And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Jeremiah had just watched a potter crush a spoiled lump of clay and start again. Now God speaks and gives that silent scene its meaning: it is a message about His right over a whole nation, and about the mercy He shows when a nation turns.
God sent Jeremiah to watch ordinary work before giving him anything to say. One writer sees more than a craftsman in that workshop:
He was to see a real work there; vessels made by the hand and skill of the workman. But there was a lesson in the work, as well as a reality. There was a parable in it; for the prophet had to see God Himself at the wheel, as well as the potter.
God aimed that word at a whole nation, and its first lesson is about who holds whom:
Having seen what the potter did, the Lord spoke to His servant as He had promised. He addressed His words to the house of Israel. God was instructing His servant as to His sovereignty, saying, "Can I not do with you as this potter has done? … Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel" (Jer. 18:5-6). The nation of Israel was not free to do exactly as it pleased, for it was in God's hand and He could do with it just as He pleased.
The picture argues from the smaller to the greater:
If the creature of dust can do as he pleases with the clay, how much more the Sovereign God. The Holy Spirit clearly uses this in Romans 9:20-32.
The spoiled vessel matched what Israel had become:
God in His goodness had brought them out of Egypt. He had planted them in the land of promise to be a witness for Himself to the nations of the world. He had hedged them in, keeping them apart from the nations… Sadly, they were found marred in the hand of the potter. They had become polluted with idolatry; their kings, their priests, their princes, their elders, and the people themselves were all caught up in the ruin. That ruin was about to bring the judgment of God on them.
One writer sets out what the passage shows about man:
The will of man is only evil. The sole hope is in God Himself. But Israel, like Christendom now, feels neither, even where both are confessed in words. For where grace works there is a real turning from evil, and man is quick to claim the credit for it. On the other hand, man is prone to depart from the living God. And God would deny Himself if He made light of disobedience, and treated evil in His sight as if it were good.
God had already spared one guilty city:
How wonderful is God's mercy! He has no delight in judgment, but He delights in mercy… Jonah had pronounced the judgment of God on the guilty city, crying, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"… Then we read, "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it." How very sad it is to see God's people Israel reject God's offers of mercy by refusing to turn from their evil ways! They were just as evil as the Ninevites, but with less excuse, since they had more light.
The picture does not stop with Israel:
In Jeremiah 18 we have seen God's ways with the nations, but in Romans 9 we learn something of God's ways with people… Every person, like every nation, is a marred vessel in the hand of the Potter. For we have all become marred by sin, and by taking our own evil way… Those who reject His mercy come in for judgment, and those who listen to Him He brings into blessing.
One writer points to a later scene where the clay is no longer soft:
This time it is not clay that can still be formed but an earthen vessel that has been hardened in the fire. It can only be broken. The message is clear but solemn. There is a time when discipline can be accepted for profit, and there is a time when it is too late.
- Sign, then word. Jeremiah watched real work at a wheel. Then God's word turned that scene into a message about Himself.
- Hand. The message is about position. A nation is clay, and God holds it. If a man may do as he pleases with clay, far more may the Sovereign God.
- Marred. Israel matched the spoiled vessel. Idolatry had reached kings, priests, princes, elders and people alike.
- Turn. God relents when a nation turns from evil. Nineveh proved it. Israel refused, with more light than Nineveh had.
- Remade. Romans 9 brings the picture down to each person: every one of us is marred clay in the Potter's hand. Those who listen to Him He brings into blessing. Clay left to harden can only be broken.
House of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, house of Israel.
God sends Jeremiah to a workshop to watch a craftsman at his wheel. Then He turns that scene into a message for the whole nation. What does it mean to be clay in God's hand? Does that crush a people, or give them their only real hope?
The sign works by comparison. A man shaping a pot has full control over the lump in front of him. God presses that everyday fact into a much larger claim.
If a creature made of dust can do as he pleases with the clay, how much more the Sovereign God. The Holy Spirit clearly uses this in Romans 9:20-32.
The point lands on Israel's freedom to act:
The nation of Israel was not free to do exactly as it pleased, for it was in God's hand and He could do with it just as He pleased.
Jeremiah watched a vessel spoil under the potter's hands. That was the nation's state when God spoke — and not because God had neglected them.
In His goodness God had brought them out of Egypt. He had planted them in the land of promise to be a witness for Himself to the nations of the world. He fenced them in and kept them apart from the nations, so that they might be free from all their pollutions. He protected them. He gave them His law, so that they might know how to be pure as a people for Himself. Sadly, they turned out marred in the potter's hand.
The verse names Israel. One writer sees the same hand at work over every nation in history.
The circle of civilization is to Him just what the workshop is to the potter. The potter holds the clay and shapes it into vessels of many forms. In the same way the Lord holds the nations in His hands, shaping and forming them as He thinks good. Who can question the work of God?… Where is haughty Assyria, and corrupt Babylonia? How low has He brought Persia and Greece and Rome for their sins!
The clay is helpless, but a marred vessel was not thrown out of the workshop.
They could not escape from the hand of God, but God was prepared, like the potter, to make them into another vessel, a vessel that would be for His pleasure.
One writer marks the one point where the comparison breaks down:
In this You are unlike the potter, for You have said: "If that nation I have spoken about turns from its evil, then I will relent of the harm I meant to do to them."
Romans 9 picks up the potter and turns the picture on single lives. Commentators see the two chapters covering different ground.
In Jeremiah 18 we have seen God's ways with the nations. In Romans 9 we learn something of God's ways with people… Every person, like every nation, is a marred vessel in the hand of the Potter. We have all become marred by sin, and by taking our own evil way… Those who reject His mercy come in for judgment, and those who listen to Him He brings into blessing.
There is a careful limit on what the picture proves:
The potter's power over the clay establishes God's absolute right to act as He will, without giving an account of His matters to man. Yet the illustration does not teach that God has made any vessel for dishonour. It asserts and upholds God's rights, and no more.
One writer finds the same process at work in a single life.
God did then what He loves to do now — He stepped in and converted Paul, the foremost opponent of the church. The "chosen vessel" was an apostle of Satanic hate one moment and an apostle of Christ the next. A wonderful transformation that was, very like the figure given us in Jeremiah 18:2-6, where the potter worked the shapeless clay. First the vessel was in the mind of the potter, then he worked on the wheel and formed the vessel, and then the mind of the potter was in the vessel.
- Clay — a potter does as he pleases with a lump of earth. God's right over a nation is far greater.
- Marred — Israel became spoiled clay, and not for lack of care. God had freed them, planted them, fenced them in and given them His law.
- Nations — the whole circle of civilization is God's workshop. Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome were all shaped and broken in His hands.
- Mercy — here God is unlike a potter. If a nation turns from its evil, He turns from the harm He planned, and He makes the same lump again.
- Vessels — Romans 9 applies the picture to people. It asserts God's right; it does not teach that He made anyone for dishonour. With Paul, the vessel first lay in the Potter's mind, then the Potter's mind filled the vessel.