Throwing Clay
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 18:1-11
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OBSERVE:
The Old Testament prophets were inclined to use concrete and sometimes very dramatic illustrations in their preaching. In this case, Jeremiah is instructed to watch a potter at work on his wheel. The pot that was being made collapsed in the potter’s hand and he remade the clay into a different form.
Jeremiah gets the point. The clay represents the house of Israel in the hands of their potter, the Lord. Israel is the passive object being shaped and worked by God for his own purposes.
As we see in the verses following today’s Lectionary Scripture passage, Israel is hankering after self-determination. They will hear Jeremiah’s words and declare:
“It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.” (Jeremiah 18:12).
In contrast, in the Scripture the Lord’s freedom to act as he chooses is axiomatic:
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.
The Lord points out that he can destroy a nation or a kingdom if he chooses — however, he grants nations and people the freedom to repent and turn from evil if they choose:
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. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 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.
God’s freedom is absolute — although it is based on his righteousness — whereas human freedom is completely contingent on God’s permission of freedom.
Ultimately, this is a call to repentance for Judah and Jerusalem before it is too late. The chain of cause and effect has already begun, but there is still time for them to turn. Jeremiah completes his metaphor:
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.
APPLY:
The imagery of the potter molding clay while spinning his wheel seems charming — except that Jeremiah doesn’t intend it to be a cozy sermon illustration.
The imagery of the potter and the clay is intended to convey the message of God’s absolute power in our lives. We belong to him, and he can shape us in whatever form he wishes, and use us for whatever purpose he designs.
However, Jeremiah also makes it clear that God’s compassion for us is such that he does offer the freedom to turn to him in repentance.
This is one of the key arguments against double-predestination (the notion that God destines some to salvation and some to condemnation). Jeremiah’s description of the clay and the potter supports the idea that all are given the opportunity to turn to God, even up until the last moment:
The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
RESPOND:
Those of us who have been to the beach, or even to a sandbox, may have had the experience of building a sandcastle, or some other structure of sand. I’ve watched children diligently working on their architecture, brows furrowed and tongues slightly stuck out between their lips in their intense concentration.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them that their work would soon be dissolved — either by wind or water, or even a bully’s footprint!
This is a reminder that nothing that I build will last. The clay pottery of my life will collapse, no matter how much effort I put into it — unless my life and work are totally in the hands of the Potter.
His work will endure. Mine will not. Therefore I repent of my own efforts to establish my own kingdoms and achievements, and turn them over to God.
Lord, my life is like so much clay in your hands. Shape me and mold me into your likeness, for your purposes I pray. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Throwing Clay” by Johnson Earls is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
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