1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 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. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 “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. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”
Jeremiah 18:1-10 (NIV)
Every nation on the earth exists under the absolute sovereignty of God and remains at His mercy for security and prosperity. The efforts and actions of any nation are like malleable clay in the hands of a potter. At no point is the clay, with all its intrinsic worth and possible use for the good of the world, in charge of its own destiny.
The word translated “formed” (v. 4) is the same word found in Genesis 2:7, where “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.” Men and nations are formed by the hand of God. They are either “uprooted, torn down, and destroyed” (v. 7) or “built up and planted” (v. 9) according to His sovereign will. When the clay is marred in the potter’s hand, the potter reshapes the clay into something that seems “best to him” (v. 4c). Israel, as well as every other nation on the face of the earth, was to understand the scope of God’s authority.
Throughout Jeremiah, God took the prophet here and there to observe the conduct of the people, e.g., to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 5:1), to Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:12), and to the potter’s house (Jeremiah 18:2). At each stop, He prescribed repentance as the antidote for disaster.
The founding of any nation or state comes at God’s decree and is ordered by His providence, according to His purposes. His control is absolute, His will steadfast. Therefore, prevailing sin is more than an embarrassment to a people; it is the very warrant for their destruction.
The symbols, tools, and trappings of government can be daunting—richly columned buildings, armored limousines, executive aircraft, vast promenades, and far-flung navies. But these are just so much fancy mud in the hands of the Living God. And should He desire to cast them again on the potter’s wheel, to make of them an utterly different vessel, no one can stop Him.
The hope of a nation is a people who count themselves clay in the Potter’s hands. God shapes their citizenship as well as their private lives, and the nation remains supple to His touch.
Scripture calls the people of God many things—sheep, family, light, salt, priests—and the faithful Christian will note all these descriptions. Some images are more exalted than others, and many may be tempted to dwell on those. But in the course of life, there will indeed come a time when it is a good thing to be reminded that all are clay in the hands of the potter.
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