Jeremiah 18

to disobedient people is to let them have their own way and reap the sad, painful consequences of their sins.

The word backsliding literally means to “turn away” and describes the nation’s repeated apostasy. The book of Judges records at least seven occasions when Israel turned from the Lord and had to be chastened, and there were numerous other times during erately turned from the Lord. The word backslide is the period of the monarchy when the Israelites delibnot used in the New Testament, but the experience is described in other ways: falling from grace (Gal. 5:4), leaving your first love (Rev. 2:4), loving the world (1 John 2:15–17; 2 Tim. 4:10), and walking in darkness (1 John 1:5–10).

A stubborn animal (v. 20). Jeremiah often used animals to picture the behavior of people, and here he compared the Jews to an unruly animal that won’t wear the yoke. One of his recurring phrases is the stubbornness of their evil hearts (3:17; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 13:10; 16:12; 18:12; 23: niv). When people, made in the image of God, refuse to obey God, they become like animals (see Ps. 32:9; Prov. 7:21–23; Hos. 4:16).

A degenerate vine (v. 21). Israel as a vine is a familiar image in the Old Testament (Ps. 80:8–16; Isa. 5:1–7; Ezek. 17:1–10; Hos. 10:1–2). God planted His people in the good land He gave them, but they didn’t produce the harvest of righteousness He desired. “So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes” (Isa. 5: nkjv). Because they worshipped false gods, they became like their degenerate neighbors. How could dead idols ever produce living fruit in their nation?

A defiled body (v. 22). No amount of good works or religious ceremonies could wash away their sins, because the heart of the nation’s problem was the problem in their hearts. They had sinful hearts because they had stubborn hearts—hearts that refused to listen to God’s servant and obey God’s Word. Josiah’s reformation was only a cosmetic change in the kingdom of Judah; it never reached the hearts of the people so that they repented and sought forgiveness from the Lord.

Jeremiah is preeminently the prophet of the heart, for he used the word over sixty times. “O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved” (Jer. 4: niv). “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (17:9). Judah needed to return to the Lord with their whole heart, for only then could He bless them.

An animal in the desert (vv. 23–25). Even if the people denied that they were defiled, their actions proved otherwise, for they were like animals: a lost camel looking for an oasis; or a donkey in heat, running here and there looking for a mate. As the Jews pursued the false gods of the pagan nations, their shoes wore out and their throats became dry. How much better had they drunk the refreshing water from the river of God!

But they had given themselves so much to sin that they despaired of being saved. “It’s no use!” (2: niv) was their excuse. “It’s hopeless!” They sounded like confirmed alcoholics or compulsive gamblers who can’t break the habit, or like the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda who had been sick for so long that he’d given up hope (John 5:1–9). Jesus Christ, however, specializes in hopeless cases. “He breaks the power of canceled sin/He sets the prisoner free.”

A disgraced thief (vv. 26–28). A thief caught in the act may protest his or her innocence, but the evidence is there for all to see. Any visitor to the kingdom of Judah could see what God saw: people turning their backs on God and talking to deaf idols, but then turning desperately to Jehovah for help when they found themselves in trouble. They were caught red-handed!

Incorrigible children (vv. 29–35). God chastened them many times for their sins, but they refused to change their ways, and then they even blamed God! He brought charges against them (Jer. 2:9), but instead of confessing and repenting, they complained and brought charges against Him! None of His discipline seemed to do any good. “You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction” (5: niv; see 7:28; 17:23; 32:33; 35:13).

God reminded the people how richly He had blessed them. Yet they rebelled against Him (2:29), forgot Him (v. 32), and lied to Him (vv. 33–35), claiming to be innocent. One of the major themes of the book of Deuteronomy is that the nation should remember the Lord and what He had done for them. Yet the people took their blessings for granted and gave their allegiance to dumb idols. They were so skilled at their harlotry, worshipping false gods, that even the most wicked prostitute could learn new things from them! They exploited the poor and were stained by their blood, and yet they pleaded innocence (see Amos 2:6–8; 5:10–12).

Because the nation at that time was enjoying a measure of political and economic prosperity, they concluded that God’s blessing was proof of their innocence! They didn’t realize that God can bless the wicked (Ps. 37; 73; Matt. 5:45) and that the goodness of God should instead lead them to repentance (Luke 15:17–18; Rom. 2:4–5).

Prisoners of war (vv. 36–37). In its attempt to keep peace with its neighbors, Judah had flitted between Egypt and Assyria (Jer. 2:14–19), both of whom would ultimately disappoint Judah. The description in verse 37 is that of prisoners of war, their hands tied above their heads, being led away captive. Any decisions we make that are contrary to God’s plan will lead to bondage, because only the truth can set us free (John 8:32). The Babylonian army would eventually overrun the land, take Jerusalem and destroy it, and lead the people away into captivity.

