After retiring in Kentucky, my uncle took up pottery lessons. Over the year, our family began to acquire a collection of iridescent and cobalt blue bowls and flower pots as he experimented like a mad scientist. He loved working with clay for the same reasons most people do. It’s wet. It’s messy. There’s a form of childlike play to it. You can mold and shape it to make something beautiful in the end. The outcome of the clay is at the mercy of your hands. The same is true of us and our Maker.
In the beginning of Jeremiah 18, God says to the prophet: “Go down at once to the potter’s house; there I will reveal my words to you” (v.2). He sends Jeremiah to this house because by observing the potter’s wheel and clay, Jeremiah is given a powerful visual aid. Just like clay in a potter’s hand, the house of Israel is held in its Maker’s hands (v.6). The Israelite people aren’t as independent as they think. They are stubborn and make poor decisions. They abandon their commitment to God and defile the land with idolatry, making it a “horror” (v.16). They don’t realize how fragile they are and what they are risking in order to live according to what they think is right.
In Jeremiah 19, God tells Jeremiah to give a sign act to the people of Judah, which is exactly what it sounds like: a physical act that serves as a sign. He instructs Jeremiah to buy a potter’s clay jar, proclaim God’s judgment against Judah, and says, “Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people going with you” (Jeremiah 19:10). The sign was meant to represent His intentions toward unrepentant Judah.
God takes great care to speak in ways we can understand. He’ll use everything from visual aids to metaphors to get our attention; even the world around us reveals His character. As we read through Jeremiah’s prophecies, may we trust that God knows what is best for us, and look for where He may be trying to reveal His truth to us.
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57 thoughts on "Parable of the Potter"
Keep fighting, Bailey. The Lord loves and wants you. He is beautiful, kind, and forgiving.
As a teacher there are times I have tried to get something specific across to one particular student. I will have visuals, songs, videos, etc. I’ll even stand on my head if it will help them learn. And sometimes it’s frustrating to see the student totally ignore you or not understand. I can only imagine God feels this way constantly. I am so thankful that I have a God who will keep trying to make me the best version of myself.
I am praying to open my eyes to what God is trying to reveal to me. I seek His truth alone.
Lord, I trust that you know what’s best for me. Help me to trust you more.
Jill Banks, Israel and Judah are two different kingdoms. After Solomon’s reign, Israel was divided into two kingdoms, the north and the south. The northern kingdom was made up of ten tribes, the southern, just two—Judah and Benjamin. You can read about the split in I Kings 12.
I am reading this about a week behind but I just feel like this whole book of Jeremiah is so telling of our world today. We are a broken world, constantly turning to idols and putting our hope in worldly things, myself included. Now, we are in the middle of a pandemic and there is fear and panic everywhere we turn. But I can’t help but wonder if this is God reminding us we are merely clay and we can try to contain and control and save as many lives as we can but ultimately He is the potter. Not to say we shouldn’t give our best efforts but this is bigger than anything our healthcare systems can contain and I think we needed to be reminded who is in control.
I agree. The western world rose to prosperity and freedom because of the gospel but it has been abandoned and God has every right to judge us. May many return to him in repentance and faith.
God knows what is best for me!!! I need to let God have control over my life, like the potter over the clay. Let Him guide me, show me, reveal His truth to me.
During my stint of pottery making. I also learned that as a potter I am limited by the nature of the clay. If it is too dry I have to be careful and possibly not be able to make what I had wanted to. If it is pliable it is a joy to work with and and I can make grand things. Which clay am I?
The words I keep hearing are: I am HELD. We are held by our Maker. Praise God the outcome of me is at the mercy of His hands.
I’m reading this a day behind. Not ironically, the verse I meditated on this morning was about using whatever gift God has given me to serve others. As God created us out of a lump of clay, He designed us uniquely to do what He intended us to do. He gave us the special gift that was needed to achieve that goal. It seems to me that some people have such a clear gift and are able to use it in great ways. Others of us have a hard time figuring out exactly what that gift is. When/if we do, we don’t think it is as good as other gifts and are possibly disappointed that God didn’t give us a ‘better’ gift. This reading today has reminded me that we are all intended to serve God with our gifts and that none of us were created by accident or by a left over piece of clay that He didn’t know what to do with.
