5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
As we consider the instruction that God gave to Jeremiah his prophet in what was a very disturbing time in Israel's history, we must take heed today. God instructs Jeremiah to remind His people that He is the master craftsman at the Potter's wheel working with His hands diligently attempting to recreate his holy nation, Israel, into what they were originally designed to be. And as long as Israel would listen and obey God's will, they would continue to be his people but if they refused the command of God to repent, the marred remains of that clay would be used to form a new creation which we understand to be His Holy people today, His Church. It is difficult to understand the stubbornness and the refusal of these people to repent and serve the God that had been so good to them and provided for them throughout their history. God states in verse 15 that "Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not a highway, vs 16 To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head. The realization of their devastating decision would be judged by such an expression of contempt that people would just shake their heads at their outright stupidity. Refusing to reap the wonderful benefits of a loving God because they would rather do it their own way.
The lesson for us is this, Within The Potter's Hands, each of us is being shaped and formed by the one true and living God of Heaven who is intimately involved in our lives. We come to God as a marred piece of clay that is corrupted by sin and stubborn to obey His will, but he is faithfully working on us to create something wonderful. As our will submits to His, the imperfections of our past and the current struggles are gently smoothed away by the perfect working hands of God at the wheel. God never gives up on his creation and desires nothing more than to have you and I reap the blessings of a meaningful relationship with Him. He desires each vessel of clay that he has ever created to become a vessel of honor but the truth is sometimes people refuse to allow God to mold them and shape them through His Word. God is just and has instructed us that the decisions we make everyday have a great impact upon our relationship with him and that each of us will reap what we have sown. So let us embrace the vessel that God has designed us to be and submit wholly to His Word and His Will. Through this obedience and the perfect forgiving power of the blood of Christ, each of us will become, as the Apostle Paul told Timothy "a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work." (II Timothy 2:21) What more could we ask for, seeing that we are all but works of clay?
