Jeremiah 18:1 - Meaning and Application

The prophet is sent to the potter’s house. He already knew where to find it, but this was not a call to preach there as he had at Jerusalem’s gates. It was a call to receive a lesson, and really, to have the sermon given to him ready-made. Those who have God’s word by direct inspiration do not need to prepare in the usual way.

God tells Jeremiah, “Go to the potter’s house, watch how he works, and there I will make you hear my words” (Jeremiah 18:3). There Jeremiah would receive a message for the people. Those who want to know God’s mind must pay attention to God’s appointments and go where his word is heard. Jeremiah did as he was told, and he watched the potter shaping the clay on the wheel, easily and quickly, exactly as he wanted.

When the clay was spoiled, maybe because it was too stiff, had a stone in it, or was otherwise ruined in his hands, the potter shaped it into something else. If it would not become a vessel of honor, it could still become a vessel of dishonor, whatever suited the potter best. Jeremiah likely already knew how pottery was made, but he needed to watch it closely now. With the picture fresh in his mind, he would understand the lesson better and explain it more clearly to the people.

God often taught through such pictures by his prophets (Hosea 12:10), and the prophets themselves needed to understand the images they used. Ministers can do good when they learn from ordinary life and use it to speak more clearly about God’s things. They should make all their knowledge useful for their calling. Now Jeremiah receives, at the potter’s house, the message he must bring to Israel.

As he watches the potter work, God puts two great truths into his mind. First, God has full authority and unlimited power to shape kingdoms and nations however he pleases, to serve his own purposes. “Can I not do with you as this potter does?” says the Lord (Jeremiah 18:6). God has even more right over us than the potter has over the clay, because the potter only gives shape, while God gives both our matter and our form.

This means God has unquestionable rule over us. He owes us nothing, can dispose of us as he sees fit, and does not answer to us. It would be just as foolish for us to argue with him as for clay to argue with the potter. It also means God can easily make whatever use he wants of us and bring whatever changes he pleases. We cannot resist him. One turn of the hand, one turn of the wheel, changes the clay completely, and so our times are in God’s hand, not our own.

This is spoken here about nations. The strongest and most skilled nations are only what God chooses to make them, and nothing more. Job explains it this way: “He makes nations great and destroys them; he enlarges nations and then makes them narrow again” (Job 12:23). Compare also (Psalm 107:33) and (Job 34:29). All nations before God are like a drop from a bucket or dust on the scales, quickly gone (Isaiah 40:15). So they are surely as easy for him to handle as clay is for the potter.

God will not lose his glory in the end. If he is not glorified by people, he will be glorified upon them. If a vessel is spoiled for one use, the potter may make it fit for another. So those who will not become trophies of mercy will become displays of justice. “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble” (Proverbs 16:4). God formed us from clay (Job 33:6), and we are still clay in his hands (Isaiah 64:8). Does he not have the same right over us that the potter has over the clay? (Romans 9:21). Surely we are bound to submit, as clay submits to the potter’s wisdom and will (Isaiah 29:15-16; Isaiah 45:9).

Second, even while God exercises this authority and power, he always follows fixed rules of fairness and goodness. He gives blessings as a sovereign Lord, but he never punishes in an arbitrary way. His hand is high, yet he does not rule harshly. Instead, “righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne” (Psalm 89:13-14). God speaks of what he has the right to do, but he also assures us that he will act as a righteous and merciful judge.

When God comes against a people in judgment, we may be sure their sins have brought it on. That becomes clear when national repentance stops the judgment (Jeremiah 18:7-8). If God says he will tear down a nation’s defenses and leave it exposed, or remove its fruit trees and leave it desolate, or pull down its strong places so enemies can enter, or destroy its homes so people must leave, then that nation should take warning. If they repent, turn from their evil ways, and return to God, he will kindly accept them. He will not carry out the disaster. He will change his dealings with them, though not because he changes in himself, but because he changes his way toward them.

This happened often in the days of the judges, when oppressed people humbled themselves, and God raised up deliverers for them. When they turned back to him, their situation quickly changed. It was true of Nineveh, and we wish it had been truer of Jerusalem more often (2 Chronicles 7:14). It is certain that sincere turning from sin will stop punishment. God can raise a penitent people from ruin as easily as the potter can remake a ruined vessel of clay.

When God comes toward us with mercy, the only thing that can block that mercy is sin (Jeremiah 18:9-10). If God speaks about a nation to build it up and plant it, meaning to strengthen and settle all that is truly good in it, that is his own work, like a farmer planting or a builder raising a house (1 Corinthians 3:9). If he favors such a nation, it grows, prospers, and expands. Its trade thrives, its government is put into good hands, and its whole life goes well.

But if that same nation, so richly blessed by God, does evil in his sight and refuses to listen to his voice, then the story changes. If it loses moral strength and becomes corrupt and godless, if religion is mocked and sin becomes popular, and if serious faith declines across the land, then God will turn against it. He will pull up what he was planting and tear down what he was building (Jeremiah 45:4). The good work already underway will stop, and the blessings that were still planned will be withheld.

This is what it means when Scripture says God repents of the good he had said he would do for them. He changes his dealings with them, as he did with Eli’s house, the family of the priest Eli (1 Samuel 2:30), and with Israel, when he brought them near Canaan and then turned them back into the wilderness. Sin is the great troublemaker between God and a people. It breaks the value of his promises, spoils their prayers, and ruins the good he meant for them (Hosea 7:1).

Sin also destroys their comforts, stretches out their troubles, brings them into tight places, and delays their rescue (Isaiah 59:1-2).