The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Come, 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. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
Jeremiah 18:1-11, a segment that extends to verse 12, has Jeremiah at the house of the potter. A large part of this passage deals with the flexibility of the will of the Lord. The Lord is interactive with history and therefore with the decisions individuals and nations make in that history. The Lord responds to the actions of human beings. 1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Come, go down to the potter’s (yotzer) 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 becomes a keen observer of both the potter and of the situation in Judah. The meaning of the passage hinges on the rich image of the potter as symbolic of the creative activity of God in the world. 4 The vessel he was making (yatzar) of clay was spoiled (shachat, which can mean, “to be ruined, marred or spoiled,” but can also mean, “To be corrupted or perverted”) in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. He went to the house and saw the potter working at his wheel. We are to imagine a stone wheel here. The pottery wheels of Iron Age Israel were not kick wheels exactly. They were two thick stone disks that sat upon each other. The bottom stone had a conical protrusion in the middle that fit into a larger conical recess in the bottom of the stone above. In this way, the bottom stone stayed stationary and the potter could rotate the top stone either with the feet or with one hand. Given the weight of the stones, making a pot required that the potter use his whole body, surrounding the stones and the clay with both arms and likely both feet as well. It is an image of complete physical and mental absorption in a task. Further, the potter is one who takes the most common and worthless elements of the earth, the clay itself, and transforms it into something functional, valuable, and even beautiful. The fashioning of potter is one of the oldest achievements of human culture. Pottery is one of the first cultural materials used for artistic expression. The point is the artistic skill needed by the potter.
Let us consider the kind of “making” that in which the potter finds himself engaged. The word applies to both human and divine activity. In fact, the Old Testament applies it to God more often than it does to humans. It describes God who “created/formed” the universe and its inhabitants (Genesis 2:7-8; 19; Psalm 33:15; 74:17; 94:9; 95:5; 104:26; Isaiah 27:11; 43:1, 7, 10, 21; 44:21; 45:7, 9, 12, 18; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:16; 51:19; Amos 4:13; 7:1; Zechariah 12:1). The Old Testament also uses it to describe how God takes human tissue and “shapes” or “creates” it into a person in the womb (Isaiah 44:2, 24; 49:5). In fact, Jeremiah uses the term to describe his own “creation” as a prophet of God from the womb (Jeremiah 1:5). In addition to the basic meaning, however, yatzar is also used to describe God’s devising of the cosmic plan for human history (II Kings 19:25; Isaiah 22:11; 37:26; 46:11; Jeremiah 18:11; 33:2; Psalm 139:16). Thus, the image of the potter is a very intimate image portraying the creating work of God in the world. It implies that God is thinking, planning, and devising that which God wishes to create. It implies that God’s own hand is upon the creation, as the potter’s own hand shapes the clay. It implies that God’s work is as near and personal and intimate as the unseen force that shapes human tissue into a human child. The potter whom Jeremiah visits, then, is not just an artisan forming a clay jar. His every thought, his every physical action can be interpreted as an earthly re-enactment of how God labors over the divine creative work in us to transform us from inert matter into valued and beautiful examples of the creative power of the Lord. We find this image in other scripture: Job 10:9; 33:6; Isaiah 29:16; 45:9-10; 64:8; Romans 9:20-21; Revelation 2:27. The image of the clay and the potter as a metaphor for humanity and God does not confine itself to Jeremiah. Isaiah uses this image as well (45:9-10). Contained in the use of the image in both Jeremiah and Isaiah, however, is the acceptance of the premise that a creation is, by definition, less powerful than its creator is. Such thinking is the basis for the critique Isaiah had of the religions of Mesopotamia that employed cultic statuary made by human artisans. The fact that a human being created an object implied that it could have no more power than a human being possessed (Isaiah 44:12-20). This premise implies for Jeremiah that the potter who makes the vessel also determines its destiny.
This idea, presented in brief here, is the primary message of the prophet Jeremiah to his era. He served in Jerusalem under the growing shadow of the Babylonian advance that would eventually destroy Judah. He was also, however, a descendant of the priests at Anathoth (Jeremiah 1:1), formerly of Shiloh, whose corruption led to their ouster from YHWH’s service and the destruction of the shrine they maintained. Because of this bitter family experience, Jeremiah continuously urged his contemporaries, who trusted too strongly in God’s love for Jerusalem as his temple city, to turn from corruptions such as idolatry and child sacrifice, which had become common among them (Jeremiah 7:3-32). Living in the shadow of the temple, he argued, was not sufficient to make one immune to God’s wrath in the face of religious corruption. Only if they would turn from their evil practices would God be inclined to grant them mercy and save them from the destruction that seemed virtually inevitable.
