Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jeremiah went down to the potter's house and beheld him working a work on the wheels with clay, and that sight introduced the lesson that Israel is as clay in God's hand and subject to His power. God's dealings with nations turn upon their course, so that a nation warned of judgment may turn from its evil and be spared, while a nation promised good may do evil and lose that benefit, and their response determines whether judgment or blessing comes. The sins of past generations do not condemn a nation that turns to God, and the virtues of past generations do not protect descendants who choose evil.
The potter is God as the Potter and Master-worker, and the clay is His people, servants, and workers, whom He seeks to shape and fashion into His own likeness. He molds, fashions, shapes, refines, presses, reshapes, and polishes them, turning them again and again by grace and truth and by the wheel of His providence and converting power. He continues this work until the Potter's will is wrought out in the vessel, all unshapeliness and roughness vanish, and they become shapely, fruitful vessels fit for His purpose, use, and service, displaying His glory. Like clay, people are to yield, surrender self, submit to His hand and instruction, and cooperate with His work rather than try to do the potter's work or direct it.
Being clay means being ready to receive divine impressions, letting the Spirit of truth inspire and govern every movement, emptying the soul of pride and self-sufficiency to make room for Jesus, accepting advice, counsel, and help from others instead of insisting on one's own mind and judgment, submitting the will to Christ, and living in constant connection with Jesus in entire dependence on God for grace and guidance. By this God means to save faulty workers by molding their character and taking away defects, imperfections, unfinished work, peculiar ways, and peculiarities fastened upon the work. The clay must let Him reshape it, see its imperfections as shown, get rid of its peculiarities and put them away rather than throwing off responsibility or getting out of the way, and refusal to be molded leaves character deformed and short of the perfection God desires.
A worker who submits to this molding becomes a more useful worker and can triumph with the success of the truth, while one who balks at it will be ruined. This molding applies especially to teachers and ministers of Christ: one who lacks tender regard for his brethren must cease labor and submit to be molded and polished until he learns the lessons needed for successful work, and only thus becomes a vessel fit for the Master's use, a vessel unto honor.
Jeremiah went down to the potter's house and beheld him working a work on the wheels with clay, and that sight introduced the lesson that Israel is as clay in God's hand and subject to His power. God's dealings with nations turn upon their course, so that a nation warned of judgment may turn from its evil and be spared, while a nation promised good may do evil and lose that benefit, and their response determines whether judgment or blessing comes. The sins of past generations do not condemn a nation that turns to God, and the virtues of past generations do not protect descendants who choose evil.
The potter is God as the Potter and Master-worker, and the clay is His people, servants, and workers, whom He seeks to shape and fashion into His own likeness. He molds, fashions, shapes, refines, presses, reshapes, and polishes them, turning them again and again by grace and truth and by the wheel of His providence and converting power. He continues this work until the Potter's will is wrought out in the vessel, all unshapeliness and roughness vanish, and they become shapely, fruitful vessels fit for His purpose, use, and service, displaying His glory. Like clay, people are to yield, surrender self, submit to His hand and instruction, and cooperate with His work rather than try to do the potter's work or direct it.
Being clay means being ready to receive divine impressions, letting the Spirit of truth inspire and govern every movement, emptying the soul of pride and self-sufficiency to make room for Jesus, accepting advice, counsel, and help from others instead of insisting on one's own mind and judgment, submitting the will to Christ, and living in constant connection with Jesus in entire dependence on God for grace and guidance. By this God means to save faulty workers by molding their character and taking away defects, imperfections, unfinished work, peculiar ways, and peculiarities fastened upon the work. The clay must let Him reshape it, see its imperfections as shown, get rid of its peculiarities and put them away rather than throwing off responsibility or getting out of the way, and refusal to be molded leaves character deformed and short of the perfection God desires.
A worker who submits to this molding becomes a more useful worker and can triumph with the success of the truth, while one who balks at it will be ruined. This molding applies especially to teachers and ministers of Christ: one who lacks tender regard for his brethren must cease labor and submit to be molded and polished until he learns the lessons needed for successful work, and only thus becomes a vessel fit for the Master's use, a vessel unto honor.