The Marvelous Potter
“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” - Jeremiah 18:2
Today let's meditate about the Marvelous Potter. All of us have gone through troubling experiences in life. But sometimes one may ask: What is God doing in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our disappointments and in the midst of our shattered dreams? In Jeremiah 18, the prophet Jeremiah was asked to go into the potter’s house. “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make”. - Jeremiah 18:1-4. This scripture is a reference to the nation of Israel. Jeremiah explains the meaning in the next verses. But today, let us look at this passage from God’s standpoint and our standpoint, and what God is doing in our lives, and what it’s like to be a vessel in the potter’s house.
We will meditate on four elements to this passage, which will help us to understand God’s message for us. The first element into the Marvelous potter is the potter himself.
I. The Magnificent Potter
In this scripture verse, the potter is God. Look at a potter that you might find in Israel. He is so intent on what he is doing, and he has a plan in mind. He has a good idea of what this vessel is going to look like, and he determines whether it’s going to be a flowerpot, whether it’s going to be a water pot, whether or not it will have handles, or how big it will be. All of that is in his mind as he works purposefully. The magnificent potter works purposefully.
Some evolutionists argue that he is working blindly and throwing things together or things just happened by chance. But there is a plan. And there is a plan that God has for your life. Keep in mind that God has a purpose in what He is putting you through, because He sees you in a way that you do not see in yourself. He has a plan in mind. He is working purposefully.
Also understand that God, the potter, is working patiently. The Magnificent Potter works patiently. When we watch a potter, he goes through various motions as he is looking at that vessel. The vessel may seem good to us. But it is not yet good for him and he’s taking his time. He does not want to sacrifice beauty for speed, so he continues to work. The Divine Potter sometimes works in this way. We sometimes would like to be able to put our problems through an assembly line. “Do it quickly, God. Do it in a few weeks. Do it in a couple of months. Surely not years!” But understand, God is working patiently.
And the Magnificent Potter works authoritatively. Yet some still try to point out from their own eyes that many potters can have a mixture of success as well as failure, because to them the vessel is not turning out the way it was intended. So naturally, many people try to question God; saying, “Does God ever fail? Does He intend to do something and want to do something or is He blocked because of our stubbornness?”
There are two ways that we must view this. First of all, let us understand that God’s hidden purpose is always achieved. There’s no doubt that He works on all things according to His own will, and the will that you and I do not see. Know that there is so much that we see that we do not understand. And we cannot understand God’s purposes. That hidden will is always achieved. “He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand. Or say to Him, “What have You done?” - Daniel 4:35. His eternal, hidden will is always achieved and is perfect.
But also in another sense or way, His visible purposes here on this earth are sometimes wanted by us. It is by a hardness of heart, by our rebellion, by our failure to take human responsibility. So that’s the other side of this coin. Lets take for example the people’s demand and want for a King. But we know that the potter sits there working, he is working authoritatively because he has an end in mind.
II. The Moving Wheel
Well let’s move on to the next element; the wheel. Look at the verse 3, “And he was working at his wheel,”- Jeremiah 18:3, He was making a vessel on the wheel. So, what is the wheel? The wheel represents real life experiences. It represents the constant motion of our lives. Understand, when making a vessel, the wheels have to be in constant motion. If a potter’s wheel slows down or stops, the vessel will lose its shape. Our life does not stop, it does not slow down, nor does it go backwards. And the potter is working in our lives through two different ways.
The first way is by circumstances. God brings circumstances into our lives and the Bible says that, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. - Romans 8:28. All things work together for good. All the circumstances of life, including your struggles with your health, struggles within your family, or struggles within your work life, work together for good. It says in the Old Testament, regarding Joseph (when he was exalted and next to Pharaoh,),“And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was exalted in Egypt.” Gen.39:2. And then he became falsely accused. Then he was thrown into prison. And then it says, “And the Lord was with Joseph when he was in prison.” Gen. 39:21. May I say to you today that God is with us in our promotions, but He is also with us in our demotions? The potter’s wheel uses both. He uses health as well as sickness. He also uses not only circumstances but also people.
God can use people to teach us and to mold us. If we were to look at that potter, as we would see the clay spinning around on his wheel. But we can also notice that he has a knife, and he is using that knife very carefully so that the excess clay will come off. That is the exact same way in which God tests and develops us. But you know, the vessel has no right to tell the Potter, “You can’t use that person or that circumstance. You cannot use that knife to mold me” You have no right to do that. The Potter can use whomever he wishes.
Let us look into the life of the Apostle Paul. The Potter used a messenger of Satan to trouble Paul and to give him the thorn in the flesh. And in the case of Joseph, which we spoke about earlier, God used his brothers to sell him to Egypt. His brothers were the wheels that God used to produce within him Christ-like character, because that’s what God is after. And indeed, the Bible says that all things work together for good. That’s the wheel.
Here's a short story some of you may know. There was once a very wise Chinese man. He had a son and a horse. That was all that he had. But one day his son accidentally let the horse out of the barn, and so the horse ran away. So this man’s friends gathered together and they said, “We want to sympathize with you over the bad thing that happened.” And the man said, “How do you know that this is bad?”
The next day the horse returned and brought 10 wild horses with it. All of his friends gathered together and they said, “We want to celebrate with you regarding the good thing that happened to you?” He said, “How do you know that this is good?”
