Monday morning, May 6, 1974, in Yishmin, Virginia. Ministry given through Brother Stephen Kong.
Lord, how we pray and thank Thee for gathering us together here this morning. We are Thy children by the precious blood. We belong to Thee, and Thou dost belong to us. O, how we thank Thee for the privilege that we have in coming together in the Name that is above every name.
O, how we praise and thank Thee for the privilege of knowing Thee, for the grace that has brought us to Thyself. We pray that Thou wilt take us in Thy heart today, expecting Thee to shine upon us, to speak to us, and to continue Thy good work in us until Thine image is reflected and Thy glory is obtained.
O, how we praise and thank Thee that it does not depend upon us; it does depend upon Thyself. We can just present ourselves to Thee for Thy work, Thy perfect work. So, Lord, we ask Thee at this very moment that Thou wilt not only quiet our hearts, but wilt open our understanding. Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of Thyself.
There is nothing that satisfies us other than that which can satisfy Thee. So, while we do long to know Thee and to know Thy will, we pray that Thou wilt anoint us with Thy Holy Spirit, that Thou wilt make this time a very real time—living, real, and of eternal value to Thyself.
Remember Thy people all over the world. We praise and thank Thee that Thou art working toward Thy prime purpose. We do thank Thee for that. In Thy precious name, Amen.
We would like to share together on the book of Jeremiah. Of course, Jeremiah is a big book. That is the reason why he is called a major prophet. You know, this division into major and minor prophets is very arbitrary. It does not depend upon anything other than the length of the books.
Here we find the book of Jeremiah, a very lengthy book of fifty-two chapters. We are not able to go through all these chapters, but I think before we begin this morning, we would like to give a little outline of the whole book. Probably that will help you when you are studying the book of Jeremiah.
Roughly, the book of Jeremiah can be divided as follows. Of course, everyone may give a different division, but we are doing this simply as a help to you. You do not need to follow it very closely.
Jeremiah Chapter 1 may be considered the first division, because there you find the call and commission of Jeremiah. That we had last night. God called him when he was a young man, and God commissioned him not only for the negative work of breaking down, but for the positive work of planting and building. That is Chapter 1.
From Jeremiah Chapter 2 through Chapter 39, we have the prophecies before the destruction of Jerusalem. These are the prophecies that Jeremiah prophesied before Jerusalem fell and the people entered into captivity.
Within these chapters, Jeremiah prophesied during the reigns of three kings. During the reign of King Josiah, from Chapter 2 through Chapter 12, he prophesied approximately ten years.
Then, from Chapter 13 through Chapter 23, these are the prophecies of Jeremiah during the reign of Jehoiakim, approximately eleven years. Following that, from Chapter 24 through Chapter 39, we have the prophecies of Jeremiah during the reign of Zedekiah, again about eleven years. These are the prophecies of Jeremiah before the destruction of Jerusalem.
The third division is from Chapter 40 through Chapter 44. These are the prophecies of Jeremiah after the destruction of Jerusalem. Again, that can be divided into two parts.
The first part is his prophecies concerning the remnant in Judah. You know, after Jerusalem was destroyed, still the poorest of the people remained in Judah. Here you find Jeremiah prophesying concerning their fate. That is from Chapter 40 through Chapter 43:7.
From Chapter 43:8 through Chapter 44, we have Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning the remnant in Egypt. They did not listen to Jeremiah’s mind to remain in Judah and to serve the Lord. Instead, they went down to Egypt. There you find the prophecies concerning the remnant in Egypt.
Now, Chapter 45 actually was a prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the scribe Baruch. That should belong to the second division, because this prophecy was given in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim. So let us put Chapter 45 with the second division.
From Chapter 46 through Chapter 51 are prophecies of Jeremiah concerning the nations—not concerning Judah and Jerusalem, but concerning all the nations. Finally, Chapter 52 is a conclusion, a historical supplement.
Roughly, you find that the book of Jeremiah can be divided in this way. Of course, there are certain chapters which, chronologically, must be placed at an earlier stage. For instance, the prophecies of Jeremiah concerning the nations were actually given during the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. So the book is not arranged entirely chronologically.
In other words, the prophecies concerning the nations were pronounced during the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. But otherwise, I think this will probably help you when you are studying Jeremiah, because otherwise you may think there was no order in that book. Actually, there is a certain order.
This morning, we would like to concentrate on one passage in Jeremiah. It is found in the eighteenth chapter. We will read Jeremiah Chapter 18, verses 1 through 12.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words.
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought his work on the wheels.
And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel.
