The following message by Stephen Kong is based upon Jeremiah 18:1-12.
In order to impress upon the hearts of the children of Israel the message that God desired to bring to them, God commanded Jeremiah the prophet to go down to the potter’s house and there to hear His word.
Most likely, a potter’s house at that time would be situated in a valley, probably just outside the city. No doubt the prophet Jeremiah had passed by the potter’s house many, many times. Whether he had ever gone into the house and watched how the potter made the vessel, we do not know. But at this particular time, God commanded the prophet to go into the potter’s house, because there God would speak His word.
A potter’s house is a very common place. We use pots every day, but whether we have ever visited a potter’s house, I do not know.
We think that, to hear the word of God, you need to go to a very special place. Probably you should go to a parish, or to a university, or to a seminary, to hear the word of God. Certainly, what can you hear in the potter’s house?
But, strange to say, oftentimes you will find God speaks in a very humble environment. It is in our everyday life that God reveals His deepest truths.
We remember our Lord Jesus when He was on earth, how He would tell us all the secrets of God in very small things. The birds are there. Now, we see birds every day, but we do not learn from God any truth. The lilies of the valley were everywhere in the land of Judea, but only the Lord Jesus could teach us a lesson with the lilies of the valley.
Oftentimes, you find our Lord using parables about sowing and reaping. He talks about the trees, the rivers, and the waters. All these things are very common. We see them every day, all the time, and yet oftentimes we do not hear the word of God.
If we are spiritually minded, we will be able to hear the word of God in the commonest things of life.
Oftentimes, we expect that God will send us to some very special place, or God will lead us into some very spectacular situation, and only there will we be able to hear God’s word. You may be waiting all your life for such an occasion.
But, dear brothers and sisters, God moves in a mysterious way. Very often, you will find He will speak to us in a very humble situation—if only we are spiritually minded, if only our spirits are open to the Lord, and if only we are humble enough to be willing to hear and to learn.
So, dear brothers and sisters, here you find God was going to deliver a most important message to His children, but He sent His prophet to the potter’s house.
Jeremiah obeyed God, and he went into the potter’s house. Suppose Jeremiah had talked back to God and said, “Why do You send me to a potter’s house? What word can I hear in such a humble situation?” Suppose Jeremiah thought that he was wiser than God and refused to go to the potter’s house.
Not only would the prophet miss God’s word, but the children of Israel would be deprived of a very important message from God. So, obedience is very necessary.
If we have a spirit of obedience, we will be able to find the word of God in our everyday life. Oftentimes, we are too clever. We think that we know better than God, and that is the reason why, as we walk our own way and go where we want to go, instead of being where God wants us to be, we miss the word of God.
Jeremiah obeyed God, and he went. There he entered the potter’s house, and he saw the potter making a vessel—a very common thing.
The potter took a lump of clay, put it on the wheel, and began to turn the wheel. As he turned the wheel, he put his two hands on the clay and began to fashion it, to mould it, and to form it. Gradually, a vessel came into being.
But as the vessel was almost completed, it suddenly broke—not because the potter was not skilful, but because in the clay there was some hidden flaw, some resistance, something that would not follow the hands of the potter and rebelled against the hands of the potter.
Maybe there were some little particles, impurities that were hidden and not noticeable in the beginning. But when the potter was making that vessel, they came out. As these flaws and impurities came out, the vessel broke in his hands.
Jeremiah probably expected that the potter would simply throw away the broken pieces, take another lump of clay, and try again. But, to his surprise, the potter picked up the pieces—the broken thing—moulded them again, put them together, and patiently worked on the wheel into another vessel.
He could not make it the same vessel, but he was able to make another vessel out of the broken pieces. In some versions, it says that he made it into a new vessel—another vessel, a new vessel.
While Jeremiah was watching the potter making the clay and saw the whole thing, then the word of God came to Jeremiah. God said, “Jeremiah, can I not do with the children of Israel as the potter did with the clay?”
We would like to fellowship together on a few things concerning the potter and the clay.
First, before the potter puts the clay on the wheel, he has in his mind an idea—a unique concept—as to what kind of vessel he is going to make.
