Parable of the Potter
Open Your Bible
Jeremiah 18:1-23, Jeremiah 19:1-15, 2 Kings 21:10-12, Romans 9:20-21
BY Bailey Gillespie
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.
57 thoughts on "Parable of the Potter"
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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.
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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.
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Bailey, I am praying that you find your way back to God.
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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!
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Praying and cheering for you, Bailey!
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Praying for you Bailey.
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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!
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Keeping you and Nashville close to my heart and in my prayers.
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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.
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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.
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Listen to In the Hands of the Potter by casting crowns – so much hear fuel in response to today’s lesson and reading !!
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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.
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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!
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“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.
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