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Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this Wednesday,
Stand in the nursery of a hospital or a church and look at the cribs with young babies. All beautiful, each unique and distinctive, all with full lives out ahead of them. Have you ever thought much about the development process that God is working in each person all through their lives, especially those who fully yield their lives to God’s Lordship and leadership?
Here’s one more question: how close do you think you are to the person God had in HIS mind for you to be at this moment in your life?
Join me please back in Jerusalem about 2600 years ago as we accompany the prophet Jeremiah as he visits a special place by God’s direction. The story is found in Jeremiah 18. Let’s dig in… “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Go down to the potter’s house and there I will give you, My message.’ So, I went down to the potter’s house and I saw him working at the pottery wheel. But the pot the potter was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so, the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jer. 18:1-4)
Because Jeremiah was several times directed by God to use pots as part of the proclamation of God’s messages (Jer. 19:1) I presume Jeremiah knew this potter and as Jeremiah came to the potter’s workshop that day, I assume Jeremiah simply explained that God had sent him to watch the potter at work because God was going to give Jeremiah a message while he watched the potter work.
Have you ever spent much time at the potter’s wheel? It’s a fascinating process of taking soft clay and while pumping with his feet, the wheel turns and the potter’s wet hands shape the clay on the wheel, into something wonderful and useful.
But sometimes a flaw in the clay, or a squeeze by the hands of the potter results in a need to refashion the clay into something drastically different from the shape it is in at that moment. That reshaping process can be harsh, even traumatic as sometimes the potter simply scoops the clay off the wheel and smushes it back into a ball to start all over.
Pull up a chair friends, let’s watch this Jerusalem potter shaping a new pot and occasionally let’s look at Jeremiah to see if we can discern what he is thinking, if he’s hearing anything from God? Jeremiah continues his record of this event: “Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. He said, ‘Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?…Like clay in the hand of the potter so are you in My hands, Israel…” (Jer.18:5-10) And, in the next verses, God went on to explain to Jeremiah that like the potter working the clay developing it into a particular shape, so God had been working the people of Israel, since the days of Abraham, to shape His people into a unique nation of God’s people, a model for all nations of the world to see what it is like when a people worship and follow God wholeheartedly and faithfully.
And through Israel’s long history there had been many seasons of time when Israel flourished, God blessed them and nurtured them into a glorious people with impact and influence worldwide. Sadly, there were other times when God’s people were stubborn, hard hearted, still necked and rebellious.
In those seasons Israel defamed the great name of God and because of God’s great love for them and His purpose to be honored and glorified by them, God was forced to discipline them, reshaping them even with painful force, like the potter’s wheel.
God had used His prophets to teach the people God’s truth, give them God’s guidance and even God’s rebuke on occasion. God had used His Kings to lead His people, but sometimes those kings led the people in rebellion against God and so God had to respond with discipline or even judgment against His kings!
As Jeremiah watched, the potter had to be very firm with the clay as though sometimes the clay was refusing to yield to the potter’s shaping hand. Jeremiah discerned God speaking to him as he watched the potter: “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem: ‘This is what the LORD says: Look I am preparing a disaster for you! I am devising a plan against you. So, turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.” (Jer. 18:11)
I imagine Jeremiah’s heart grew very heavy. His messages so often were warnings from God regarding approaching disaster. Oh, how Jeremiah wished he was given good news from God to share with the people, but just like that reluctant lump of clay on the potter’s wheel, so the people of Israel for so very long had been reluctant and resistant to God’s Words through His prophets and even disobedient and rebellious at times.
My friends, does that sound like us, people all around the world who claim to be Christians or at least religious? Are we too often reluctant to hear God and resistant to what we sense God is saying to us? Are we even sometimes rebellious, turning away from God’s Words and pursuing our own plans and purposes and maybe even embracing passionately other priorities which are actually in opposition to God’s desires for His people?
Jeremiah heard another word from God as he watched the potter and pondered the frightening warning God had told him to bring to the people of Jerusalem. “But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.” (Jer. 18:12) Oh how Jeremiah must have grieved when God predicted how Israel would respond to Jeremiah’s message about the potter and the clay!
God continued His prediction to Jeremiah about the future days: “My people have forgotten Me; they burn incense to worthless idols…their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads. Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their disaster!” (Jeremiah 18:15-17)
It must have made Jeremiah shudder as he contemplated God’s message for the people of Jerusalem about 598bc! If you know history, not only did God’s prediction happen soon after Jeremiah’s message, it happened multiple times over the next centuries and for nearly 2000 years, from the time the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70ad till the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948 generations of people have been appalled and shaken their heads at the devastation of the land and the scattering of the Jews to the farthest corners of the world.
So, I invite us to sit for a while and watch the potter only this time let’s make it personal. Psalm 139 tells us God shaped and formed us in our mother’s womb and has watched over each of us, each of us since that day. God has been developing us and refining us according to His perfect design for each of us.
The questions we need to ask ourselves are very significant, aren’t they?
* Have I been cooperating with God as He has been working to refine me, develop me into His design for me, or have I resisted? (Philippians 1:6)
* Am I now, at this stage in my life, yielding myself every day to the loving, refining hands of God as He works all circumstances and relationships in my life to refine me for HIS glory? (Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11,12)
Now let’s ponder those questions and others the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, as we worship with this song…
Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 18:1-18.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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