Jeremiah

Jeremiah 18:1-12

Jeremiah is given another divine assignment to take part in another symbolic act.  He went to the potters house where the potter was working at the wheel.  The word for 'wheel' is specific to the type.  The upper when was connected to a lower wheel by a vertical shaft.  The potter would turn the lower wheel with his foot while working the clay with his hands at the upper wheel.  At the potter's house Jeremiah was caused to hear the message the Lord for which the Lord brought him. 

The pot that the potter was shaping was 'marred' in his hands; it was ruined or spoiled.  This was likely caused by a lump in the clay, or it might not have been moist enough.  The clay wasn't right to be shaped into a useful pot.  So the potter brought it back to a lump and reshaped it as it seemed best to him. 

The Lord delivers the message that Israel is like the clay in His hands.  He was able to do what seemed best to Him.  If he announces destruction, the opportunity exists for repentance.  If they repent, the Lord would relent.  A word place exists in verse eight.  The word 'evil' and 'disaster' are the same word.  It has a range of meanings of morally objectionable, sorrow, trouble affliction, etc.  If they would repent of harm they brought by sin (evil), the Lord would relent of the harm he planned for them (disaster).  Likewise, when the Lord builds up and the nation does evil (same word again), then he will reconsider (same as relent in v8) the good that was planned.

The Lord makes it very clear: disaster is coming.  This was their invitation to repent, to reform their ways.  But the reply was known, the invitation will go unanswered.  The symbolic act serves as their notice of destruction. 

See also Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8 and Romans 9:20-23.  The idea of God's children being clay may well come from Genesis 2:7.

Jeremiah 18:13-17

It would abnormal and unnatural for the now of Lebanon to vanish from the mountain tops.  In the same way, something would be drastically wrong if the waters stopped flowing.  It is just as abnormal and unnatural that the Lord's people forgot him.  The 'ancient paths' were the ways of God, established long ago.  The established way to walk.  There was a good path, the way (Jer 6:16) and there was a bad path, a byway (Job 22:15). 

The wind from the east was brutal, violent and scorching.  They would no longer see God's face – which was to experience blessing (Nu 6:24).  His back would be symbolic of rejection.  See 2 Chron 29:6 and Jer 2:27.  

Jeremiah 18:18-23

This is Jeremiah's fifth lament.  He complained of his treatment as a prophet.  They were plotting his demise as they had done previously.  They put their trust in the traditional roles of priest, sage (wise) and prophets over the word that Jeremiah brought. 

Jeremiah asked for mercy for his people previously and even complained the Lord was being too harsh on them.  He pleaded ignorance for them, as if they didn't know they were being wicked.  It seems now that Jeremiah is calling down judgment on those who attacked and plotted against him.  One might conclude that Jeremiah thought sin against God wasn't nearly as serious as sin against Jeremiah!  We often display this same feeling.  We take a low view of sin against God, but when we are wronged and offended it is a major ordeal in which someone must pay. 

©2018 Doug Ford