Thursday, January 5

Thursday

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

It is interesting that in verse 4 the text says that the pot, which the potter was shaping from the clay, “was marred in his hands”.  It is important for us to understand what this means, and what it does not mean.  Often, when I want to get a broader perspective of the meaning of a particular verse or passage, I will study how various Bibles translate the passage. The following are a few additional Bible translations of this verse in order to give us more insight.

ESV - And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and the reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

NLT - But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again.

NASB - But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

NKJB - 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.

First of all, this verse does NOT mean that the clay was marred “by” the hands of the Potter.  The Bible is clear that we are all marred by sin long before the Potter gets a hold of us.  It is the patient and loving hand of the Potter that transforms us from lumps of marred clay into beautiful vessels.  However, sometimes, even in the Potter’s hands, the clay can become marred or get out of shape. There are times when even with the best of care, the vessel still gets out of shape.  The fault is not with the Potter, but with the clay, with us!  

The Bible is crystal clear on this point – we are ALL marred by sin.  Even the best of us are sinful at our core.

Psalm 51:5 - Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Isaiah 64:6 - All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Our sinfulness can cause us to resist the hand of the Potter.  We don’t want to be molded in that particular way.  We think we know best what shape our lives ought to take and so we rebel against the work of the Potter in our lives.  This is the root of sin in the human heart, the belief that we know better than God and that we need to be in control.

Because his hand is resting on the vessel, the Potter knows instantly when a problem arises.  He senses the changes in the clay and begins taking whatever steps are necessary to correct the problem.  Let’s face it, there are times when we are all just a bunch of cracked pots!  Yet, because He knows everything about us and because His hand rests on our lives, He is instantly aware when things aren’t as they should be.  At that moment, He takes the necessary steps to get us back in usable condition.  Sometimes this is just a simple correction, a little extra pressure here or there.  At other times He must completely crush us back down to a lump of clay and begin again. 

Never think, even for a second, that you are going to hide something from the Lord.  He sees it all (Prov. 15:3; Heb. 4:13) He is aware of every thought, every deed and every motive and will allow nothing that would be harmful or destructive to pass before His gaze unchallenged.  I am kidding myself if I think I am keeping a secret from the Lord.  The best thing I can do is to be responsive to His touch and yield to His activity in my life.  The sooner I reach the place He desires me to be, the sooner He can begin to use me for His glory.


Jeff Frazier