then the Master picks up the brush and adds color-color as beautiful as the rainbow, soft as a rising sun.
But God wanted Jeremiah to learn yet another lesson on his visit to the potter’s house. This time Jeremiah is commanded to take a potter’s vessel, one that has been finished and baked in the fire, one that has been made beautiful in color. Our impression is that this vessel can never be changed. It is not like the other vessel that had been marred but was still soft and workable.
God, through Jeremiah, pronounces judgment upon the people because "they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words" (19:15). At the conclusion of these words of judgment, Jeremiah breaks the potter’s vessel to tiny fragments on the rocks. And God said: "Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again" (Jeremiah 19:11).
I have heard the crash of those broken vessels - heard them in the cemetery, littered with the fragments of last chance and squandered opportunity, heard them in the tragedies of sin that has overtaken men and women in the prime of life.
I have good news. God the Master Potter can pick up the pieces and remake your broken vessel anew. Regardless of your past sins or neglects or failures, the precious vessel of life can be transformed and remolded and refashioned through repentance and faith. In a single moment of time, the marred failures of a lifetime can be transformed.
CONCLUSION
Clay people? Earthen vessels? Created from dust and returning to dust? Yes! But you can have this treasure of eternal salvation just for the asking. You belong to God. From the Old ’Testament the lord says: "All souls are mine" (Ezekiel 18:4).
God is not searching for golden vessels, or silver vessels, or ornamental vessels, but He is searching for clean vessels to fill with His Spirit and power.
The good news is that the Master Potter can pick up the pieces and make your broken life anew.
Amen
