JEREMIAH 18:1-10
When God wanted to teach the prophet Jeremiah an important spiritual lesson, He moved him to come down to the potter’s house. In this unlikely setting, God showed Jeremiah how clay can be molded and destroyed by the potter’s hand. God was warning Jeremiah that the people of Judah should make God their number one priority. If they failed to do this, the same thing that happened to Israel when it fell to the Assyrians in 721 BC would happen to them. And so it was. In 587 BC, Judah fell to Babylon and the people were taken captive to a foreign land. The problem was that Israel and Judah placed their trust in the external pressures of military weapons and political alliances, rather than in God.
God is the best Master Craftsman of all, taking the wasted pieces and damages of our lives and restoring them. The prophet Jeremiah described this when he compared God’s work to that of a potter working clay: “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it” (Jeremiah 18:4).
No matter how much mess we have made of our lives, God can turn us into vessels that are good in His sight. When we confess a sin and submit in obedience to His Word, we are enabling the Master to do His redemptive work in our lives (2 Timothy 2:21). This is the only way that the pieces of our lives will be made whole again, and His blessings and protection are assured (Deuteronomy 31:6).