The potter not only shapes the vessel, but he also plans for its use. The potter can also make plans for its destruction. In other words, there is no destiny for Judah apart from that which its potter God has devised for it. If God decides that the chosen people are corrupted, the Lord may well revise the original plan of grace for them and determine that they need to be reduced and reworked into a new, more chastened version of themselves. The Lord can make that decision as quickly and as easily as a potter might make the decision to cave in a crooked pot and start over again, having reduced the pot to its original lump of clay.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. When we reflect upon the omnipresence and omnipotence of the Lord, God has the right, like a potter, to throw away imperfect vessels.[1] The clay in the hand of the potter becomes an illustration of what Judah is like in the hand of the Lord. This image stresses that human life is in the presence of the creator, who interacts freely with what the Lord is creating.
Therefore,[2] 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. According to this sequence, then, it is Judah's decision to choose either obedience or disobedience that will determine God's response. Judah's future lies in God's hands. Judah herself will determine which course of action the divine potter will take. We learn here that the point of the story is not so much the patience of the potter in working with clay, but the fact that clay can frustrate the intentions of the potter, and the potter may need to adjust.[3] We see here, that the faith of Israel never entertained the thought of accusing the Creator with evil that had come into creation. True, humanity was responsible. Yet, it was also because the creature has no right to make itself the judge of the creative action of God, as we find in this passage [4] God repents in that God has mobility and elasticity no less than constancy. Therefore, God can repent of having promised to help or judge in diverse ways. God can retract a promised action. However, God cannot repent of being who God is.[5]11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping (yoser, same word for “potter”) evil against you and devising a plan against you. This play on words intentionally ties together God's identity and God's plan of action. If God is a judging God, God judges; if God is a redeeming God, God redeems; if God is a potter God, God prepares the clay, either turning out a new, unblemished creation or crushing the clay down, transforming its present shape and form. The potter God is even now spinning the potter's wheel, waiting to see how the clay will respond. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
I am no artist. I do remember as a child taking putty in my hands, and trying to fashion an animal or another object that others might recognize. The soft and pliable material makes it quite easy to make mistakes and quite easy to correct them.
Human life also has a pliable character to it. Our parents and community shape us in subtle ways. Further experiences of life also will also shape us in ways of which we are aware and not quite so aware. Our openness to people and to experience is part of what makes us such unpredictable persons.
If I think about it even briefly, I might think of some experiences I would just as soon put completely behind me. I might wish that God could simply remove them from my life. Yet, I also realize that those experiences have also shaped the person I am today. God is so patient. The image I have is that of God personally involved in our lives, using all the experiences of our lives to shape it and mold it, in such a way that God coaxes a new form of life out of us. God is that faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful to God. Even when we soil our lives morally and spiritually, God takes us as we are and, if we are open to the ways of God in our lives, God will shape us into new persons. Of course, that takes willingness to make a turn in our lives toward God. God keeps re-working, re-claiming, and re-cycling our lives. In the end, even the broken portions of our lives can become something beautiful for God.
I am not sure of your spiritual condition today. You may need a complete turn-around in your life. For some of us, we have made that turn, but other places in our lives have gotten out of shape. We need to turn around as well, but more focused in certain areas of our lives. Regardless of the turning around we need today, it can be a tough move to make.
As the old hymn goes:
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
We are not so good at waiting -- let alone remaining "yielded and still." We want to make and mold our own lives, instead of allowing God to make and mold us. We want to have our own way, not the way of the divine potter. However, following our own way can leave us in the ditch.
In a sense, we need to get to the Potter's House. Jeremiah found his way to the house of the potter. I would like to use that image. We need to find our way the divine Potter’s House.
First, the path to the Potter's House begins with learning the right address. At this location, God is not expecting us to show up in some kind of perfect final form, nor is God waiting to jump on us and smash us for our sins. No, God lovingly and patiently shapes us into the people he wants us to be. At this address, God permits us to be works in progress.
Second, we need to make a right turn. A word that appears repeatedly in this passage from Jeremiah is "turn." God speaks of a nation that "turns from its evil" (v. 8) and calls for Israel to "Turn now, all of you from your evil way" (v. 11). God also says, "I will change my mind" about a nation that turns from its evil (v. 8), and "I will change my mind" about a nation that turns toward evil (v. 10). This language of turning and changing is the language of molding and making. Nothing is fixed; everything is changing.
Third, when you get there, allow the potter to work with your clay as he chooses. As you turn toward the Potter's House, allow yourselves to be shaped and reshaped.
- Don't worry about what shape you are in now; the potter can reshape you.
- Don't fixate on the flaws of the past; the potter can purify you.
- Don't stress about wrong turns you have made in the past; the potter can help you move in a new direction.
In the Potter's House, you are ever-changing clay in the divine potter's hand.
Amend your ways. Amend your doings. Allow the divine potter to make you and mold you, according to the divine will. Open yourself to the Holy Spirit filling you, until -- as the old hymn says -- all shall see "Christ only, always, living in me."
Such transformation is painful because we like our own ways. We prefer our own doings. Waiting for God and yielding to God run counter to our daily routines. Yet, unless we find the potter's address, we will never be shaped into the people God wants us to be. We will end up being less loving, graceful, hopeful, connected and content than we could be. We will never experience the truly abundant and everlasting life that we could enjoy.