A potter is different from a child. A child may play with clay, but he has no idea. He does not have any image in his mind. He does not have a definite concept as to what he will make out of the clay. He just plays with the clay, and whatever comes out, that is it. There is no design; there is no definite aim.
But not with a potter. A potter cannot afford to play around. This is his living; it is too important. So, before he takes the clay and puts it on the wheel, he already has in his mind a vessel. In other words, he visualises a vessel before the vessel is ever made.
Now, is that not true in our relationship with God? God is the master Potter; we are the clay. But before God makes us and forms us, God first has an idea.
Even before the foundation of the world, even before He created Adam and later Eve, God had a concept—more than an idea, more than a concept. It is an image. God has an image before Him.
You remember when God made man in the first place. In Genesis 1, God says:
Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.
God was not playing with clay and seeing whatever came out. No. Before He took the red earth to form it into the form of a man, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” It is more than an abstract idea; it is an image.
Now, we know that God does not have a physical form, because God is Spirit. But whenever the Bible speaks of image and form, it refers to the second Person in the Godhead. God the Father does not have a form. God the Spirit does not have a form. God the Son has an image and has a form.
So, when God first created man, He created man according to His image, which is the image of His Son. We are created in the image of God and after His likeness.
How precious that is, if we understand this. No wonder man is the masterpiece of God’s work. When God created other things, there was an idea or concept. God had a concept of a buffalo, so He made a buffalo. God had a concept of an elephant, so He made an elephant. But when God created man, there was an image, and it was the image of His Son.
That is the reason why, so far as God’s purpose with man is concerned, as we find in Romans 8, we are all predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.
We were created in His image. That is to say, we were created in such a way that we have a capacity for Him. There is a possibility of being united with Him. If we receive His life into us, then we will be united with Him as one.
But unfortunately, through sin the image was marred. It was not destroyed, but thank God, in redemption He is bringing us back to that image, and even more.
Why? Because when Adam was created, he was created in God’s image, but it was a potential. He did not yet have the life of God in him. But we who are redeemed have the life of Christ in us, and that life of Christ, as it grows, will conform us to the image of God’s Son.
The second thing is this: the potter takes a lump of clay, puts it on the wheel, and works on it until it comes out into the vessel which he has in his mind.
Now, you notice that the clay does not do any work. All the work is done by the potter. But there is one thing important with the clay: it must yield to the hand of the potter and not resist.
Dear brothers and sisters, we cannot do anything for God. Oftentimes, our concept is work: “What can we do for God? We want to do this for God. We want to do that for God,” as if we can do the work.
But, dear brothers and sisters, the work is done by God Himself. We are His workmanship.
It is not that we work for God; it is that God works upon us. God works in us. God works until His work is finished in us. He is the worker. He is the Potter. We are the clay.
But does that mean that because God does the work and we do no work, therefore we are not involved? We are involved. In what way? We must yield ourselves to His hand. Now, that is important.
Our attitude is very important: whether we yield to the working of God in our lives, or whether we resist and rebel against His hand. If we yield to Him, then the Potter is able to make us the vessel of His thought, with no problem and no trouble.
But if we resist and rebel, we can delay His work. We can, in a sense, spoil it.
In other words, all that God requires of us is cooperation. Now, does it mean that we have no work and cannot serve God? Not so. But all the works that we may do are the result of His working in us.
It is not that we do the work. Actually, we allow Him to work in us and then work out from us. All we do is yield, cooperate, and not resist or rebel.
The third thing is this: the potter puts the clay on the wheel. The work involves two things: the wheel and the hands.
Here you find the wheel. Probably the wheel was made of stone; in modern times, perhaps it has been improved. But whatever it may be, you find the wheel is cold, hard, harsh, and without feeling. It turns around quickly, whether by foot or by electricity. The wheel turns and turns and turns, and the clay upon it turns and turns and turns.
The wheel represents the turning of time and circumstances. We are put on the wheels of time from the day that we are born. We are on the wheel of time, and time is turning and turning and turning, and there is no way to stop it.
