The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
 Then the word of the Lord came to me:  Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.(Jeremiah 18:1-6, NRSV)

Thus said the Lord: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with you some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you… 

… Then you shall break the jug in the sight of those who go with you, and shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. (Jeremiah 19:1-2, 10-11, NSRV)

These two images define the appropriate response to God. The path to destruction is to be hardened like the earthenware jugs. Hope lies in the realization that the potter is not done with us and that we are being reshaped.  Clay  has imperfections, limits, and resistance that are parallel to aspects of human nature.  The underlying message is that, through our trials, we are being re-imagined and reformed by the will of God.

The poem in Jeremiah prophesies the future return of the exiles and the promise of a new covenant. Here, additions to the poem assure us of God’s presence throughout the ordeal and the consolation that God is aware of the evil.  

Read Jeremiah 18:1-6, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Bruce