Was there any way Judah could escape the coming wrath? Yes, and that was the theme of the next point in Jeremiah’s message.

Repentance: God Pleads for His People to Return

The clay is not attractive in itself, but when the hands of the potter touch it, and the thought of the potter is brought to bear upon it, and the plan of the potter is worked out in it and through it, then there is a real transformation. J. Wilbur Chapman

The prophet, of course, was Jeremiah. We don’t know who the potter was, although he played an important part in the drama. The policeman was Pashur, the priest in charge of temple security, whose job it was to keep peace in the temple and punish troublemakers. Since Pashur considered Jeremiah to be a troublemaker, he punished him by making him spend a night in the stocks. Jeremiah is the chief actor in this three-act drama.

The clay is not attractive in itself, but when the hands of the potter touch it, and the thought of the potter is brought to bear upon it, and the plan of the potter is worked out in it and through it, then there is a real transformation. J. Wilbur Chapman

The prophet, of course, was Jeremiah. We don’t know who the potter was, although he played an important part in the drama. The policeman was Pashur, the priest in charge of temple security, whose job it was to keep peace in the temple and punish troublemakers. Since Pashur considered Jeremiah to be a troublemaker, he punished him by making him spend a night in the stocks. Jeremiah is the chief actor in this three-act drama.

These events probably occurred during the reign of Jehoiakim, the king who burned Jeremiah’s prophetic scrolls (36:21ff.). Unlike his father, King Josiah, Jehoiakim had no love for either the Lord or His prophet. He wasn’t the least bit interested in what Jeremiah had to say about things political or spiritual.

The sovereignty of God (vv. 1–17). Over thirty words in the Hebrew vocabulary relate directly to pottery, because the manufacture of pottery was a major industry in the Near East in that day. No doubt Jeremiah had passed the potter’s house many times, but this time God had a special message for him that, after he preached it, would put him in jail. When you follow the Lord, you never know what will happen to you next.

“He did not get his flash of insight while he was praying but while he was watching a potter engaged in his daily work,” wrote Charles E. Jefferson. “God reveals Himself in strange places and at unexpected seasons. For instance, He once revealed Himself in a stable.”

The potter sat before two parallel stone wheels that were joined by a shaft. He turned the bottom wheel with his feet and worked the clay on the top wheel as the wheel turned. As Jeremiah watched, he saw that the clay resisted the potter’s hand so that the vessel was ruined but the potter patiently kneaded the clay and made another vessel.

The interpretation of the image was national, relating to the house of Israel (vv. 6–10), but the application was individual (vv. 11–17), calling for a response from the people of Judah and Jerusalem. It also calls for a personal response from us today.

Interpretation (vv. 5–10). As the potter has power over the clay, so God has sovereign authority over the nations. This doesn’t mean that God is irresponsible and arbitrary in what He does, even though He is free to act as He pleases. His actions are always consistent with His nature, which is holy, just, wise, and loving. God doesn’t need any advice from us, nor do we have the right to criticize what He does. “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” (Rom. 11: nkjv, quoted from Isa. 40: and Jer. 23:18) “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” (Rom. 9: nkjv)

The Lord presented two scenarios that illustrated His sovereign power over nations (Jer. 18:7–10). If He threatened to judge a nation and that nation repented, then He would relent and not send the judgment. He did this with Nineveh when Jonah’s preaching brought the city to repentance (Jonah 3). On the other hand, if He promised to bless a nation, as He did Israel in His covenants, and that nation did evil in His sight, then He could withhold the blessing and send judgment instead. God neither changes in character nor needs to repent of His actions (Mal. 3:6; Num. 23:19), but He has the sovereign freedom to alter His actions depending on the responses of the people.

To be sure, there’s mystery involved in the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, but we don’t have to explain the will of God before we can obey it. We live by divine promises and precepts, not theological explanations, and God isn’t obligated to explain anything to us. (If He did, we probably wouldn’t be able to grasp it!) “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29: nkjv). Jesus promised that if we obey what we know, God will reveal more of His truth to us (John 7:17).

Application (vv. 11–17). Nations are made up of individuals, and individuals have the ability to receive God’s Word or reject it. Yes, humans are made from the dust (Gen. 2:7) and live in a fragile body (Job 4:19; 10:9; 2 Cor. 4:7). Unlike the clay on the potter’s wheel, however, we have the ability to resist. God uses many different hands to mold our lives—parents, siblings, teachers, ministers, authors—and we can fight against them. But if we do, we’re fighting against God.

God announced that He was framing evil (“preparing” niv; “fashioning” nasb; a word related to “potter” in the Hebrew) against the kingdom of Judah. If the people would repent, however, He would deliver them. But the people were so chained to their sins that they chose to follow their own evil plans. They would rather worship dead idols and suffer for it than serve the true and living God and enjoy His blessings! Truly, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9)!

