The Potter and the Clay

By Steve Johnson

In theological circles a discussion on the character of God may involve detailed debate on the original Hebrew terminology and its meaning. It may include explanations of Gods omnipotence {He's all powerful}, omnipresence {he's present everywhere} and His omniscience {All knowing}. In all these high brow discussions one thing you are unlikely to hear is that God identifies himself as one who gets his hands dirty and yet this is exactly how God chose to reveal himself to a people he loved dearly and was grieved by what he saw happening to them. Let me explain.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah {a prophet}, saying, "stand up and travel down to the house of the potter and you will hear what I have to say there. So I went down to the potter's house and watched him at work on the wheel but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands so the potter reformed it into another pot shaping it as seemed best to him. It was then God spoke to me saying,"Oh people of Israel, am I not able to do with you what this potter does with the clay? Just like clay in the hands of the potter so are you in my hands!" Jeremiah ch 18 v1-6

The people He was speaking to were much like us today. They did their own thing. None really considered the one responsible for their very existence. None considered their true purpose in life. The God that was supposed to be at the centre of all things was at the periphery at best and flagrantly dismissed at worst. They were given to stubbornness, rebellion, irreverence and sometimes rank stupidity. Sound familiar? Sounds like today doesn't it. As a result we are not the people God created us to be. We are like the pot that was marred. It wasn't fulfilling the purpose for which it was made.

"Oh people of Israel" God cried, "Am I not able to do with you what this potter does with the clay?" It's a question I ask you to consider today because God was challenging Israel to make a choice. It's a challenge He issues to all of us. It's a challenge to trust Him. To put ourselves in His hands and let him get His hands dirty. Permit me to share a few observations.

1 – God starts with and works with clay. We really have a vain streak as human beings. We care so much about image and how we appear to others yet we all get old, stuff slows down, gets wrinkly and stops working and the reality of who we really are catches up with us. As the scripture says "from dust you have come and to dust you will return". For us to spend so much focusing on the outward instead of who we truly are on the inside is one of the biggest flaws of humanity. It is of who we are on the inside that God said "let us make man in our image." We were made to reflect who God is in our character. We may have forgotten about that but God hasn't. When we live for anything else but to reflect Him we are not living according to the makers instructions. We are a pot that is 'marred'. God's invitation to us all is to get on the wheel as it were and allow God to do the work that only He can. He is the master potter. One who pleads with us and desires to make us the person we were always created to be...to trust him to get His hands dirty with us.

2 – Every work of pottery is unique. We live in an age of mass production and cookie cut out models. A time when people are identified by number. This is not how God sees us though. I want to encourage you with these words. You are not just another face in the crowd to God. You are not just another one of the multitude of around 7 billion people inhabiting this planet. You are significant. God intended you to be as unique on the inside as your fingerprints are on the outside. God is not trying to make you a cut out production line model of something devoid of individuality. The potter delights in every individual work. Therefore every work is unique. What God does in your life will never be exactly the same as what God does in someone else's. Some of the principles are the same but God's work in your life will always be unique. It is, in a sense, priceless.

3 – The clay must stay on the wheel. O.K. Here's where the uncomfortable stuff starts. If God is so good then why do things go wrong and why is life so confusing. Often what happens to us doesn't seem to be making sense. So often we seem to be going round and round in circles visiting the same issues time and again. If we really are changing then why do we get confronted with the same problems time after time? {Some of you are already thinking ahead of me on this one!} When a potter does a work he doesn't just sit the clay {us} on the floor and shape it. He throws it onto the wheel and rotates it. It is the momentum of the wheel he uses to shape us and smooth us. That's the way you are perfected. If the clay could think it would probably be quite dizzy. I don't know about you but I can get quite dizzy just trying to figure life out. The point is that it doesn't make sense....from the centre of the wheel but it all makes perfect sense from the perspective of the potter.

I watched a work like this once and as far as I could tell the pottery looked fine yet he was still spinning it and smoothing it for what seemed like an age. I'm telling you it looked fine yet an experienced potter knows that this work takes time, a lot of time. It is a craft, an art. It takes time for the pot to become precisely what it is meant to be. The potter doesn't have the attitude of many of us in the workplace today {ie: aw! Stuff it, that'll do.} It's a labour of love and he or she will persevere until they get the shape they want. When the circumstances and difficulties of life {for that is what God uses to shape us} begin to tire us out and we ask 'God why?' bear in mind we don't always understand what He sees. We don't always appreciate what He is trying to do. We are just sitting there in the middle of life wondering what on earth is going on and if anything God starts to spin the wheel even faster! We have to trust that He knows what He is doing. Remember the whole concept and design of humanity is His idea. The potter knows what the pot is meant to be and he is working on a plan we don't always fully comprehend. As the scripture says, "beloved, it doesn't yet appear what we shall be but I know that when we are in heaven we will be like Him {like Jesus}"

4 – The air pockets must be removed. The trouble with us as human beings is that we are so often full of ourselves. We are given to pride. What's worse is that it is the one thing we are less likely to recognise the more we have of it. As C.S.Lewis once said, it is the thing we hate most in others yet are least likely to see in ourselves. The potter sees it though and He knows that clay with the air pockets of pride must be dealt with. Unless the air pockets are taken out the whole work may fail. Therefore he takes the clay and kneads it. He picks it up and throws it back onto the wheel repeatedly. Why does he do this? It gets the air pockets out. Pride is such a delusional thing. It is a prime state of unreality. There is no true substance to it. It is air. It is interesting to note that if you put pottery into a kiln while it is still riddled with air pockets you may ruin the whole thing. I've seen this happen in people's lives. We can be so arrogant and self righteous. {Sadly it's some of the religious people who are the worst in this case} A man I knew was so deluded in his own righteousness that when the day of fire came for him {and it came in a big way} he was utterly crushed. Whereas others among us would have picked ourselves up and carried on he was utterly crushed. Many of us in the church were shocked at how he reacted. It's a case of the higher you elevate yourself the further you have to fall and the harder that fall is. For a long time he was a mere shell of a person. I guess there was a lot of air to be knocked out of him. One of the things the potter does is humble us. Let me give you a word of advice here. Humble yourself. It's far less painful in the long run. God will do what He has to do but he often does this because we refuse to humble ourselves and it hurts more precisely because we are full of the empty air of pride. God knows if the work is going to last the air has to be removed. We may not appreciate this at the time but God actually loves us. He loves us too much to allow us to destroy the work by being full of our own hot air Nevertheless we can choose to make this a relatively quick work or a very long one by choosing whether to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

