ONE day, beneath the impulse of the Divine Spirit, Jeremiah went beyond the city precincts to the Valley of Hinnom, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where; in a little hut, he found a potter busily engaged at his handicraft. Behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. Amid the many improvements of the present day, the art of pottery remains almost as it was as many centuries before Christ as we live after. As the prophet stood quietly beside the potter, he saw him take a piece of clay from the mass that lay beside his hand, and, having kneaded it to rid it of the bubbles, place it on the wheel, rapidly revolving horizontally at the motion of his foot driving the treadle. From that moment his hands were at work, within and without, shaping the vessel with his deft touch, here widening, there leading it up into. a more slender form, and, again, opening out the lip. So that from the shapeless clay there emerged a fair and beautiful vessel, fit for the Temple court or the royal palace. When it was nearly complete, and the next step would have been to remove it, to await the kiln, through a flaw in the material it fell a shapeless ruin--some broken pieces upon the wheel, and others upon the floor of the house. The prophet naturally expected that the potter would immediately take another piece of clay, and produce in its yielding substance the ideal which had been so hopelessly marred under his hand. Instead of this, however, to his astonishment and keenly excited interest, the potter with scrupulous care gathered up the broken pieces of the clay and pressed them together as at the first, and placed the clay again where it had lain before, and made it again into another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Perhaps this second vessel was not quite so fair as the first might have been; still it was beautiful and useful. It was a memorial of the potters patience and long-suffering, of his careful use of material, and of his power of repairing loss and making something out of failure and disappointment. O vision of the long-suffering patience of God! O bright anticipation of Gods redemptive work! O parable of remade characters and lives and hopes! To us, as to Jeremiah, the divine thought is flashed: Cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potters hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. The purport of this vision seems to have been to give his people hope that even though they had marred Gods fair ideal, yet a glorious and blessed future was within reach; and that if only they would yield themselves to the touch of the Great Potter, he would undo the results of years of disobedience which had marred and spoiled his fair purpose, and would make the chosen people a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Masters use. The same thought may apply to us all. Who is there that is not conscious of having marred and resisted the touch of Gods molding hands? Who is there that does not lament opportunities of saintliness which were lost through the obdurateness of the will and the hardness of the heart? Who is there that would not like to be made again as seems good to the Potter? But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our Potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever. Jer 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Jer 18:2 Arise, and go down to the potters house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Jer 18:3 Then I went down to the potters house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. Jer 18:4 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. Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potters hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 16:28:26 +0000
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