Potter + Clay
I’ve been known for my stubbornness. Maybe you have a stubborn streak too.
Maybe our stubbornness isn’t life-or-death-level serious, but sometimes I wonder if we are losing parts of our lives because of our stubbornness.
What are we missing out on, holding ourselves back from, or where are we fighting against what God wants?
I've been reading through Jeremiah slowly, sometimes just a single verse, rarely a whole chapter at a time, but recently I was in Jeremiah 18. I went through my usual steps of reading the passage, finding words that stand out, looking up definitions, tracing cross-references and then, writing out some of the verses, recording thoughts and feelings that came up, and then working on application. I almost missed something sweet God had for me in all of that work. And so, I hope as we read it, look at it, feel it, and apply it—He will reveal something sweet to you like He did for me.
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.
Jeremiah 18:1-8
There are quite a few instances in scripture having to do with the potter and the clay. I couldn't include them all but, you've heard the analogy before.
“But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.”
Isaiah 64:8 ESV
God is the Potter, we are the clay.
I'd even argue that we started out as clay—or rather, dust.
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Genesis 2:7 ESV
Before we were even moldable clay, we were dry dirt on the ground. Material scooped up for His use.
4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand…
Jeremiah 18:4 ESV
Some translations say "marred" or "flawed.” It's the same word "spoiled" that's in Jeremiah 13 with the loincloth—remember? "And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing."
The clay was seemingly ruined. Good for nothing.
If you knew nothing about pottery, you'd probably think, “it's over.” Once it's ruined, it's ruined. There's no going back.
But we know a little bit about pottery, don't we? Whether we had a toy pottery wheel at home or we participated in elementary school art class, we’ve seen how pottery wheels work.
4 and he reworked it into another vessel…
Jeremiah 18:4 ESV
It's common on a potter's wheel to start over. It's common to rework the clay. It's common to adjust along the way.
I doubt there's a project that starts on a potter's wheel that goes according to plan from start to finish. It's too delicate a process.
But here's where I almost missed it...
I know reworking happens. But once it's been ruined, it can't be good again, right?
I'm sure you've all been caught in a moment of ruin.
Something changed, someone left, someone lied, you lost your job, you got a diagnosis, or an unexpected phone call that changed everything.
You just want to go back to not knowing about it.
You want it to go back to normal.
You want it to be good again.
You know you can't go back in time. You can't take it back. You can't get it back. You can't get them back. You can't go back.
And you can't imagine a world where you will see good again.
4 and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
Jeremiah 18:4 ESV
"as. it. seemed. good."
That jumped off the page for me.
I was just telling God the night before that I didn't think it could be good again. It felt forever ruined.
But the Potter can rework it for good.
It's won't be the same—it can't be. But it can be good.
It's a grace of God to offer to rework it.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done?'“ declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
Jeremiah 18:5-6 ESV
He is the Potter. We are the clay.
I think one of the many encouraging parts of this passage is the clay was always in the Potter’s hands. It was messed up while in His hands. There wasn't a moment the clay was out of His hand.
We are in the care and control of the Potter.
The trick is: the clay has to yield to the hand of the Potter.
If the clay doesn't yield to the sculpting, it's ruined. If the clay fights the shaping, it's ruined.
But the ruin can be reworked. The Potter doesn't throw it out. He reworks it. The shaping begins again.
The clay yields to something new.
How many of you have resisted something God was doing in your life?
A decision, a relationship, a move, a degree, a job, an attitude...
It was uncomfortable at the least and miserable at best.
But we are not literally clay pots. We have feelings. We are human. And so, sculpting hurts.
A girl from my small group and I were talking about the Maverick City song "Refiner,” and how you gotta watch out singing that one because it hurts. Some of the lyrics say: "You're a Fire, The Refiner...Burn me beautiful, burn me lovely..."
Fire burns. It hurts. When you are burnt badly, you will never look the same. You will have new marks and scars.
That's the reworking.
If you've ever been in a waiting season, you're being shaped.
If you've prayed and prayed, but God says "no" or "not yet," you're being shaped.
If you've had to forgive someone who never apologized, you're being shaped.
If you've had to let go of one dream in a season for another dream, you're being shaped.
If you've lived paycheck to paycheck wondering how you'll make it work, you're being shaped.
If you've made it one month into the new year and already received bad news, you're being shaped.
The extent to which you resist the shaping is a good indicator of how long you'll be hurting.
And I don't mean the good hurt where we can see past the pain to the better purpose. I mean the kind of hurt that we experience when we go against God's hand.
There is a pain that comes before repentance...
7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
Jeremiah 18:7-8 ESV
Repentance can feel like such a big, churchy word, but it just means we turn away from what we were doing and we turn toward God.
When we yield to the Potter's hand, it often means we are repenting. Turning from what we want, and turning into His hand.
We have a choice. We get to choose how we respond. If we choose to turn to God, His automatic response is grace.
Repentance can always change God's plan of judgment.
God always offers repentance. It's always on the table.
This passage may cause us to think that God changes his mind similar to how we can be flippant and change our minds. But we know in scripture:
"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind."
Numbers 23:19 ESV
His mind is always set to grant grace when people repent. It's a given.
When He relents, it's not a change of mind but a consistent response according to His nature when we change our response.
In other words, it's His unchangeable nature to pour out grace when we turn from sin.
He will always do it.
You will never turn to Him and He turn away from you. Never.
So when we choose to yield to His hand, He honors that, and can accomplish His plan—even if it means a reworking.
But, you have to be soft to be shaped. If you're hard, and you go up against something hard, you break.
In the next chapter of Jeremiah he describes the judgment of God in this way (because they don't repent, if you keep reading chapter 18)…
10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended.
Jeremiah 19:10-11 ESV
A clay pot is still a clay pot. It's fragile.
If we move past being soft and moldable, and we dig our heels in, resist the molding, we will harden up. And ultimately we break.
It is so tempting for me, and probably for some of you, to harden when circumstances change in our lives.
I know what they've said to you. I know how it feels.
I know it hurts when a dream dies or gets shelved.
I know when they left, you felt inadequate.
I know the feeling when you're trapped in a cycle of sin.
I know when you feel out of control.
I know when the future seems hopeless—that it's easier to just shut it out and shut down. Easier to harden. But we've got to learn to stay soft toward His hand in those moments.
We will only break if we don't.
Why does it even matter?
#1 - You're valuable
You aren't an addition. You aren't a throw-away. You aren't scraps in a scrap pile.
Each shape you take has function and value. Each reworking brings about something new. Each time He shaves something off, you can do more.
If you weren't valuable, He would've just tossed you aside.
If you weren't valuable, He wouldn't put the time in to shape you.
If you weren't valuable, He wouldn't give you the choice to turn to Him.
#2 - You carry a valuable message.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV
We all carry this treasure.
He chose us to carry it. He didn't have to.
Each of you has a specific job to carry the Gospel to your world.
Each of you was chosen for the task.
Each of you has a part to play in the mission.
8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
2 Corinthians 4:8-12 ESV
#3 - You will be shaped.
Shaped not crushed.
Shaped not driven to despair.
Shaped not forsaken.
Shaped not destroyed.
Some of you just need to hear what I needed to hear:
What feels ruined is not final.
Ruin can be reworked.
And what's reworked can be good again.
