The Potter's Workmanship

Beautiful pots formed by hand by skilled artisans in a Nigerien village

While at SIM SendOff (pre-field training) in Charlotte this week, we were asked to consider the following passage of the Old Testament from Jeremiah. I thought I would share some of the wisdom and insights I gained as I reflected on it:

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.”  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there [s]he was, making something on the two stone slabs.  But the vessel that [s]he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so [s]he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel." 

-Jeremiah 18:1-6 (NASB)

I imagined myself in the prophet Jeremiah's place as I meditated on the passage. Every sight, sound, and smell of that Nigerien village, which some of you might remember me visiting in February, came back to me. The dust in the air tickled my nose as I walked through the village. I had to duck to enter the door of the mud-and-straw hut of the potter. It smelled of donkey dung and it was humid and cool inside. Several of us crowded around to watch. I recalled the potter's leathery skin and her pop-bottle eyeglasses as she crouched on the floor and demonstrated her skills for us, and heard the THWACK of her paddle and her occasional shouts at the curious children to clear the doorway so that she could see by the bright light of the desert sun. 

One of the potters at work; she uses donkey dung to make the clay and water to mold it, beating the shape into being with a flat wooden paddle. She works by daylight since she has no electricity

Asking God what lessons He wanted me to take away from this object lesson, I reflected on the following:

• the potter/God makes beautiful vessels for her/His use out of the available materials; dirty things (like donkey dung!) have a purpose (see Isaiah 1:16 & Romans 6:13)
• when the vessel comes out imperfect or lumpy, the potter/God doesn't throw it away; she/He reshapes it into something beautiful again (see Colossians 2:13, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
• the way to reshape it is by adding more water; in the Bible, water is the wellspring of life, or a symbol of the Holy Spirit (see John 4:10-14, Revelation 22:1-6)
• as the potter shapes the pot, she/He molds it firmly with her/His hands, and sometimes a good THWACK! (see Deuteronomy 8:5, Proverbs 3:11-12)
• the potter pulls off any unnecessary bits and tosses them away, until the pot is perfect (see John 15:1-3 for a similar analogy)

Pretty cool, right? Feel free to comment with your own insights!