Sometimes this process is done with rods. He searches out and removes any little twig, stone or impurity. With infinite care, the potter kneads and molds the clay. Aren’t you glad His grace and mercy extended down into that pit and gave you salvation? Aren’t you glad He didn’t turn away from the dirty, sinful place where He found us? Aren’t you glad His love constrained Him to provide for our salvation with infinite love and patience even while we were His enemies? Have you thanked Him lately for your salvation? 2. He had to exercise infinite love and patience with many of us as we resisted His Spirit’s call to salvation. With great love and infinite care, our Savior drew us up out of the filthy pit, set our feet on a rock, and established our going (Psalm 40:2). When the Master Potter came looking for us, He found us in the filth of our sins. This image reminds us of the horrible pit from which we were drawn. Phillip was amazed at the time it took and at the filth he had to sift through to find the clay. He carefully lifted out the proper clay and placed it in his container. He spent a great deal of time picking the exact clay that he wanted. The old potter reached down with his long fingers and felt for the right clay with great care. He lifted a trapdoor to reveal his clay bank. Phillip told how the old potter in Afghanistan took him out behind his little shed to a riverbank. Gathering the clayīefore the potter can start, he needs to gather clay. God is not particularly looking for clever or brilliant people, but for faithful people. It is encouraging and exciting to realize that God can use the ordinary, simple things and people in His service. There are lessons God can teach us today from even the ordinary, dirty clay. In this lesson, we will look at six steps in the pottery-making process and draw lessons from each. As we seek to understand the potter’s work, truths about our spiritual lives begin to emerge. The potter refers to God and the clay to His people. The Bible contains many illustrations of potters and clay. Then just as quickly, he began to shape another vessel from the marred lump. Quickly the potter pressed the flawed vessel back into a lump of clay. As Jeremiah watched, the vessel began to wobble and crack. Then he drew the vessel into a bowl-like shape by applying upward pressure with his hands.
As it revolved, he pressed his thumbs deep into the clay to open up the vessel. As the potter turned the lower wheel with his bare feet, the upper wheel revolved smoothly, allowing the potter to shape the lump of clay into a vessel that suited him.Īs Jeremiah watched, he saw the potter place a lump of clay on the center of the wheel. The potter’s wheel in Jeremiah’s day consisted of two parallel clay or stone wheels connected by a shaft. The King James Version records an interesting historical note in verse 3 where it reads, “. . . he wrought a work on the wheels.” There is no need to wonder if the potter was working on two wheels at the same time when we understand the construction of a potter’s wheel in the time of Jeremiah. As Jeremiah entered the potter’s house, he saw the potter working on his wheel. Jeremiah obeyed, going down the winding, narrow streets in the lower city of Jerusalem, near the rich clay deposits in the Valley of Ben Hinnom.
In Jeremiah 18, the Lord told the prophet to go down to the potter’s house. As Phillip watched the man working, the Lord brought to him some powerful lessons. He said the pieces were equal to anything that could be seen in the most expensive China shop anywhere in the world. The pieces were of the most varied shapes Phillip had ever seen. The pottery was exquisite, transparent, and shimmered in the light. He examined the pieces of finished pottery on the hut’s shelves.
He told how he watched the potter going about his work. The late Phillip Keller, author of the books, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 and A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd and His Sheep, told of his visit to this man’s little shack. In a rugged village, high in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan, lived a famous potter.
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