Jeremiah 18:1-4 – God is shaping our destiny.

In the Bible, a potter is seen as a skillful craftsman who uses his artistic talent to create vessels such as dishes, pots, mugs, and vases from clay. While some vessels that a potter would make were purely works of art for decorative and display pieces, most potters would make functional pottery vessels for everyday use in the home. The potter’s main equipment would be the wheel. He would start by putting a lump of clay on the wheel. Then as he spun the wheel, he would shape the lump of clay with his moistened hands to make it into the vessel he wants to make.

In Jeremiah 18:1-4, God instructed Jeremiah to a Potter's house to see an illustrated sermon. Of course, Jeremiah obeyed willingly and went down to the Potter’s house and there he saw the potter at work.  The potter started out to make a vessel and realize that it did not turn out to be what he first had in mind. So he skilfully reshaped what he had made into another vessel that pleased him. God’s intended message from this potter and his clay was to show that as the potter, He has the right and ability to reshape His people into the kind of vessel He wants them to be.

One thing to note as we seek to identify the message God to us through different people and situations. His messages to us  are discernible when we stay sensitively and receptively connected to Him. However, one guiding principle to keep in our hearts is that whatever message God has for us through people or circumstances, it must always be consistent and in line with the Bible, His Written Word. Everything for our faith and practice has already been made known in the Scriptures. God’s message for us will always be in line with what He had already revealed there. This is the guide rail for us so that we will be able to discern and avoid heretical teachings.           

 

Know it or not our lives are in God’s hands. Like a skillful potter, He is constantly shaping us. He uses people, our daily circumstances, and experiences as the spinning wheel as He moistened His skillful hand to make us into the vessels that He intends us to be. The process is easy when we yield to Him in obedience. If we resist, the wheel will have to be spun harder to reshape us. The Bible makes it clear that the end goal of God for each of us is Christlikeness. Yielding to Him becomes easier when we know what He wants out of us.