What does that look like? (Jer. 17-19)

I have a friend who asks the question, “So, what does that look like?” often enough that we have teasingly and rather fondly named it after him—the Keuhndorf question. Especially in teachings that seem rather abstract, he wants a tangible application for his life. I absolutely understand and often feel the same way; if I am honest, this question has become a go-to, a kind of touchstone for me when I consider hard scripture. I don’t always have a firm answer, but it keeps me focused on the application instead of just gathering knowledge as I read and study.

This week I was looking closely at Jeremiah 18-19 in preparation for Bible study. The chapters’ content (if not their numbers) is familiar—they are about the potter and the clay and demonstrate in a very simple way that God is sovereign. Period.

God sends Jeremiah to the potter’s house/shop for some serious object lessons not only about his nation but also about the individuals that make up the nation (himself included). One thing I noticed immediately is that God tells Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house BEFORE he actually tells him why or what he is to say. Obedience is required first, and THEN instructions are given. Jeremiah has to be faithful and obedient in the first thing required of him in order to get the instructions for the next.

While God is never obligated to give explanations for His actions, He often does so graciously and compassionately, and these chapters show that if our hearts are soft and repentant (like green, unfired clay), the potter (God) can work and re-work the vessel (His people), forming it into something that will bring Him glory.

Yet the opposite is also true. If hearts become hardened and people become stiff-necked and rebellious, denying truth (hard-baked like the vessel in Chapter 19), they are at risk of getting shattered instead of being easily re-formed into something that will bring their creator glory. Once these vessels are broken, they are useless, and there is no hope of putting them back together into a worthy vessel functioning as intended. In most every city of antiquity archaeologists find areas where the broken pottery has been discarded. It is simply useless for the purpose for which it had been created.

I’ve heard several times in the past two weeks people making comments about what life does to people. As one young student mentioned, “The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg.” Likewise, my husband and I were talking about this in the context of this scripture, “The same sun that melts wax hardens clay,” which Spurgeon continued by saying, “And the same Gospel that melts some persons to repentance hardens others in their sins.” The idea is the same in both of these examples—how I respond to life’s circumstances is tied to my heart, about which God says in Jeremiah 17:9, just before these chapters, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (NASB).

Often, my heart has tried to lead me down paths that would have led to my destruction if I had followed them. But God is faithful to direct me through His word and through His church and through His spirit. When I listen to Him, life is much less painful because He doesn’t have to discipline me to get me back on track. When my neck isn’t stiff from following my own way and then trying to justify my behavior, life is simpler. My joy is fuller when I obey. My gratitude overflows when I realize what God has done for me.

Yet we live in a society much like Jeremiah’s where many want to “follow their hearts” wherever they lead, doing whatever they want and expecting absolutely no consequences. That didn’t work out very well for the people of Israel or Judah, and it won’t work out well for this generation either. God always gives us warnings through His word and offers many chances to repent time instead of suffering the consequences of continued rebellion.

The sad part of rebellion are the consequences when we persist—here it is what follows the pictures of the potter forming and re-forming his clay vessel into what he wants it to be. Immediately after the two visits to the potter, God has Jeremiah take some of the elders and the senior priests to the Potsherd Gate, which looked out over what had become the city dump after Josiah defiled the place of idol-worship Topheth had become.  The warning God gives the elders and priests is strong and includes the fact that in the siege that was coming because of their hard-heartedness and rebellion and failure to repent, they would resort to eating the “flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters” as well as “one another’s flesh” (19:9). 

In my heart I would like to think that kind of word from a prophet of God would awaken my cold heart, yet I know that the truth is it probably would not. This sounds so barbaric, yet sin is sin, and all sin is consuming. The thing to do is to ask, “So, what does that look like in my life?” and then take a strong, hard look at what I am doing that is displeasing God. If I do this, He will keep my heart soft, allowing me to see, confess, and turn from my sin, finding the purpose for which I was created—to bring Him glory.