Are Israel and Judah used interchangeably? Or is God bringing judgement on two different people groups? 18:16 Israel is used and 19:10 Judah is used
Thank you She Reads Truth for choose this book for Lent reading. Jeremiah is a good reminder of the whole humanity falling short before God, whole humanity unable to do good in His eyes, and whole humanity deserving God’s rage. In Jeremiah 19 God asks Jeremiah to bring the pottery to Ben-Ginnom, and he also mantions Tophet a lot, I look it up. Both of those are a place called Gehenna, where Israelites were sacrificing children to idols. In the NT Jesus talks about Gehenna as of a place were sinners will be.
I remember on one of the podcasts Rachel spoke about the logic of choosing Jeremiah this year for Lent. After reading it to long for salvation, you cry out for help because you realise that you’re no better than Israilites, that you as well deserve death. But. But. But. Thank you Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit for working out the salvation for uncapable us.
Love what you said Kristen, Angie and Churchmouse
Sara Terry that little two-year-old is probably your calling right now. Maybe in a year or two you can change careers but being a mom is one of the greatest careers around. I wish I could have been a fulltime mom.
Struggling Through the Study you and Nashville are in my prayers. Maria I know what you mean about struggling with what God wants and I am praying for you.
Bailey, I understand completely I went through that but I found that if I just kept reading God’s word at different times I would make it through and my whole life changed.
I was immediately drawn to Jeremiah’s reaction to being threatened or plotted against in Jeremiah 18. When he was threatened he immediately took it to God and asked for not only vengeance but also protection. Then God reassured Jeremiah that he needed to stay the course by giving him another message to take to those who rose up against him and Jeremiah immediately obeyed God. I think that God said to Jeremiah, “I sent you to do a work and I will make sure that what I sent you to do will be accomplished.” Wow, talk about someone in the potter’s hands!! To me Jeremiah’s obedience is equally as impactful as disobedience of the people of Jerusalem and Judah.
Loving this reading plan Check out “He Didn’t Throw Away The Clay” by Michael English
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Reading through Jeremiah during Lent has certainly given me a clearer view of how highly offensive my sin is to God. It’s so easy to minimize my sin (aren’t there always worse ones that mine?? Hmmm). When I read that my sin can cause God to turn His back so that I cannot see His face, it causes me to weep. These Lenten readings are surely purifying me in the refining fire of repentance and helping me to more deeply appreciate Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the Cross. I fall to my knees. In my sin I am indeed wretched and pitiful. But praise God, through His redeeming blood, I am made holy and righteous in His sight. I can stand only because He hung. I can live only because He died. Thank you, Jesus. FOREVER AND ALWAYS, THANK YOU.
This is a great reminder that God is in control. He made me the way he did for a purpose and a plan. I pray that I would yield to his molding hands.
I need the reminder that God has a “right over the clay.” He has a right to put us in hard situations and circumstances and he has the right to shape and form us accordingly. Right now, I find myself feeling more inadequately prepared for what is currently required of me than I have ever been for anything else ever before. The part I need to remember is that God formed our family and he will shape/mold/teach and equip me with what I need to meet the needs of its members – even if it feels like I’m failing to do so. God is in charge of his creation and his creation includes me. I pray that I will be obedient to what He asks of me in this hard season.
Wow. What a tricky reading on so many levels!
I think what challenged me most today was that ‘we are held in our makers hands’- we are not as independent as we like to think. As much as I think I can do this on my own and don’t pay God a second thought in my day to day routine, at times, I am not independent. God has got me. He has already shaped me and is reshaping me for his will everyday. How incredible is this!?
Similarly, how often do we go about putting other things before God? How often do we ‘worship’ things other than God? Am I doing what the Israelites did, because it is so easy to tell them that they are wrong! I might not make altars to Baal as they did but I know that I can spend a lot of my time watching certain actors or following a singer – is this not the same?
A necessary challenge for me today.
