We Are Clay

"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 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 made 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

A potter needed a workshop in which to make his pottery. In Jeremiah's time the workshops were located in the Valley of Hinnom that was near the Potsherd Gate. This gate was near the tower of the pottery kilns. Potters not only needed to be near the kilns but they also needed a field. They needed this field for "weathering the dry native clay-dust or wet stream-bank clay and for mixing it with water and treading it by foot into potter's clay." (Bible Dictionary). Sand or crushed stone was added to temper the clay. Once the clay was ready the potter would knead it for several hours to ensure that all bubbles were removed from it.

There were two ways of forming a pot. The potter could either free-hand it by using long sausage-like rolls of clay. Or he could throw a ball of clay on the center of a dual stone wheel. To form a pot on the wheel either he or an assistant would spin the wheel counter-clockwise. With his other hand he would thrust it into the middle of the ball of clay to hollow it out. Because of the centrifugal force of the wheel, the potter is able to shape a pot within minutes with light pressure of his fingers. If in any time the jar became marred while being made, the potter was able to easily reshape it back into a clay ball and remake it into another jar.

Besides Jer. 18:4 I have written, "There is no type of failure that He has not taken hold of and remade." It is great timing that this verse and quote has come to me as I know I have made a big mistake and failed to do things in a more loving manor or maybe dealt with it differently. It makes me feel like a failure and not sure how I can live it down. But God can change what I did for His good because He is 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).

We are the work of His hands! From what I learned about being a potter it does seem like it's difficult time consuming work. God molds us by the trials and pain we go through just like the potter treads the clay by foot into pottery clay. We are scraped and made moldable like the clay is tempered by the sand and/or crushed stone that is added to it. It takes time to prepare us for God's work just like it takes several hours of kneading the clay to prepare it for the wheel. Through the spinning God places Himself in our hearts just like the potter thrusts his hands into the middle of the clay ball to hollow it out. And like the light pressure that is used to form the pot, so is God's love and gentleness used to form us.

I assume that the pain comes in when our sinful nature gets in the way. It is by this sin that we become marred. And it is only through pounding and kneading that the jar can be made back into a ball of clay that can be remade again. I find it interesting that we are always in that moldable stage. Or I should say, we should always make sure we continue to be in that stage because once the pot is fired it becomes hard. It therefore ceases to be remolded and reshaped for the only way for it to cease becoming what it is it to be broken never to be used again.

Bottom line - We need to be moldable clay and allow God to be our Potter. Unfortunately, we do make mistakes but if we continue to be that soft clay then God is able to work within us to reshape us and turn our failure into His glory.

Krista Jones
8.17.08

Beginning to End: Jeremiah 18-22
Old and New Testaments Together: Psalm 97-99 & Romans 16
Historical: Job 40-42
Chronological: Jeremiah 35-37
Blended: Psalm 97-99 & Galatians 2

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