June 11, 2017 - Jeremiah and the Potter

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

“…we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.”

Isaiah 64:8b

When a potter makes a new pot, he patiently works and shapes it until he has it just right.  Sometimes, though, the clay doesn't behave right and so the pot doesn't come out like the potter would like.  When this happens, the potter must then smash the clay back into a lump and reshape it until it is perfect.  

We learned last time how King Manasseh learned a hard

lesson about how God feels when people worship idols.  You would think that the people of Judah would NEVER make that mistake again.  Unfortunately, when Josiah, Manasseh's grandson, was king, the people began worshiping idols like Ba'al AGAIN!  This greatly upset God.

God called his prophet Jeremiah and said, “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So Jeremiah went to the potter's house and saw him working the clay, smashing it,

and then working it again.  Then God said to Jeremiah,  “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel....  Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds." (Jeremiah 18:6, 11b)

But God knew that the people would not turn from their evil ways and would follow their own plans from their own stubborn hearts.  So God told Jeremiah to buy one of the potter's pots and gather some of the elders and priests.  Jeremiah was to tell them that God says, "Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn

their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind... this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. (Jeremiah 19:4-5, 7a)

So after Jeremiah decreed God's curse on the people, he broke the pot in front of them and said,  "Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended.... Thus will I do to

this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants,...I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.” (Jeremiah 19:11a, 15b)

Just like God said, an army came from Babylon and conquered Judah and took many of it's people away.  But God did not forget about them.  God declared that they would be in captivity for seventy years but then would be able to return home.  Later, Jeremiah wrote them a letter saying to makes lives for themselves and work for the good of the city that they had to live in because they were going to be there a while.  However, God gave them this promise, "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:10-13)

You see, God doesn't punish us just because He is angry.  He does it because we have disobeyed and God wants us to be better people and be closer to Him for He loves us.