As a poetic person, I can appreciate that God specifically showed Jeremiah this revelation using visual aids. He has given me revelations using elephants, milk, and other things. Seeing this process of God showing us things somehow reinforces how AMAZING and REAL what He has said to me is, and I appreciate it!
It’s not easy for me to read what Jeremiah told God about the people of Israel, but what it does is give me more to pray for in my own community. I desire that the bodies of Christs that I am a part of is that they/we serve God in spirit and truth so they can receive every good thing God had for them while on earth until they/we leave here and enter Heaven.
This was so eye opening to me… and it was a great reminder of the consequences of living life away from God. I personally have been really struggling in my faith lately. I can’t figure out why, but I just haven’t wanted to do life with God. This is breaking my heart and I can’t seem to figure out why. I could really use prayers and guidance right now.
Bailey, I am praying that you find your way back to God.
God knows what you need most Bailey. He can do all things especially in your weakest times. Keep asking, keep knocking, keep praying. He wants you back more than you even want to be back close to Him. Trust and pray. I will be praying for this
intention for you to feel His presence and Love soon. I’m praying you feel His warm and safe embrace around you precious.
Bailey I can understand your struggle girl. I don’t think any christian wakes up everyday with the same consistent overwhelming draw towards God and I think that’s normal. Just like you don’t wake up everyday in a marriage and don’t feel all the romantic feelings. But it doesn’t make you any less married. The same is true of God. No matter how you feel it doesn’t make you any less His! And it’s pretty always that truth goes first and our feelings follow. We must daily put truth in our minds to replace the mountain of lies that the enemy throws at us every day about who we are and How God looks at us- and dwell on that truth no matter how we feel and wait for God to meet us where we are and He is faithful to do that. I am praying for you sister!
Praying and cheering for you, Bailey!
Praying for you Bailey.
I remember seeing a few comments last week about folks struggling through the wrath displayed in our readings and keeping up with the study. I even suggested the Bible Project to some folks (I think the videos help so much!), but gosh, being in Nashville and seeing the devastation and sheer sadness of our community is hard. I sat down several times to do the study, but just could not manage–everything already felt so bleak and fragile. I am so grateful my friends are healthy, even if they have lost everything. So picking back up today and working through last week and this week.
Please keep Nashville in your prayers!
Keeping you and Nashville close to my heart and in my prayers.
I don’t want be anywhere else but at the Potter’s Hands, MY Lord Jesus!! And if or when I stray away may He and God’s people bring me back. There’s no other place I’d rather be.
I think what hits me is that the people thought what they were doing was right. Is that not so often what we see in culture today? Is it not so often what I see in my own life today? But I am reminded that my life is not my own. God is in control – not me. And so what I think of my own accord or how I feel – that is not what I am called to follow after. Obedience to God – now that is the calling. Lord help me to keep obeying.
Listen to In the Hands of the Potter by casting crowns – so much hear fuel in response to today’s lesson and reading !!
Thank you Catherine. I’ve never heard this song before and just listened to it now. And there was even a short teaching by Mark Hall from Casting Crowns. Thank you I needed this this morning.
Sisters I love the words you bring every day. So many perspectives from women seeking to know Him more. I am blessed by each of you!
“But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.” Jeremiah 18:4
God does it throw me away because I am flawed; He remakes me as it seems right for him to do. What an encouragement. I am a flawed vessel; yet God takes me, remakes me and uses me for the purposes He sees fit.
In Him we live and move and have our being. What do we have, what can we do, what can we be without Him? This scripture in Acts speaks to my heart and makes me know it’s all God.
When I look back over my life I can see the many times God tried to get my attention and warn me of coming trouble or to correct my wandering off the path He had planned for me. He has placed a number of Jeremiah’s in my life that I am so grateful for. And when God uses them to speak truth to me I know if I don’t pay attention I will regret it later. Thank you Father God for loving me so much You won’t leave me where I am. Thank you for continued shaping and molding that makes me more like Jesus.
