The Potter and the Clay
- 18:2 “there I will reveal My message” - another object lesson
- 18:4 “formed it into another vessel” - plan B. Our sin does real
harm to God’s plans for us, “Against Thee only have I sinned.”
Psalm 51:4 But at the
same time, God always works everything to His glory.
- 18:6 “like clay in the potter’s hands” - “Do I not have the right to do as I
please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
Matthew 20:16
- 18:8 “then I will relent of the disaster” - “I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy”
Exodus 33:19
- 18:11 “shaping disaster against you” - the same Hebrew root as a
a potter shaping or forming clay.
- 18:12 “it is hopeless” - i.e. “stop wasting your breath, we will
do what we want.”
- 18:13 “who among the Gentiles” - has ever heard of such foolishness.
- 18:16 “appalled and shake their heads” - astonishment at the stupidity
of the nation to bring such destruction on themselves. They rejected
their prophet, but it took no prophet for the Gentiles to see it
coming a mile away.
- 18:17 “show them My back and not My face” - a withdrawal of
the priestly blessing, “make His face to shine upon you”.
Numbers 6:24-26
- 18:18 “let us denounce him” - just like today, the media makes
accusations against those who don’t support the narrative.
- 18:20 “how I stood before You” - Jeremiah is starting to see why
God told him not to bother praying for Judah.
- 18:21 “hand their children over to famine …” - all prophesied disasters,
but now Jeremiah feels they deserve them.
- 18:23 “do not blot out their sin” - and yet, God will have mercy
at his own discretion. “I, yes I, am He who blots out your
transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.”
Isaiah 43:25