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;
if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
if they do that which is evil in My sight, that they obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
But they say, There is no hope; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, “Go down to the potter’s house, and there thou shalt hear My words.” Usually, a potter’s house at that time was situated outside the city. It was in the valley outside the city of Jerusalem. God commanded Jeremiah to go down there and to watch.
No doubt, Jeremiah knew this potter’s house. It had probably been there for a long while, and Jeremiah had lived in Jerusalem long enough to know that there was such a potter’s house. I wonder whether he had ever visited that potter’s house before.
There are lots of public houses today, but whether we have visited these houses or not is another matter. Now God commanded him to go down to the potter’s house and there to hear the word of the Lord.
We may think that if we want to hear the word of the Lord, we have to go to the palace or to a university. Surely, these places seem more likely for us to hear the word of the Lord. But no. God ordered the prophet to go down to the potter’s house—a most common, ordinary place, a very humble place—and yet there he was to hear God’s word.
Brothers and sisters, we often think that to hear God’s word, we have to go somewhere very special. But oftentimes you find God does speak to us in the most common, unexpected places. God can use the everyday affairs, the things with which we are fully acquainted, the things we consider very insignificant. Yet God can speak through these things.
You remember our Lord Jesus when He was on earth. O, how He often used the most common things to teach us the deepest spiritual lessons. He would look at the lilies of the field—most common in the land of Judah. Everybody saw them and paid no attention to them because they saw them so often. Yet our Lord Jesus could point to those lilies and teach us the most precious lessons.
He said, “Look at the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin; and yet even the glory of Solomon cannot be compared with the clothing God has given to these lilies.” If you lived in the country, you would see them everywhere.
The Lord was able to point to the birds of the air and say, “Look how the heavenly Father takes care of them, and how much more precious are you than these birds.” One penny, you get two sparrows; two pennies, you get five sparrows. But even that extra sparrow, which is worth almost nothing, does not fall to the ground apart from the Father.
The Lord used the sower, the reaper, the mountain, the mustard seed, the wind, the river—everything. “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Be removed into the sea.’” When the Spirit works, it is like the wind blowing. You find our Lord Jesus able to teach us these lessons with the most common things of life.
If we are spiritually minded, if we live in the Spirit, we do not need to go to any special place or see anything spectacular in order to hear the word of God. You can hear the word of God in the most common things of life and in the most humble places.
Brothers and sisters, how much we have missed because we are always looking for some special place and some spectacular scene, thinking that only there and then are we able to hear the word of the Lord. But oftentimes you find the word of the Lord comes differently.
Now, if Jeremiah had disobeyed God—if he had said, “Lord, why dost Thou send me to a potter’s house? That is a humble place. What can I learn in a potter’s house?”—and had refused to go, what precious lessons he would have missed, and what precious lessons we would miss too.
So, first of all, in this incident we are exhorted not to look for high places, not to look for special, spectacular things. Let us be humble before the Lord. If we are spiritually minded, if we live in the Spirit, we ought to be able to learn very special and deep lessons in the common affairs of our lives—anywhere, everywhere.
Jeremiah obeyed God. He went down to the potter’s house, and he watched the potter work on the wheels. Even today, the way people work on the wheels in the art of pottery is not much different from ancient times. They still use clay and put it on the wheel. Now the wheel may be connected to electricity, but the principle is still the same.
In the old days, the potter would put a lump of clay on the wheel. Then he would turn the wheel with his foot. As the wheel began to turn quickly, he would use his two hands to work on the clay, working inside and outside, forming and molding and shaping it into a vessel.
As Jeremiah watched the potter working, it was fascinating to see the wheel operating. Suddenly, he saw that the vessel the potter was working on was marred in his hand. Some hidden flaw, some hidden resistance, caused it not to respond to the hands of the potter. It was marred; it was broken.
What a disappointment it must have been to the potter. Jeremiah fully expected the potter to throw away the clay and finish with it, taking up another lump of clay and working on that. But unexpectedly, he noticed that instead of throwing away the clay that was marred in his hand, the potter gathered up all the fragments, kneaded them again, and made another vessel out of it, as seemed good to him.
That was what Jeremiah saw in the potter’s house. And as he saw this, the word of the Lord came to him.
Brothers and sisters, there are a number of things that God wants us to learn in this potter’s house. Number one: before a potter puts the clay on the wheel, he has an idea. He has a concept. He has an image in his mind of what he is going to make out of that clay.
A potter is not like a child playing with clay. When a child plays with clay, he has no idea what will come out of it. He is just playing with it, and whatever comes out is almost by accident. But this is not the way with a potter. He is a skilled person.