To take these reflections a step further, I would like us to consider why change in a human life can be so difficult. We can rarely say, “Just do it” and have it lead to meaningful change. We can rarely “just stop it,” as if we are turning off the water from the faucet. Human change is rarely easy.
First, we have difficulty in learning to trust. Psychologist Erik Erikson says that the earliest lesson we need to learn in psychological development is that of trust, in which we become open to our world and trust that the needs we have as infants and toddlers will be met. This basic openness to other people, and eventually to God, is central to our development as human beings. Yet, trust can be so hard for us to understand and live.
Someone sent the following letter to Dear Abby:
"I am a 23-year-old liberated woman who has been on the pill for two years. It's getting pretty expensive and I think my boyfriend should share half the cost, but I don't know him well enough to discuss money with him."[6]
How sad. Let me say to young people, please, respect yourself and your body more than that. It takes a great deal of trust to enter sexual relations with another human being. Of course, that message is for us all. Do not treat yourself or your body in such a careless way. We may need to re-learn what it means to trust God enough so that God can shape us into the persons God wants us to be.
Second, any kind of change is a huge challenge for us. Even when we know that a change, a move, a journey to a new moral and ethical climate would be good for us, we resist this course of action. Resistance: It is part of the psychology of change. No matter how much we long for changes in our lives, every change has its melancholy dimension, for we are leaving behind part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another.[7] As much as we may want to make changes in these areas, we know that our repentance will leave us feeling deflated. When we turn away from such sensual delights, we leave behind a part of ourselves. In short, we do not repent, because ― we do not want to, really. That is it. We do not want to; we do not feel like it. Let us admit it. Sin, rebellion, control, can be fun. We do not want to give it up. Therefore, we do not.
Third, we are afraid of the unknown. To do an about-face and head in a completely new direction ― which is, at heart, the core meaning of repentance ― is a truly daunting proposition. After traveling on one path for weeks or months or years, it can be disorienting and frightening to spin around and move in a radically different direction. Launching out into unfamiliar territory is fearful. We may wonder what our lives would really be like if we were passionate about our worship. How would our lives change if we became radical about our hospitality? What would be different about our lives if we took intentional faith development seriously? Taking risks in our service and mission is not easy course to take. What would happen if we re-organize our finances so that we can be extravagant in our generosity?
Yet, while we fear the unknown, we often come to a point where we become tired of the pattern our lives weave. We become weary of a life of gossip, a life of materialism, a life of laziness, a life of anger, a life of arrogance, or a life of pleasure. We tire of our weakness. We long for redemption. We would like a new and fresh start. Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger calls this the “misery index.” Sadly, this is the reason we often change. We wait until things gets so bad that we almost have to change. In the case of Kissinger, when it came to his negotiations in the Middle East, he argued that people would come to the table when the cost of conflict becomes too high. Too many of us are that way. Please, do not wait to make the changes that you may even now sense you need to make.
I invite you to take a turn toward the place where God will remold you. Do not allow dirt roads and dry riverbeds to distract you from the course. Keep turning away from evil and toward Jesus Christ. Let yourself be shaped into a person who is right with God and right with neighbors -- one who shows Jesus to the world.
There is no better address than the Potter’s House. At the Potter’s House, we come to the table, the potter’s wheel, when we understand that the cost of living in sin, ineptitude, misery and despair is too high, and that only a reworking, refashioning at the hands of the Master Potter will work to turn our lives around. Fortunately, God is ready and eager to take:
what is broken and fix it,
what is wounded and heal it,
what is defiled and cleanse it,
what is bitter and sweeten it,
what is impure and purify it,
what is incomplete and make it whole.
what is ugly and turn it into something that is beautiful.
Songwriter Bill Gaither puts it this way:
Something beautiful, something good!
All my confusion He understood!
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife,
but He made something beautiful out of my life!
With God, there is no waste. The power of God can transform anyone and anything.
We are the creations that God has chosen to advance the will and purpose of God on earth, the understandable signs of the desire of God to invent new solutions to the problems that arise in the course of human history. It really does not make sense for us to resist the changes that God is making as God recycles us so that we can accomplish the purpose God for our lives. If you really want to make a difference in this world, get in line with what God wants in your life. When God recycles, there is never any waste. Only forgiven and reinvented people who are good and useful and pleasing both to God and to others.
[1]
[2] Some scholars think verses 7-10 are part of a commentary on the original potter lesson in verses 1-6 by a scholar influenced by the school around Deuteronomy. Even if that is so, the verses are incredibly close to the insight contained in the pottery lesson.
[3] Barth Church Dogmactics, III.1 [40] 37.
[4] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 2, 163.
[5] Church Dogmatics II.1 [31.2] 497-8.
[6] --Abigail Van Buren, The Best of Dear Abby (Kansas City: Andrews & McMeel, 1981), 242.
[7] French writer Anatole France wrote, “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.”
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