His son was trying to tame one of the new horses and the horse threw him off and the boy broke his leg. Everybody gathered around and said, “We want to comfort you regarding the bad that has happened.” And he said, “How do you know that it is bad?”
The next day soldiers were coming through the countryside looking for young men to draft for the war, and his son was exempt because he had a broken leg.
As Christians we should not make superficial judgments. All things work together for good to them that love God. That is a wheel which God places us on. It is in constant motion and when we look back behind that wheel, God is right there molding us.
III. The Molded Vessel
“He was working at his wheel (Jeremiah 18:4) and the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand.” The potter’s house has many different vessels and clay pieces. But some vessels will resist the potter. Possibly it has some lumps within it. As if this vessel was rebelling against what the potter wanted to do, and these lumps were creating difficulty. The lumps showed a lack of symmetry. Symmetry is very, very important to the potter, and as a result, the vessel was spoiled. By this analogy, the text teaches us through our human side of wanting to mold ourselves, we are rebelling against God, rebelling against His intentions, rebelling against His plan, and so you find that we are standing against God rather than submitting to God. And the vessel is lumpy, and the vessel does not have symmetry but is spoiled in the potter’s hands.
Let’s look, for example, in the Old Testament at King Saul. God gifted King Saul. He was good-looking, he was taller than all of the other people, and he seemed to even have humility. Saul had the gift of being a prophet. He was able to win victories and yet he was filled with pride as he decided to mold himself. And think of how he ended. He ended without God’s blessing. He ended up trying to keep the Kingdom, which God took away from him.
There are some people on this earth that think they know better than God. They think they know better than God about the path that they should take in life, but they keep bumping into one big obstacle after another. God keeps taking them through one circumstance after another, and they are spoiled in the Potter’s hands because they will not submit to His authority. “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.”- Jeremiah 18:4.
Now what happens to a piece of clay that becomes lumpy and does not fit together according to the potter’s will? Does the potter toss it out? No, the potter very patiently takes that lump and squishes it and continues to mold it again. There is no such thing as being tossed away from the hands of God. But there is such a thing as brokenness, or taking our lives and reordering them, taking our agendas, and making them quite different, or bringing into our lives to that which we could never anticipate. And God does that because He is after something. He wants to reshape us and remake us into another vessel.
We look again at the Scriptures for examples. Let's look at the life of Abraham who was a pagan in Ur of the Chaldeans. God called Abraham. Abraham had lumps for he was a pagan. But what does the Potter do? The Potter continues to work with Abraham so that, as he goes through his life, the more sanctified he becomes, the more truthful he be comes, and the more faith he begins to have because the Potter worked in Abraham’s life and remade him.
Look at the life of David with all of his potential and all of his love for God, and all of his sin of murder and adultery. But even though he had committed those sins, God was still not finished with him. Though he was marred, in the Potter’s hand, God remakes him into another vessel. God brings about a spirit of repentance, even though David’s consequences continued and the impact of his sin reached future generations. But the fact is that as for David himself, Psalm 51 says, he was being remade into another vessel. “Renew within me a right spirit.” Psalm 51:10. God remakes spoiled vessels. I need to share with you today that God loves to remake spoiled vessels. In fact, there is more grace in God’s heart to do that than there is ability for you to confess your sin that it might be done. God’s grace outweighs our sins, and He loves to remake people as it pleases Him – in His shape and according to His will.
IV. The Mighty Furnace
Now what does God do after remaking and molding His vessels? He has this vessel which is symmetrical, and the lumps are out. Is it ready yet? No, it is not ready to be used. If a potter makes a water pot, and does not put it into the furnace to harden, it will become a cracked pot. So he takes this vessel that he has made, and he puts it in a furnace, and he knows exactly the temperature that the vessel needs, and how long the vessel has to be there. He has it all worked out according to his timer. And if the vessel could speak, it would shout, “No, this hurts.” But the vessel has to be there because the potter has something in mind.
And so what God does in our lives and says is, “I want to glaze you and decorate you, but I must put you through the fire first.” And we shout, “No, this is too much,” and God says, “I have My hand on the thermostat and I know what you can take. I know where you are at, but I also know what I am after.” And this is where we find ourselves frequently during our times of affliction, but it is there that God helps us. In fact, let's refer again to the life of Joseph, he says when he has his second son, “You have made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” - Gen.41:52. It is in the times of affliction – in the furnace – that we realize the dream and beauty of life.
Conclusion:
God is talking to you and giving you hope, and saying, “No matter where you find yourself, you submit yourself to the Potter and be willing to do whatever the Potter wants you to do, and God will remake you into a vessel as it pleases Him.” And that will be for your good and for His glory. Your good and the glory of God are directly tied together.
You can see this in the life of Peter in the New Testament. Peter was a vessel that needed to be remade. And after he committed his sin of saying that he didn’t know Jesus and denied Jesus, he deeply repented. And God remade him into the man that we admire today, who wrote two books of the New Testament and is prominent in spreading the Gospel and the first church, as it is given in the book of Acts. Peter was remade into a vessel as it pleased God.
The bottom line is this: Are you willing to submit to the Potter and to say, “Oh God, You are the Potter, and I am the clay. Thank You for using people. Thank You for using circumstances. Thank You for using disappointments and blessings that You might remake me into a vessel that pleases You.”
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” - 2 Cor. 5:17. So look to God at this moment and say to him: “Lord, here I am. Make me into whatever You want me to be. You are the Potter. I am clay in your hand.” Amen.