It turns year after year, month after month, week after week, day after day, and hour after hour. You find the wheel turning and turning. It is almost mechanical.
It is cold. You cannot call it back. You cannot make it stop. Time just goes on and on and on, and you are turning.
Not only time, but circumstances. We have no control over our circumstances. Why were you born in a certain family? Why is it that you are here in this country? Actually, we have no control.
Somehow, God in His providence arranges all our circumstances, and our circumstances change all the time. How we would like to stay in one circumstance. Suppose you find an ideal circumstance, and you want to stay there, nesting there. But you find that the eagle breaks the nest and throws the eaglets out. That is what happens to all of us. Whenever we feel cosy and very comfortable, something happens.
Circumstances change all the time, like the wheel. As we approach the end, you find that time and seasons seem to turn faster and faster and faster. When you are getting older, you find that time really changes so fast.
There is no control. You have no control over your circumstances, and you have no control over your time. Oh, how often we blame time and circumstances—that we do not live in the right hour or the right time, and that our circumstances are wrong. We think that if we had better circumstances, we would be better persons.
But time and circumstance are blind. They are merciless. They show no mercy to you—neither time nor circumstance.
I remember in Chinese philosophy, when we were in school, we were taught that the universe is merciless. It has no compassion whatsoever. It is true.
Here we are on the wheels of time and circumstance, and they turn and turn and turn. They have no mercy whatsoever. They are cold, hard, and harsh.
But thank God, the clay is on the wheel, and the wheel is turning. Now, if there were no hands, we would be scattered into pieces. In a short time, you would find the clay flying in all directions, and that would be the end of it. Nothing would come out of it.
If there were only time and circumstance without the hands of God, it is true: there would be no meaning. Everything would just be scattered.
But thank God, not only do we know Who is the One turning the wheel, but we know that He Who turns the wheel has His hands on the clay.
You notice the hands of the potter. Here you find the two hands of the potter taking hold of the clay. When the wheel turns, his two hands hold the clay—not only to prevent it from flying in all directions and to keep it together, but more than that.
It is not merely to preserve it and prevent it from being destroyed. The hands are working on it. At first, you find that he works from the outside. As the wheel turns, the clay rises, and he uses his hands to make it into a form. Then his finger goes inside and hollows it out. That is quite painful for the hollowing.
But as he does it with his two hands, how tender they are. On the one hand, his hands seem to be working very steadily; yet, on the other hand, they are so tender and so soft.
He does not press it too hard. If he presses it too hard, it will crack and be deformed. But here you find the tender hands of the potter patiently fashioning the vessel.
Do you know that the direction of the hands and the direction of the wheel are opposite? The wheel turns in one direction, and the hand moves in the other direction. It is a paradox. Yet, out of this paradox, you find the potter is able to make a vessel.
Dear brothers and sisters, we often notice the wheel, but we forget the hands.
How often we blame our time and blame our circumstances, but we forget that God is there. His hands are there, guiding, making, and fashioning us into the vessel of His desire—not according to your design, but according to His design. He is working.
You do not expect God to work abstractly, as it were, out of heaven. God works through time and circumstances. He uses time. He uses circumstances. But His hands are there. He is working, working.
When you read the book of Nehemiah, you will be impressed with one thing, because Nehemiah always says, “The hand of the Lord is upon me. The good hand of the Lord is upon us.” Yes, we need to see the good hands.
We are the clay; He is the Potter. Dear brothers and sisters, never forget that His hands are upon us. Once He puts His hand on us, He will never leave it. He will work until the vessel is right. Thank God for His hands.
But do we see the hands of God? I think the most difficult thing in life is that all we see is the wheel. We are being turned and turned until we are so dizzy and so confused that we can see nothing but the wheel.
Everything seems to be against us. We do not know what to make out of it, and that makes life very difficult. But if we only see the hands, that makes all the difference.
The fourth thing is this: when the potter is working on the clay, suddenly it is marred. Why? Because there are hidden impurities and flaws in the clay. In the making of it, whatever is hidden comes out. It works against the hand of the potter, and the result is that the vessel is marred.
Now, is that not true with our history?