Before he puts his hand on the clay, before he even puts the clay on the wheel, he already has an idea in his mind of what he is going to make. He has already visualized a vessel. With that image in his mind, he begins to work on the clay.
How true this is with the divine Potter, our God. Brothers and sisters, before we were born, before God formed us, before we were created and made, God already had an idea. He had a concept—more than a concept, He had an image.
Because of that, you find in Genesis that God said:
Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.
God was going to make man, but before He worked, He already had an image. He was not just playing around with clay. He knew what He was doing. He had an image there.
We all know what that image is. Man was created in the image of God, and this image is the image of His beloved Son. That is why, in the first place, God created us.
Knowing this gives purpose and direction to our lives. A lot of people today do not have a purpose; they do not have a direction. Many people think they simply came into this world by accident, and they live day by day, just going on.
They do not know that before God ever made them, God already had an idea—more than an idea. There is a spiritual reality there. With that spiritual reality, the image of His beloved Son, God begins to work until we are conformed to that image. This is the first lesson God wants us to learn.
The second lesson is this: after the potter has an idea of what he is to do with the clay, then he begins to work with a plan. Remember, it is the work of the potter, not the work of the clay.
The clay is there simply receiving the working of the potter. Whatever the potter desires to do with the clay, all the clay is responsible to do is respond to the hand of the potter.
Oftentimes, we are very slow to learn this lesson. But the Bible says that we are His workmanship. It is God who works in us. He is working out His purpose in our lives, and all He requires of us is that we respond to His hand, yield to Him, and cooperate with Him. That is all we can do, and that is all that is required of us.
We are so proud of ourselves. We will not accept that. We think, “Certainly there is something we can do. Certainly we can help Him.” So we begin to help Him with all that we know and with good intentions. But, brothers and sisters, as the clay is with the potter, so are we with God.
If we try to do it ourselves, if we try to help Him in the work, we only spoil the vessel. How much work of God has been spoiled because of our help!
Suppose the clay would say, “Let me help the potter.” Yet the clay does not know the image, the idea, the concept in the potter’s head. Suppose the potter is going to make the clay into a vase or a bowl, and yet the clay wants to be something else. Immediately, there is conflict between the working of the potter and the working of the clay. They pull in opposite directions, and no doubt the whole thing will be spoiled.
Brothers and sisters, God is the Potter; we are the clay. The only difference is that clay is inanimate. There is no personality in it; it cannot do anything. But with us it is different. We have a will of our own. We have a personality of our own. Because of that, how much more is required of us that we yield ourselves to the Lord.
Oftentimes, especially after people are saved, the first question is, “What can I do for God? How can I help Him?” Then invariably we are told, “You have talents, do you not? You have experience, do you not? Use your past experience. Use your talent to help Him.”
That is what Christianity often becomes: we are all helping God. And what a mess we make. How far short of God’s will we fall.
The first lesson a Christian must learn is that God is not expecting you to do anything. He is doing everything. You are His work. He is not expecting you to work for Him; you are His work. He wants you to yield yourself to Him. That is more important than anything you can do.
Brothers and sisters, we are willing to do anything except yield. How much more glorious it seems to us if we can do something for Him; how humiliating it seems to us that we have to just yield to Him. But that is the first thing God requires of us.
If we cannot give Him the first thing, we are opposing His work, being stiff and self-willed. O, that we can learn this lesson. These are very basic lessons—simple, basic—but oftentimes we neglect them.
All that the clay is to do is yield to the hands of the potter, and then the potter’s will will be fulfilled. All that God requires of us, brothers and sisters, is our yieldedness. Just yield to Him.
Probably you have read about this, but I think it is a good illustration. Our dear brother Watchman Nee was much helped by one sister, Miss Barber. This Miss Barber was not a weakling. She had a very strong will, but she loved the Lord very much.
We are told that sometimes there was a conflict of wills. God wanted her for one thing, and she wanted another thing. This was her prayer: “Lord, just wait. Do not give up. Just wait. I will yield.”
Is that not very true? Do you have really such a heart before God? Oftentimes you find you clash with God. Do not tell me that you do not; we often do.
But the thing is, are you willing to yield? You may not be able to yield at once. There may be too much of yourself there. But do you really have the desire to answer, “Lord, do not go away. Be patient with me. Eventually I will yield. I know I will”?
Do we have such a heart? If we have such a desire, there is hope. God is not afraid of a strong will. God is afraid of a stubborn will.
God can do much with a strong will, but a stubborn will stands against Him. O, we know what we are. So the first thing required of the clay is to yield. Remember, it is God’s work—not your work, not my work. It is His work.
Only after we have yielded to Him and let Him complete His work do we find, in Ephesians Chapter 2, that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which He has prepared for us. Only after He has worked within us are we able to work out. That will follow later.
