As God Sees Fit
When my kids were young, they loved playing with play-doh and Perler beads. I love watching the things they would create! Plates full of pasta, rainbows, super heroes… but sometimes they didn’t like their own creations. They were stuck. They would get frustrated, upset, and mad. It was always like a breath of fresh air when I would encourage them to use the same materials and start again!
In ancient times, pottery was much more common than play-doh! People used large pottery pots for cooking or storing food as well as small bowls and cups for people to eat and drink from. I love how in the book of Jeremiah, God speaks to the prophet through a word picture. God asks the prophet to go down to the potter’s house, for He wants Jeremiah to deliver a very important message. “So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working at his wheel. Now and then there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit” (Jeremiah 18:3-4). First Jeremiah saw the process and then God spoke, “can I not do with you as this potter deals with the clay?” (Jeremiah 18:6).
The answer to this rhetorical question is YES! God can do with Israel what He wants. God’s sovereign nature, or His supreme authority over creation, stands. While we as humans may wrestle over this aspect of God’s character, we can rest in knowing that He is a good God, even if we don’t understand His ways.
God Provides a Way Back to Him
He is also a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Psalm 103:8 ESV). Even as God speaks to Jeremiah about tearing down Israel and starting again from scratch, He appeals to them through the prophet, “Correct the way you have been living and do what is right” (Jeremiah 18:11). But God also knew their evil hearts and how they would respond. They will reply, “We do not care what you say! We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!” (Jeremiah 18:12).
One thing that seems true from this passage is that if we repent, God can relent. He WANTS us to turn from our evil ways and to follow him, to live righteously as He has instructed us in His word. But there are consequences to our sin. The Israelites did not repent from their evil ways, and God sent them into Babylonian captivity for 70 years. Every step of the way, God was at work to restore His people. After 70 years of being ruled by another nation, Cyrus the Great of Persia, allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple where they could again worship God. God is always providing a way back to Him.
When life is hard, and you feel crushed, my prayer is that you will remember that God is a master of making all things new! He loves you more than you can possibly imagine, and he wants you to seek after Him with your whole heart and walk in His ways. Our obedience matters to God. When we fail, we can rest in the truth that his mercies are new every morning. Jesus paid the highest price to reconcile us to the Father. Will you choose to walk with Him today?
One Response
Sorry I am running behind, I know I need this study so the devil is throwing arrows to get me off course. I am in and will finish. Thank you Lord for your persistent love. Thank you for making this study available.