Not only with Adam, the first man. God created him in His image, but God’s work was not finished yet. God put him before the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was to be tested, and he failed in the testing. He rebelled against God. The image was marred. You do not see the image of God in man now; it is marred.
But God does not throw it away. He picks up the pieces, puts them again on the wheel, and uses His two hands to work on them until He makes another vessel, a new vessel.
Of course, naturally speaking, the second vessel made from the broken pieces can never match the first. But our God is such a wonderful God. The second vessel made from the broken pieces is even a better vessel than the first one. That is a miracle.
When Adam came from the hands of God, he was a vessel created in the image of God, with the potential and capacity to receive the tree of life and thus be united with God. But he failed. We fell into sin and transgressions. We were broken into pieces. We became useless.
If you go to a potter’s field, you will find broken pieces all over the field. In other words, many pots are broken in the making for one reason or another, and the potter can do the same thing with them. But no, God does something different.
Instead of throwing away these fragments, He gathers us together and makes us into another vessel, a new vessel.
Those two hands are nail-pierced hands.
What God has done in creation and what was spoiled, God finishes in the work of redemption—and even far better. Why? Because in the redemption of our Lord Jesus, He has put His own life into us.
We are earthen vessels, but with a treasure within us. Because we have the life of Christ in us, He is able to conform us to His image, that He may be the Firstborn among many. The work of redemption surpasses the work of creation, even after there is the history of the Fall.
Is that not marvellous? That is the wonderful working of God. What a message that is to us.
Finally, that was actually the message to the children of Israel. God said to the children of Israel, “Have you noticed that the potter can do with the clay whatever he pleases? If the clay is broken, he can throw it away—finished. Or he can put it together and make another vessel.”
It is the pleasure and the ability of the potter to do so.
So God says, “If I say to a nation or to a kingdom that, because of your evil ways, I am determined to destroy you and to pluck you up, but if you repent, amend your ways, and return, I will not destroy you. I will change My mind. I will rebuild you.”
But if, to another nation or kingdom, God says, “I will bless you; I will make you,” and they go away from Him, God says, “I will change My mind. I will break you. I will pluck you up.”
God is very flexible in His ways.
The children of Israel were evil, and God sent His messengers to the nation and said, “I will pluck up and I will destroy.” But at the same time, He called them to repentance, to amend their ways. If they did, God would relent. God would not destroy them; God would bless them.
But the problem was that the children of Israel said, “We are set in our ways. We will not change. We are going to the end.” Because of their stubbornness, they did go to the end. They were taken into captivity. They were scattered.
So, dear brothers and sisters, it ought to be a lesson to us. Do not think that because you are saved, you can do anything you like.
It is true: because you are saved, His hand is upon you, and He will not let you go. He will continue to work on you until His work is finished. But, dear brothers and sisters, if we are stubborn in our ways, we may be cast out by time, if not for eternity.
You remember the Lord speaks of the vine and the branches. If the branches do not bear fruit, He will cut them off. Of course, that does not mean eternally, because John 15 does not speak of eternal salvation. It speaks of our communion with the Lord—the vine and the branches.
If we are stubborn and do not repent, our fellowship with Him will be cut off until the day when we return.
So, brothers and sisters, may we be very humble before the Lord. Do not harden our hearts. As the Scripture says:
Today if ye shall hear His voice,
Harden not your hearts.
Repent and return, and He will return to us. Even if we are in a position where God says He will pluck up, if we repent, He will build instead of plucking us up. That is the mercy of God.
So may we be very humble before the Lord. These are the words of God through a potter’s house.
[Chinese-language conclusion; transcription unavailable.]
Our heavenly Father, how we pray and thank Thee. Thou art the master Potter; we are the clay. We do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast picked us up. Thou hast put us on the wheels of time and circumstances. Thou art turning the wheel, but Thy hands are upon us always.
We praise and thank Thee that Thou dost desire to conform us to the image of Thy Son. We ask Thee to take away all the impurities within us. Give us a very humble, obedient, yielding spirit, that Thou wilt be able to finish Thy work to Thy praise and glory.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.