Jeremiah 18.1-12
Delivered on Friday 02 March 2007 in Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
© Ben Green 2007
Jeremiah 18.1-12
[Place play-dough on the small table.]
God's message to the house of Israel is simple: 'turn back to me, or be destroyed.'
God sent Jeremiah to the potter's house, where he would give him a message. Jeremiah went, and watched the potter working at his wheel.
If any of you have ever done any pottery, you will know how difficult it is, as the clay gets higher, to stop it from wobbling, and spinning out of control.
When that happens, the best thing to do is to start again. [Scrumple up the clay and put it back on the table.]
'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.'
In God's hands, Israel is like a lump of clay. God is the potter, shaping it as seems good to him.
'At one moment,' says the LORD, 'I may declare that I will break a nation, destroy it, but if that nation turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.' The passage doesn't give an example, but remember Jonah's mission to Ninevah. Judgement was imminent, but averted because of the people's repentance.
But God goes on: 'At another moment I may declare that I will build a nation up, 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 it.'
This is a stark warning to God's people. He had brought them out of Egypt, rescued them from slavery, brought them into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, conquered their enemies. 'God won't break us,' they said, 'it doesn't matter what we do, we have his promise to build us up.'
But it does matter. They had forgotten that right after the promise of blessings in the Torah, comes the curses, discipline for evil behaviour. In Deuteronomy 11.26 God says, 'I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.' And in chapter 28 he spells them out in graphic detail:
16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed. 25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them in seven. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
It carries on for more than 40 verses.
God says through Jeremiah: 'Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.' The 'or else' is terrifying; God's just and righteous wrath is fearful and terrible.
What was their evil way? Look at verse 12 with me. '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." ' Israel failed to acknowledge God as the potter. Who is God, they say? 'He is insignificant and unnecessary, because we know best.' They did not trust that God knew, and would do, what was best for them, but trusted instead in their own strength, in their own plans, in their own power to shape themselves.
What are we to make of this passage? After all, we are not under the same covenant that Israel was. Our salvation is not dependent on our obedience, but is God's gift of grace to us through Jesus Christ. 'What then are we to say? Should we continue to sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?' (Rom. 6.1-2)
We have been given the gift of life by God. But how often we take it for granted, acting as though that life is ours, not Christ's, as though we earned it, not Christ. We sometimes - or even often - follow our own plans and desires, not God's. We forget who God is, the giver and shaper of life. God doesn't just give us gifts and let us get on with it. As the potter, he knows how best to shape us, how best for us to use the gifts he gives us. Yet so often we think and behave as though we ourselves [pause] are God himself, as though we ourselves know what is best, as though we - the clay [hold up the play-dough] - know better than the potter how to shape ourselves.
Can you see how ridiculous that is for a lump of clay?
'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." ' Do you think that the people simply spoke those words aloud to Jeremiah? Or do you think that they also betrayed themselves by their ungodly actions? By their pride?
As gifted and called church leaders, and future church leaders, this will always be a trap for us. Don't be so foolish to think it won't be. The second you start boasting in the size of your church, the effectiveness of your outreach, the power of your preaching, the passion of your worship, you're in trouble. You see, there's nothing wrong with any of those things, but they are not yours. They're God's. All that you have, your strength, your gifts, your vocation, your very life, come from God, and God alone. You are not yours, you are God's. He is your potter, you are his clay.
The challenge today is to recognise that we need continually to repent of our pride, of the way we follow our stubborn, evil hearts, taking God's gifts for granted, risking terrible punishment. We need continually to acknowledge who God is, the potter of all, and throw ourselves at his mercy.
This is a raw and difficult challenge, because it cuts right to the heart. I am - we are all - guilty. And so through it all we must remember that God promises forgiveness to those who repent: 'Turn now, all of you,' he says, 'and I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended.'
Who do you say that God is? He is the potter, who gives and shapes life in all its fullness. He is our judge, our jury, and our pardoner. He is our master, our servant, our friend. Who do you say that God is?
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