Basic Material
“O house of Israel, am I not able to do to you as did this potter?” declares YHWH.” Jeremiah 18:6
Potter – God sends Jeremiah to the potter’s house. Jeremiah witnesses the potter making a vessel from clay. But something happens. The vessel is ruined. What does the potter do? He starts again with the same lump and makes a new vessel. Why is the potter able to make a new vessel from the same lump of clay? Because the clay is still soft. What is God’s lesson to Jeremiah? As long as the clay is malleable, God can make changes for good, but once the clay is fired in the kiln, it becomes hard. Its shape is set. Only way to change it is to break it. Hardened hearts are the equivalent of kiln-fired clay. God can still initiate change, but it will take breaking. How much better to be soft clay in the hands of the Potter. Then mistakes can be managed easily, new shapes come quickly for revised purposes from the same material. How much better to be soft clay than a fired pot.
The potter (in Hebrew ha-yotser) is the person described by the actions of the verb yatsar. The verb means “to form, to fashion or to shape.” In this context, the noun is potter because the material is clay, but it could be framer if the material were wood or mason if the material were stone or fashion designer if the material were cloth. It is the material that determines the required skills. Since God knows our material very well, He is the consummate artist in developing our usefulness. He is the yotser, the craftsman, the artist, who uses whatever material we are to produce exactly what He needs. We have only one obligation: don’t get hardened!
What good is wood that cannot be cut, stone that cannot be chiseled, cloth that cannot be sewn or clay that cannot be shaped? When we take on hardness of heart, we are no longer capable of being fashioned to fit. The greatest impediment to God’s plans for our lives is not lack of vision. It is loss of flexibility.
Is God able to shape you? Are you malleable in His hands? Or have you been through the kiln? Your mind is made up. Your opinions are convictions. Your actions are habits. Your decisions predetermined. You are steeled sagacity; sanctified self-assurance.
God can work with any kind of material. After all, He formed the universe. The only question we need to ask is how easily we allow Him to operate. He can still break hardened vessels, but the process is very painful. For God and for us. Soft clay is so much more fun. Why not enjoy the squeeze?
Topical Index: clay, yatsar, form, shape, potter, Jeremiah 18:6
Why not enjoy the squeeze?
I say the same thing to my wife, but she doesn’t always cooperate. 🙂
LOL!!! : )
Helen, if LOL means “lots of luck” that was cold. At the same time, probably true. What more important is the wifes willing to be squeezed is for each of us to be willing to be squeezed by God. Now that is hard, to always be willing to submit.
LOL = Laugh Out Loud
Douglas, not my comments Mary.
Opps, not Mary but Helen.
“Yahweh says this: Listen, I have been preparing a disaster for you, I have been working out a plan against you. So now each one of you turn back from your evil ways, amend your conduct and actions.”
Jeremiah 18:11
In Jeremiah 18:11 we have three main characters: Jeremiah, the House of Israel, and Yahweh.
In the movie, Collateral, we have the Director, Michael Mann, Max, and Vincent.
Max: I’m not taking you to see my mother.
Vincent: Since when was any of this negotiable?
Allegorically speaking, the Director Michael Mann is Jeremiah, Max is the House of Israel, and Vincent is Yahweh.
Vincent is the “man with the plan” and Max needs to ADAPT, because Yahweh does not negotiate.
“We have only one obligation: don’t get hardened!”
Easier said than done, however! “But God” still has a way to work with us:
Proverbs 29:1 “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.”
That sounds harsh, cruel, disastrous …. until we view it from G-d’s perspective of love that chastens His children. He brings the reproof through other believers or through His Word or through life’s circumstances (consequences of our choices). He WANTS us in the position of brokenness which is akin to humility. He doesn’t want us to be able to fix ourselves without Him being our Savior!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-jh8jK9lHc&feature=related Grey Holiday “Where You Want Me”
Break me down and take control
I’m tired of this scene
All my dreams are not reality
Everything has turned to dust
And now I understand I must
Stop fighting You and what You have for me
What I know is this
There’s so much I don’t wanna miss
And I know it won’t be easy
You’ve got me where You want me
You’ve got me where You need
You’ve got me where You want me
There’s no other place I would wanna be
For so long I’ve been a mess
So wrapped up in me
I’d see Your hand and struggle to get free
But You loved me just enough
To break my bones and build me up
Again so I could worship at Your feet
“O house of Israel, am I not able to do to you as did this potter?” declares YHWH.” Jeremiah 18:6
In the NY Times today, MANOHLA DARGIS reviews a movie based upon Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go.”
To read the review, you can Google: Growing Up in a Hush, With the Ultimate Identity Crisis By MANOHLA DARGIS
Never Let Me Go (2005) is a novel by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize.
The theme of the book, but I don’t want to give away the ending, has to do with the question of what happens when man starts asking the question in Jeremiah 18:6.
And then acts upon it. That is to say starts making his own pots.
My old friend Michele gave me Never Let Me Go when I was working at Foundry, and I had this strange sense that the book was like working at Foundry.
As I have probably mentioned, I met Michele on my first job as a teaching assistant at UCSD in 1973.
We worked for a Professor named Saul and her husband was named David, but because I hadn’t read the Bible, I didn’t notice that King Saul’s younger daughter Michal became the wife of David, before David met Bathsheeba.
Michele and I studied comparative literature together under Professor Fredric Jameson, whom I had studied under as an undergraduate as well.
Fred was a big fan of Science Fiction and in particular Phillip K Dick who wrote a book called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
You have probably seen Blade Runner with Harrison Ford, well it was based loosely on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
In Phil Dick’s Androids, which is “near future” science fiction, there are no more animals, so people compete for man-made pets as status symbols.
And there are also man-made humans called Androids.
It is a very clever book, but nowhere as sophisticated as Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go.”
Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go” is really a great novel and it is even better if you don’t know the ending. 🙂
Speaking of Androids, when you are watching Collateral there are probably times when you say to yourself, that Tom Cruise character is just too good at what he does.
He must be an Android.