Jeremiah 18:1-8
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘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. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.’ ” (ESV)
Jeremiah is not a book I enjoy reading because it hits too close to home. As I read, I think of my actions toward the LORD. I do not worship idols of wood and stones, but I have idols that I look to instead of God. I’d love to tell you that I never allow these aspects of life to gain control over my actions, but I would be lying if I did. There was a time in my Christian life when I embraced what I knew was sinful and wrong. I was spoiled clay.
When the LORD brought me to a place in my life that forced me to look at what I was doing, I was deeply ashamed. The load of guilt and remorse was overwhelming and I wondered how God could ever use me again. I considered myself to be useless to the LORD. Then He showed me this passage. My eyes gravitated to verse four. What the Spirit impressed on me was how the Potter took the spoiled clay and reworked it into another vessel. The potter did not throw the spoiled clay away, he reworked it.
That is what God does with us. We fail, and at times we walk for quite a distance in that failure. Then we see our sinful state and repent. What follows is hard for many of us to accept. Our LORD takes the ruined, spoiled, clay we have become and reworks it. He forms it into a vessel He will continue to use for His purpose. How can we accept the Potter’s mercy and grace in not discarding us? Isaiah who is addressing the sin of Judah provides the answer. In Isaiah 43:18-19, he writes, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (ESV)
When we fail, let us remember that when we repent, the Potter does not want us to look back. Instead, He remakes us, then tells us to walk out of the wilderness so that He can use us once again in His service. What a merciful and great God we serve!