Jeremiah 18 … Consider the Hand of Our Potter

Originally posted: 5/19/2021

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, ⁶ “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,” (18:5-6).

God sends His servant down to the potter’s house, and before the Lord says a word, Jeremiah is presented with a decisive object lesson clearly demonstrating a pitiful people in the Hand of our Omnipotent God.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, ² “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” ³ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make, (18:1-4).

I couldn’t help but think about when my twin grandkids were toddlers. They always loved when we got out the play dough. And although they were small, with little strength and even less understanding of physics, that play dough didn’t stand a chance in their little hands. The fact is, the play dough was at the mercy of those little ones to do with as they willed.

And this lesson communicated through the potter and the clay is clearly discernible, like my twins and their play dough, though it would not be well-received or accepted.

“But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart,’” (18:12).

And the people again refuse the hope that Almighty God offers, but instead choose to persist in turning away from God in pursuit of their own will; so obstinate, headstrong and hell-bent on chasing after evil.

And as God responds, He dramatically paints the picture of reality. We are clay in the Hand of Our Potter

Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, ⁶ “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,” (18:5-6).

And it’s not at all as though He were asking permission, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” It is a rhetorical question and the answer is obvious. In the demonstration of the potter and the clay, the Lord vividly illustrates His sovereign might and power to deal with His people as He sees fit, and the absolute inability of a lump of clay to thwart His will and withstand against the Hand of Our Potter.

“O Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You,” (2 Chronicles 20:6).

His plan and His purpose will be perfectly completed and none can argue; the Hand of Our Potter will prevail. And as He distinctly pointed out before Jeremiah’s eyes, He is the Potter with all Authority to shape as He Wills. And it is the fool who believes he has the right to question Him.

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—
An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth!
Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’
Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?
¹⁰ “Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’” (Isaiah 45:9-10).

Scripture speaks of the Hand of God in reference to His Sovereign Might and Power over all His creation. Rather than obsessing in our questions, let’s set our hearts to consider the Hand of Our Potter in twelve passages in His Word that spotlight His Sovereign Might and Power over His creation and His Authority to shape His clay as He wills.

Consider the Hand of Our Potter

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He brings us out of slavery.
  • “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt,” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He exerts His judgment.
  • Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed, (Judges 2:15).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He extends His favor.
  • “If it please the king, let letters be given me… ⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me, (Nehemiah 2:7-8).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He delivers us from the enemy.
  • My times are in Your hand;
    Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me, (Psalm 31:15).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He convicts us of our sin.
  • When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
    Through my groaning all day long.
    ⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
    My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer, (Psalm 32:3-4).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He gains our victorious salvation.
  • O sing to the Lord a new song,
    For He has done wonderful things,
    His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
    ² The Lord has made known His salvation;
    He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations, (Psalm 98:1-2).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He satisfies us with good.
  • They all wait for You
    To give them their food in due season.
    ²⁸ You give to them, they gather it up;
    You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good, (Psalm 104:27-28).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He lovingly accomplishes all that concerns us.
  • The Lord will accomplish what concerns me;
    Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting;
    Do not forsake the works of Your hands, (Psalm 138:8).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He turns the hearts of leaders wherever He wishes.
  • The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord;
    He turns it wherever He wishes, (Proverbs 21:1).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He strengthens and upholds us.
  • “Do not fear, for I am with you;
    Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
    I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
    Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand,” (Isaiah 41:10).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He fulfills His predestined purpose.
  • “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, ²⁸ to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur,” (Acts 4:29).

• The Hand of Our Potter shapes His clay as He holds us securely for all of eternity.
  • “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand,” (John 10:27-28).

How do we respond to the Hand of Our Potter?

Can you believe all He has done to make sure we hear and know and see His Truth? Such Grace! But many have turned it upside down, placing themselves in the position of authority and denying the supremacy of the Hand of the Potter, and therefore His Grace; believing they are the masters of their own destiny, and convincing themselves they are accountable to none but themselves.

Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”
¹⁶ You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? (Isaiah 29:15-16).

But in actuality, this attitude incurs judgment. And that possibility should terrify us.

…“The Lord will judge His people.” ³¹ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, (Hebrews 10:30-31).

But oh, His Patience; if we will only repent, turn to Him and humble ourselves under the Hand of Our Potter that He might shape us by His blessings rather than His judgment.

“At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; ⁸ if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. ⁹ Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; ¹⁰ if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it,” (18:7-10).

If we are in the habit of questioning Him, or worse, quarreling with Him, let us repent and resolve to submit to His Truth.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, (1 Peter 5:6).

He Is the Potter, we are not. He is in control, we are not. And we are His children, the work of His Hand, that we might be shaped and exalted in His righteousness and holiness.

Oh, that we would entrust ourselves to His Grace and His Word, that we would be shaped and built up in our faith by the Faithful Hand of Our Potter.

But now, O Lord, You are our Father,
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all of us are the work of Your hand, (Isaiah 64:8).

And now I entrust you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified, (Acts 20:32).

Let’s Grow Together!