Now, the third lesson. After the potter puts the clay on the wheel, you find the whole work is composed of two things: the wheel and the hands. The wheel turns around, and the hands of the potter work on the clay. Just two things.
What are the wheels? What do they represent? The turning—O, the turning around. Sometimes it turns very quickly; sometimes it turns slowly. But it turns and turns and turns. It speaks of the turning of time and the turning of our circumstances.
Outwardly, time always goes on, turning and turning. Our circumstances are always changing. Sometimes time seems to pass very quickly; sometimes it seems to move a little slower. Sometimes our circumstances change very quickly, and sometimes more slowly. But you find that everything is always moving on, always turning and turning and turning.
This is what life is. Life is in the many turnings of time and circumstances. We have no control over these things. You cannot say, “Now stop.” No, time goes on. You have no control even over your circumstances, because they change so often.
The wheel seems mechanical. It does not seem to have a heart. Therefore, some people say the universe is really hard and harsh. It has no sympathy, no consideration; it just turns and turns and turns.
We do not know the turns, but we know Who turns them. He is turning the wheel. God is the One who is in full control of time and circumstance.
We do not need to be afraid of time or circumstance because we know it is all under His control. It is not as mechanical as we think, because there is One who is in control.
But, brothers and sisters, oftentimes we see only the wheels; we do not see the hands. If you watch the work of pottery, usually the direction of the wheel and the direction of the hands are opposite. The wheel goes one way, and the hand goes another way.
How often you find that in the worst time, in the worst circumstance, God seems to do His best work. You never can tell. It depends upon His hands.
Oftentimes we see only the wheels—the stone wheels, the iron wheels—hard, hard. We blame our time. We blame our circumstances. We blame everything. We even curse the day of our birth. But we do not see the hands—the hands of the Lord upon us.
You find that His hands work both inside and outside of us. He may put His finger into us and break us open. He works both inside and outside, and how tenderly He works with His hands upon the clay, just like embracing the clay with His loving hands.
Brothers and sisters, do we see His hands? That is important. People always see the wheels, and they say, “Life is hard and harsh.” They do not see the hands. If you see the hands, there is a different story.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
The wheels are all things. They all work together for good. Why? Because of Him. He is working out His purpose.
I do hope you can see more than the wheels. Then we will not complain so much. We will begin to understand that nothing happens in our lives blindly. As far as the things themselves are concerned, they may be blind; they may be merely mechanical. But we know God uses these things and turns them into good in the realization of His eternal purpose, that we may be conformed to the image of His Son.
Then, number four. As the potter was working on the clay, with the wheel turning and with his hands embracing it, suddenly the vessel was marred. It was broken. Why?
It was not because there was anything wrong with the potter. It was not because he was not skillful enough to work with the clay. No. It was because there was some hidden flaw in the clay.
The flaw might not appear in the beginning. You might not be able to see it. Yet there was something hidden there. During the working of the wheel and the hands, the hidden flaw became a resistance—a resistance to the hands of the potter. When this happened, the vessel broke up. It was marred; it was broken.
Brothers and sisters, here is another lesson for us. Oftentimes, outwardly, everything seems to be all right. You cannot see anything wrong. But if there is anything hidden there, a flaw somewhere, you may not know it, other people may not know it, and you may not be conscious of it. Yet if there is some hidden flaw, during the working process it will appear sooner or later.
If this is not discovered, then you find that all the work of the potter seems to be in vain, because the vessel is almost done and yet it is spoiled. What a warning that is to us.
O, how we need to be before the Lord all the time, as the psalmist prayed:
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any way of wickedness in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Brothers and sisters, there is no one who can say that there is nothing hidden, no flaw whatsoever, in him or her. We need always to be humbled before the Lord and ask the Lord to reveal us to ourselves.
Do not try to hide anything from God. You cannot hide it anyway. All things are naked and laid open before Him. He knows. He is a discerner of our hearts, our good intentions, and our minds.
Be honest with the Lord. Be before the Lord. Ask the Lord to reveal to us every hidden flaw in us. Our heart is deceitful above all things. It can deceive us—and it does. We need the Lord to reveal it and expose it, so that He may be able to take it away.
Then we will not give resistance to Him. We may be fully yielded to Him, and He may be able to complete His work in us.
But thank God, there is a fifth point. Even though the vessel was marred in the hands of the potter, we might think the potter would surely be finished with it. If you go to a potter’s house, you may find all kinds of fragments scattered around the potter’s field. Many vessels were marred and broken, just thrown there, useless and without purpose.
