Monday, January 2

Monday

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 wheel. But the pot he 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. Then the word of the LORD came to me:  “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD.  “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

–      Jeremiah 18:1-6

We are going to spend this first week of the new-year meditating on this passage out of the Old Testament book of Jeremiah (actually we could spend the entire year meditating on this passage and it would not be wasted time).

Jeremiah was a prophet (not a bullfrog).  His prophetic ministry spanned the reign of 5 different kings of Israel.  Jeremiah was repeatedly sent by God to warn the people of the judgment that was coming if they did not repent and turn back to God. Jeremiah had a tough job and he wasn’t very popular for doing it. He is sometimes called the weeping prophet because of the tears he shed over the stubborn hearts of God’s people. 

As a prophet, Jeremiah was used to hearing messages from God.  In fact Jeremiah’s father was a priest, so young Jeremiah grew up around the things of God; prayer, worship, sacrifices, etc.  He was no stranger to talking to and hearing from the LORD.  But notice in this passage what God says to Jeremiah.  God tells him to go down to the potter’s house in order to receive His divine message. 

A potter’s house was a very common place in the ancient world.  There are over 30 different words in the Hebrew language for potters and pottery.  Every village had at least one (usually more) potter’s in it.  You might think of it like a blacksmith’s shop in the middle ages, or a like a local hardware store today. 

God tells his servant Jeremiah that he is going to speak to him in the most ordinary of places – a potter’s house.  Perhaps Jeremiah thought to himself, “the potter’s house?  What can I possibly learn about the divine will of God from a bunch of clay pots?”  I think many of us tend to think God speaking to us (if we think about that at all) in sacred places like the church or in worship services, or perhaps on a mountaintop.  There are of course plenty of Biblical examples of God speaking through visions, through fire, on the top of mountains, etc. 

However, God also speaks in the ordinary events and circumstances of our lives. In his book Now & Then, Frederich Buechner writes, “If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the Church, then I think he speaks to us largely through what happens to us, through the ordinary events of everyday existence.”  When you read through the Bible, God seems to enjoy working and speaking through common, everyday people and places – like a potter’s house, or even a manger.

Perhaps a good new-year’s resolution for all of us (in addition to losing weight or getting out of debt, or whatever…) would be to look for and listen to God more in our daily lives.  This year may we resolve to see God, not just in the ‘official” places, but in every place!


Jeff Frazier