I want to be a “ vessel made for honorable use “. I pray for discernment as next steps to take in life . I am interested in pursuing a second career this year , but I’m not sure the timing is right since my son is only two ( and studying with a two year old to try and CLEP out of math has been revealing!) . In life , I tend to force things to happen in effort to feel valuable , and I won’t want this to be another decision made in that same grassy, striving posture that is looking for the “next fix” to feel worthy. But, this is also something I’ve pondered and felt led to a decade in the making . Lord, Please show me clearly the use You intend for this vessel at this point in time . It’s hard for me to know what is fear holding me back versus You providing warning to keep our paths straight . Amen.
I meant to say grasping , not grassy !
“They don’t realize how fragile they are…” this statement really hit me. I think I’m so strong on my own. I think I have everything under control and forget the One who is really in Control. Today’s lesson made me realize that my Maker knows me better than I know myself and if I lean into him he will shape me into the woman he wants me to be.
I am thinking of the blessedness of parenting this morning and the potters wheel.
God the Master Potter, allows the speed with which the wheel rotates. His hands are the safe walls that bend and form the clay.
As parents, God entrusts a small amount of clay into our hands for short time. The wheel begins to turn and we try to guide, shape, and structure, like He does and did, through soft and light pressure. His hand over ours. For He loves the precious clay He has given us even more than we do. He doesn’t need my hands…they are more of a hindrance than a help, and yet He holds them. He guides them. He bends my fingers. I know His love, and it penetrates through my hands and into the precious clay He has given. My hand upon the clay becomes lighter and lighter as the vessel nears completion. I am changed. The vessel is changed. Yielded, formed by His touch, both useful and beautiful.
Thank you God.
Beautiful! I only wish I’d known & trusted the Lord when more of my children were little.
This is so beautiful Angie, thank you so much for sharing it.
Love this truth!
Beautiful imagery! Will try to remember
Beautiful imagery! Need to remember this daily in my parenting. Thank you, Angie.
I love this picture. And as a church leader’s wife, I can’t help but think this same concept applies to us, as well.
Thank you for this visual and reminder of our children being like clay.
What a powerful reading! The fact that God makes us and molds us the way He wants is so comforting. I don’t have to be anything except what God has made me to be, and I can find peace in that. When I am not partaking in things the world is partaking in, I can fix my eyes on Jesus and let Him be my guide.
When I read Bailey ‘s writing, “The outcome of the clay is at the mercy of your hands. The same is true of us and our Maker.” it made me realize how I need to let my Maker have more control over my life. I need to let Him guide me, show me the way, the outcome He has planned, my calling so to say. In other words, I need to let God have the reins. As the saying I have many times goes, I need to “Let God and let go.” Lord help me to let You be my Guide, my Light, my Way. Help to remember to let You have reins when it comes to my life. Remind me that You have been with through the good and the not-so-good. And as You know I’ve had some hard not-so-goods in my life. Thank you Lord for “always having my back.” Amen.
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I’m reminded of the message my pastor just taught. In the book of Daniel, they were trying to trap Daniel by having the king set a decree that all could only pray or bow to him. He was talking about the people praying to a king that didn’t have power. The king actually liked Daniel, and didn’t want him thrown in the lions’ den. In fact, he didn’t eat and had trouble sleeping or maybe the Scripture said that he couldn’t sleep at all while Daniel was in the den. He rushed there at the crack of dawn to see if Daniel was alive. He was! The king wanted to change the edict, but couldn’t, even though he was king. We have a King that is Sovereign, and nothing is too hard for Him. He talked about the term plus one on invitations. My pastor said God is always our plus One! Daniel entered the den with his plus One! Just like God didn’t abandon Daniel, He never leaves us or forsakes us. He is always there! We may stray, but God is faithful. The lions’ roar would be scary, but at the name of Jesus, demons shudder. Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. May we not serve worthless, powerless idols. May I/ we be convicted, and repent and serve the One True God! Also, I’m thinking of the scripture that talks about two paths. One leads to life and one to death. May we choose life by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and draw others to Him in Jesus’ Mighty Name Amen!
Plus one. What a great reminder of God always with us. Thank you for sharing that, Kristen.
Love thinking that God is my plus one
Love the “Plus one” image!
Well said. Thank you Lord for always being my Plus One! Amen!