5 – The stones are removed. Clay is often impure stuff. If a smooth finish is to be attained then the stones must be picked out. They simply don't belong there. God chooses to remove the stones of sin that are so deeply imbedded in us. Our part is to choose to go along with the process. The stones have to go. It's as simple as that. For some this is the big sticking point. They will agree in principle to the processes of the potter...up to a point but they won't give up their sin. If you are going to allow the potter to do His work you are going to have to allow Him to remove stones from your life. This may leave some unsightly gaps but we must trust the potter that He knows what He is doing. A friend of mine became a Christian and asked a visiting minister whether it was right to continue living with his girlfriend. The minister told him no. The man left the church for several months. After the relationship ended he came back with his tail between his legs and determined never to make the same mistake again. Instead he would submit to whatever God wanted. That man is now blessed with a wife and children and is now used by God to pastor a church. God's plan is always better. We have to trust the potter when he wants to remove stones from our lives.

6 – Water is added to the clay. I've seen many try to live the Christian live in their own strength and power and believe me when I say this from nearly 18 years of experience it isn't pretty. Clay by its nature as you work with it becomes stiff and unworkable...unless you keep it wet. Water is very significant in the bible. It is often used to symbolise the Spirit of God. The scripture says, 'everything God does He does by His Spirit.' We, by our nature, become stiff and unmalleable. God, by His nature, is able to soften our hearts when we rely on him to help us. Many Christians struggle for years with the same issue. Sometimes this is simply part of the long term work of God. {After all, Rome wasn't built in a day.} However, a problem can come in that we trust in ourselves, our own strength and ability. We must remember that it is the work of the potter and not the clay. We must learn to allow room for the Spirit of God in our lives and not simply think we have the power to change ourselves. Don't get me wrong, a choice of the will is involved but with all the good will in the world you won't get very far unless you learn to trust in the strength of God and not your own strength. As Paul the apostle said 'Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfil the lusts of the sinful nature. Our own powers and abilities are always destined to fall short but God succeeds where we fail. As the scripture says again, 'unless the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it.' You can't do this work in your own ability and strength. You need God's help. You need the water of the Spirit of God

 

7 – The pot must go into the kiln. Ok. We come to accept that God is using our circumstances to shape and mould us but then something hits us out of the blue that just knocks the wind out of our sails. It is something beyond the usual stuff life throws at us. Perhaps it is something tragic or particularly painful and it is at this point many question why a God, if He exists at all, would allow such things to happen. I've had the advantage of seeing this from another perspective. I've seen Christians go through horrible things. Things I wouldn't wish on anyone yet the peace and serenity they have is clearly something many don't possess and when I speak to them they point to precisely the thing I thought was so destructive. To be frank I'm still getting my head around that one but I've seen it. It is true. One of the organisations I take an interest in is called 'Open Doors'. They are a group that help Christians in countries where persecution of believers is common. Some of these people suffer terribly yet I have to admit the faith and spiritual maturity of many of these people puts us to shame. We in the affluent, comfortable and free west look shallow in comparison. Why is that? Again it comes down to the work of the potter. Now don't get me wrong. I'm certainly not saying that God actually delights in suffering and persecution. Far from it. We live in a fallen, broken and sin cursed world. A world that grieves the heart of a God who purposed for us something far better. God, however, is able to take this mess of a fallen world and use even the tragedy and pain of it to do something in us of truly eternal and priceless worth.

Paul the apostle described the things he went through as light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that is not yet seen. {1 Corinthians ch 4 v 17-18} 'Well I suppose it was easy for him to say', you might respond. I bet he hasn't had to put up with the stuff I have. Well maybe not. He was, however, permanently scarred by punishment beatings {5 times!}, wrongly imprisoned, beaten with sticks, an attempt was made to stone him to death, survived shipwreck, he suffered in long journeys being cold and hungry and constantly looking over his shoulder for his enemies. Added to all this was the huge burden of caring for many churches. Paul saw the bigger picture. He saw it as all worthwhile. He saw from an eternal perspective. He understood the work that the master potter was doing and he decided to stay on the wheel.

So if the stuff you are going through doesn't make sense. Don't worry. It does to the potter. If it seems you are going through the same things again and again. Don't worry, you are on His wheel. If you ever wonder that it's ever worth it remember, God sent His only Son Jesus to die for us so that we could be saved from the hell that is eternal separation from Him and so we could be shaped and moulded in to His image, the image he always intended for us to me. If you are on the wheel you are right where God wants you and while you may be prepared to pay a million dollars {if you had it} to avoid the trials of your life you couldn't pay a million dollars to replace the work that the potter is doing in you.

Our God is the master potter. He specialises in making unique works. You are a unique and priceless work of God and He is more than willing to roll up His sleeves and get his hands dirty with us. We only see the now but He sees the person he's going to make you and when we look back at what He has done it will all make sense and it will all be worth it.

Shalom.