Potter picture

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 18-22; Psalm 18

TO CHEW ON: "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


The Bible writers often use everyday objects and activities to teach lessons of the Spirit. Here Jeremiah bases his prophecy and plea to Israel on a visit God instructs him to make to a pottery shop. As he watches the craftsman shape the glistening clay spinning under his hands, then change the pot's form when the clay refuses to cooperate, God gives him a message for Israel. He draws their attention to similarities between the potter working with the clay, and God working with people.

- Just as the potter is sovereign over the clay, doing with it as he pleases, so God is sovereign over the "house of Israel."

- What the potter makes depends on the clay. When the vessel he is making doesn't stand up to the process but becomes marred, he shapes it into a different one. Similarly, what God can do with Israel depends on her response to Him.

My Bible study notes sum up these lessons well: "As the quality of the clay limits what the potter can do with it, so the quality of a people limits what God can do with them." Spirit Filled Life Bible p. 985.

We can apply this potter picture to our own lives as we ask questions like:

• Am I resistant or malleable clay in God's hands? 

• Do I insist on fulfilling my own plans and ambitions, or do I submit those to Him. When circumstances in my life don't turn out as I plan, do I get all frustrated? 

• Do I realize that God may be shaping me for some task of which I'm not aware? 

• Am I letting the Master Potter shape my life into whatever jar, cup, plate or pitcher most useful for the purposes of His kingdom?

PRAYER: Dear God, please show me where the clay of my life is stubborn or marred with impurities. I want my life to be good clay, that You can shape for Your kingdom purposes. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 18

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What kind of clay are you?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 18:1-17

TO CHEW ON: "And they said, 'This is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.'" Jeremiah 18:12

God tells Jeremiah to go to the potter's shop to get a message from Him.  There Jeremiah sees the potter forming a pot. When the clay doesn't cooperate and the thing he's attempting to make is marred, the potter doesn't give up. Instead he makes something else.

Though the potter is capable of forming all kinds of pots, his skill isn't the only variable in making pots. My Bible's commentary says: "What the potter makes depends on the quality of the clay; what God makes of His people depends on their response." Roy Edmund Hayden, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 985.

What makes good clay for forming pots? An article about the characteristics of good throwing clay names three things that determine how useful a clay will be to a potter:

• Plasticity: "Without a very high level of flexibility the clay simply won't be workable on the wheel."

• Strength: "Throwing clays must … retain enough strength to stand upright when thrown into thin-walled, tall forms."

• Water absorption: "Clay absorbs water while it is being formed on the potter's wheel, which is why the longer a clay is worked on the wheel, the softer it becomes. Water absorption, then, can become a problem."

If we continue on with the metaphor of our lives as potter's clay, we might say that our lives also need to be

Plastic or moldable:
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you." - Psalm 32:8,9.
See also  Romans 12:1.

Strong:
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might…" Ephesians 6:10,11.
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." - Romans 8:5.
See also Romans 6:12-13

Able to absorb water: I would compare this to how we are softened and changed by tests and trials, yet not overcome by them:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" - Romans 8:35,37.
See also Romans 5:3-5.

Our commenter continues:


 "As the quality of the clay limits what the potter can do with it, so the quality of a people limits what God will do with it."

If you and I are feeling as dizzy and confused about what God is doing with us as a lump of clay on a potter's wheel, instead of declaring, like the people of Jeremiah's time: "This is hopeless. We will walk according to our own plans…" and jumping off, let's stay put. And let's work on improving the quality of our clay, so our Potter can complete the useful thing He has in mind:

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do" - Ephesians 2:10.


PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to be good clay in Your hands, willing to take whatever shape You can use. Amen.

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.