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OTTERY involves making objects
from moist clay and then baking those objects to harden them, thereby giving
permanence to their form and purpose. How absurd it would be to say that clay
has a right to make demands of the potter. The potter is the one in charge. He
is the creative one. He is the owner of
the clay. He is the one with energy, intelligence, strength and authority. Although
it may sound dumb to say it: clay is just clay. A potter can choose to make a
fine tea cup, a cheap spit cup, a doorstop, a flower vase or any number of
items from a lump of clay. The clay really is just material in the hand of an
artist.
Israel was clay in the hand of
the Great Potter. And, they were still moist. This was part of the wonderful
message of Jeremiah in this chapter. Their past did not guarantee their
future. Just because the potter starts
making one type of piece, that doesn't mean that he can't change his mind.
Jeremiah watched an actual potter who was working on a particular piece.
Somewhere along the way in that process (perhaps because of the weakness of the
clay that the potter was working on), the potter smashed the clay before him
and started all over; making something different (Jeremiah 18:3-4). God's
message for His people was that what He did with them depended not only upon
His expertise and purposes, but also upon their willingness or unwillingness to
yield and surrender to His hands.
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