The Potter and the Clay
Jer 18:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jer 18:2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”
Jer 18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
Jer 18:4 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.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me.
Jer 18:6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.
Jer 18:7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
Jer 18:8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
Jer 18:9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
Jer 18:10 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.
Jer 18:11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’
Jer 18:12 But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.'”
Jer 18:13 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard anything like this? A most horrible thing has been done by Virgin Israel.
Jer 18:14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? Do its cool waters from distant sources ever stop flowing?
Jer 18:15 Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths. They made them walk in byways, on roads not built up.
Jer 18:16 Their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.
Jer 18:17 Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster.”
Jer 18:18 They said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.”
Jer 18:19 Listen to me, LORD; hear what my accusers are saying!
Jer 18:20 Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them.
Jer 18:21 So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22 Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23 But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.
1 Under the type of a potter is shewed God’s absolute power in disposing of nations. 11 Judgments threatened to Judah for her strange revolt. 18 Jeremiah prays against his conspirators.
The Potter and the Clay
Jer 18:1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
The word. This message is undated. However, there seems to be a close connection between ch. 18 and ch. 19, and thus the date of this message would probably be 605/04 b.c. (see on ch. 19:1).
Jer 18:2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”
Jer 18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
Certain ancient wheels were constructed with two stone discs revolving one above the other. The lower one was for the purpose of propelling the machine with the feet; the upper one held the lump of clay that the potter’s hands fashioned as it revolved.
Jer 18:4 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.
Jer 18:6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.
God here speaks to Israel, not as individuals and not with respect to personal salvation, but as a nation and in terms of its covenant relationship with Him (see v. 7). All God’s dealings with Israel in ages past had been based on the call of Israel to serve as the custodian of His revealed will (Rom. 3:1, 2) and to be His special instrument for the salvation of the world (Gen. 12:1–3; Deut. 4:6–9, 20; 7:6–14; see pp. 26, 27).
God had clearly set before His people the fact that strict obedience on their part was prerequisite to His blessing them and making them a blessing to others (Deut. 28:1–14), and that disobedience would inevitably bring a curse and the eventual rejection of Israel as His chosen nation (Deut. 28:15, 63–66).
Here, through Jeremiah, God reaffirms what He had already spoken through Moses, and adds a warning that disobedience on their part will invalidate the promises of blessing, and the assurance that sincere repentance will render the threats of rejection ineffective (Jer. 18:7–10). For a statement of the principles on the basis of which God deals with nations, see on Dan. 4:17; see also on Ex. 9:16, 17.
Like clay.
As a nation Israel had voluntarily entered the covenant relationship (Ex. 19:3–8 (24:3–8). In so doing they accepted God as their King (see 1 Sam. 8:7), to direct the affairs of the nation in such a way as to accomplish the salvation of the world through them (see John 4:22; see pp. 26–30). By virtue of their own choice in the matter they became as clay in the hands of the potter.
In the days of Jeremiah, the “clay was marred in the hand of the potter” (Jer. 18:4), and, as master potter, God would have been justified in discarding them as a nation. But in mercy He was willing to reclaim the worthless clay vessel and to make “it again another vessel” (v. 4).
All that had been promised might yet come to pass if they would only learn to love and serve God (Zech. 6:15; cf. Isa. 54:7; Eze. 36:11; 43:10, 11; Micah 6:8; Zech. 10:6; see also pp. 31, 32).
Jer 18:7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
Uprooted. In words that must have reminded Jeremiah of his call to prophetic ministry (ch. 1:10), God affirmed that the destiny of all nations is in His hands (see Ps. 103:19; Dan. 2:20, 21; 4:25).
Jer 18:8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
The profound truth is here taught that this is a moral universe, and that nations stand or fall according to their relationship to the moral law. If a nation conducts its affairs uprightly, following the precepts of justice and mercy, it “shall prosper” (Ps. 1:3).
If, on the other hand, it becomes tyrannical, gives itself wholly to the material and secular values of life, and disregards the norms of honest national and international dealing, it “shall perish” (see Ps. 1:6). There was still time for Judah to repent.
Jer 18:10 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.
The Jews were not to think that their role as God’s chosen people assured them of continued divine favor, irrespective of whether or not they acted in harmony with the divine will.
Jer 18:11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’
There is still time to “return … everyone from his evil way.”
Jer 18:12 And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”
This reply was not actually spoken by the people of Judah, but was the Lord’s representation of what the people were saying in heart and in action. These words are to be understood as expressing, not an attitude of despair, but rather one that defiantly rejects God’s overture of mercy in the previous verse. It is as if the apostates said, “Do not entertain the hope that we will do as you wish” (see ch. 2:25).
Jer 18:13 Therefore thus says the LORD: “Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
Jer 18:14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? Do its cool waters from distant sources ever stop flowing?
The thought conveyed is that the Lord’s strength, in which His people should have trusted, is like the unfailing snow of Lebanon.
The streams of much-desired cold water that flowed from distant or foreign heights were never dried up.
Jer 18:15 Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths. They made them walk in byways, on roads not built up.
Jer 18:16 Their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.
A perpetual hissing. An idiomatic way of expressing continued derision.
Shake their heads. Not in scorn, but in sympathy for the desolate condition of the land.
Jer 18:17 Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster.”
Wind from the east. The dread scorching, oppressive, dust-filled wind from the desert (see on Jer. 4:11; cf. Ps. 48:7; Jonah 4:8).
Show them my back. Since the light of God’s “face” was the fullness of joy and peace (see Num. 6:25, 26), to turn away His countenance meant to be left in the shadows of misery.
Jer 18:18 They said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.”
The pointed messages of the prophet aroused the sullen hostility of the people, which broke out in open hatred, and they sought to kill Jeremiah (see ch. 11:21).
For the law shall not perish. In self-deception the people believed that the popular priest and prophets had given them sufficient instruction in the law, and that they could trust in this instruction despite Jeremiah’s warnings of the coming crisis. It is likely that the condition revealed in this verse provided the background for the conspiracy of Pashur (see ch. 20:1–3).
Jer 18:20 Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them.
A graphic figure representing the prophet’s enemies as so resentfully hostile to him that they would trap him in a pit like a wild beast.
Jer 18:21 So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22 Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.
When the people rejected God’s offers of mercy, there was nothing to do but to let Jerusalem be taken by the Babylonians, who would inflict upon its citizens an invader’s cruelty (see 2 Kings 8:12; Hosea 13:16).
The Assyrian sculptures that have been preserved reveal all too plainly the terrible fate that awaited prisoners of war in those ancient times.
Jer 18:23 But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger. 23. Forgive not. See on v. 21.