Yet with this clay, you find the potter did not give up. That is grace. Even though the vessel was almost finished and yet was broken in the hands of the potter, the potter gathered the pieces together, kneaded the clay again, put it on the wheel, and worked patiently with it until he made another vessel out of it, as seemed good to him.
Here is a difference. Usually, when a vessel is marred in the hand of the potter and the potter decides to reuse the clay and make another vessel, the second vessel will be lower than the first vessel. The first vessel he had in mind to make would be the better one, and the second one would be second best. That is the usual thing.
But with our divine Potter it is different. You find that when He remakes the vessel, He renews the clay. He makes another vessel, and in some versions it says, “a new vessel.” In other words, it is even closer, better than the first one.
That is the difference between creation and redemption. When God created man, He created him in His image. But that image was marred. In the Garden of Eden, man lost the image of God. It was marred.
But God sent His Son into this world, and the work of redemption is so excellent that He has not only put us together and remade us, but when it is done, it is even better. It is closer to the original.
Why? Because He put something in us. He put Himself in us. When man was first created, he was created as a vessel to contain God. But that vessel was marred.
Here you find that in Christ we are recreated. When we are recreated in Christ, He puts Himself in us, mingled with us. There in the clay is His life. With that life within us, we are able to be conformed to Him.
God has put a life in us, and with that life—godliness, which is like God—comes the marvel of redemption. Another vessel, a new vessel, closer to His original design, opens all the possibilities for us to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, that He may be the firstborn among many brethren in glory. This is the wonder of it.
There is one more lesson in this passage. When Jeremiah noticed all these things, the word of God came to him and said:
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord.
Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel.
What was the word of God to Jeremiah at that moment? There are many lessons we can learn from the potter and the clay, but the lesson here is this: the potter is free to do with the clay as seems good to him. He is sovereign.
If He should proclaim to a nation or a kingdom, “I will bring evil to you. I will pluck up, I will break down, I will destroy, I will tear in pieces,” and that nation or kingdom should repent, God said, “I will repent of the evil.” In other words, He would not destroy, but would build.
But if the Lord said to a nation or kingdom, “I am going to plant and to build,” but they should do evil, God said, “I will change My way. I will destroy instead of build and plant.” In other words, God is sovereign, and He is very flexible.
The whole fact here concerns the nation of Israel. Because of their evil, they were marred in the hands of the Potter. They should have been thrown away. But God said, “If you repent and return to Me, I am going to remake you into a new vessel. I am able to do that.”
But if you do not repent, if you do not yield, My intention for you is good, but judgment must come. I will destroy. That is a warning.
Brothers and sisters, this is the same thing with us today. It is not fatalism. God is sovereign. God’s eternal purpose never changes, but He often changes His ways—His dealings with men. He is flexible; He is not fixed at all.
If we only humble ourselves before Him and return to Him with our whole hearts, in spite of all that we were, even if the Lord had already decided to break down and destroy, if we will only turn to Him, He is flexible. He will change His way.
He is able to cleanse, forgive, forget, plant, and build. That really gives us hope. But there is a warning: if we persist in evil, then the judgment proclaimed over us will surely come.
You see the heart of God. You see the mercy of God, the grace of God. All God’s desire toward man is noble, is good, is to plant and to build. That is God’s purpose.
But look how stubborn Israel was. “There is no hope. We will not return.” They persisted to the end. Because of that, the nation of Judah was finally destroyed.
These words were spoken by Jeremiah during the reign of Jehoiakim. In other words, these words were spoken to the nation before judgment finally came upon them. God was giving them another opportunity, but they rejected it. Finally, there was the destruction of Judah.
But even so, thank God, it was only seventy years. After that, God in His mercy brought the people back to Jerusalem. The whole thing here is to show us that in judgment there is mercy.
O, the heart of God, the heart of God! How He desires to plant and to build. But how hard and stubborn we can be. So may the Lord have mercy upon us, that we may always be yielding to Him and see the mercy of the Lord prevail.
Our heavenly Father, Thou art the Potter; we are the clay. We praise and thank Thee that even though we are on the wheels, yet we know Thy hands are upon us.
Thou art working Thy purpose out, even to conform us to the image of Thy Son. O Lord, teach us how to be very open before Thee, very humble before Thee. Teach us how to be very honest with Thee.
Lord, teach us how to yield ourselves to Thee, that Thou mayest be able to complete that which Thou hast begun. If there is anything in us that resists Thee, we pray that Thou wilt take it away.
O Lord, we want to see Thy purpose realized in each of our lives and in our lives together as a corporate vessel for Thy glory. So we ask Thee to bless and use Thy word to build us and to plant us. God, in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.