In rejecting their God and choosing dumb idols, the people of Judah were acting contrary to everything reasonable. God made them for Himself, and they could not succeed apart from Him. The birds obey what God tells them to do (8:7); even the heathen nations don’t abandon their gods, false as these gods are. Water in nature is consistent: On the heights, it becomes snow; at lower levels, it flows in the streams. God’s people, however, were totally inconsistent, willing to enjoy God’s blessings but not willing to obey the laws of God that governed those blessings. If nature acted like that, where would we be?

Instead of walking on God’s clear and safe highway of holiness (Isa. 35:8), the people were on a dangerous and painful detour because they abandoned the ancient paths of God’s holy law. Because they wouldn’t repent, God had to chasten them; this meant ruin for the land and exile for the people. Instead of His face shining upon them in blessing (Num. 6:24–26), God would turn His back to them and leave them to their own devices.

Like the patient potter, God is willing to mold us again when we resist Him and damage our own lives. The famous Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte used to say that the victorious Christian life was a “series of new beginnings.” No failure in our lives need be fatal or final, although we certainly suffer for our sins. God gave new beginnings to Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, and Peter when they failed, and He can do the same for us today.

The conspiracy of the enemy (v. 18). Proud sinners don’t enjoy hearing about God’s sovereignty or the threat of impending judgment. They think that by silencing the messenger they will silence the Lord. “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision” (Ps. 2: nkjv). Their argument was “We have plenty of priests, prophets, and elders, so we can do without Jeremiah!”

This wasn’t the first time Jeremiah had faced a conspiracy that threatened his ministry and his life (Jer. 11:18–23; 12:6; 15:15), and it wouldn’t be the last time. His enemies plotted a “smear campaign” consisting of lies about him (see 9:3). The plot probably included quotations from his messages that suggested he was a traitor to the kingdom of Judah. Like the men who plotted against Jesus, Jeremiah’s enemies tried to prove he was breaking the law and stirring up the people (Luke 23:1–7).

Faithful servants of God don’t enjoy opposition, but they learn to expect it. “In the world you will have tribulation,” promised Jesus, “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16: nkjv). He also said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (15: nkjv). And Paul reminded Timothy and us, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3: nkjv).

The agony of the prophet (vv. 19–23). This is the fifth of Jeremiah’s private “laments” to the Lord concerning his situation and his ministry (see Jer. 11:18–23; 12:1–5; 15:10–18; 17:14–18; 20:7–18). His words seem terribly harsh to us and unlike the spirit of Jesus, but keep in mind that Jeremiah was a divinely appointed prophet who represented God to the nation. Those who opposed him were opposing God, and Jeremiah asked God to deal with them (Deut. 32:35; see Rom. 12:17–19).

Like Elijah and all the other prophets, Jeremiah was “a man subject to like passions as we are” (James 5:17, “with a nature like ours” nkjv), and he felt deep pain because the leaders rejected the truth. I suppose if you and I were attacked by hateful enemies who lied about us, set traps for us, and dug pits for us, we’d get upset and ask God to deal with them. At least Jeremiah expressed himself honestly to God and left the matter with Him. He needed to remember God’s promises when He called him (Jer. 1:7–10, 17–19) and rest in the assurance that the Lord would see him through.

There is a righteous anger against sin that is acceptable to God. “Be angry, and do not sin” (Eph. 4: nkjv, quoted from Ps. 4:4). “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Ps. 97: nkjv; see Rom. 12:9). Jesus was angry at the hardening of the hearts of His critics (Mark 3:5), and Paul was angry because of professed believers who were leading others astray. “Who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn?” (2 Cor. 11: niv). Unrighteous anger takes matters into its own hands and seeks to destroy the offender, while righteous anger turns the matter over to God and seeks to help the offended. Anguish is anger plus love, and it isn’t easy to maintain a holy balance. If Jeremiah seems too angry to us, perhaps some of us today aren’t angry enough at the evil in this world. Thanks to the media, we’re exposed to so much violence and sin that we tend to accept it as a normal part of life and want to do nothing about it. Crusading has given way to compromising, and it isn’t “politically correct” to be dogmatic or critical of ideas that are definitely unbiblical.

These events probably occurred during the reign of Jehoiakim, the king who burned Jeremiah’s prophetic scrolls (36:21ff.). Unlike his father, King Josiah, Jehoiakim had no love for either the Lord or His prophet. He wasn’t the least bit interested in what Jeremiah had to say about things political or spiritual.

The sovereignty of God (vv. 1–17). Over thirty words in the Hebrew vocabulary relate directly to pottery, because the manufacture of pottery was a major industry in the Near East in that day. No doubt Jeremiah had passed the potter’s house many times, but this time God had a special message for him that, after he preached it, would put him in jail. When you follow the Lord, you never know what will happen to you next.

“He did not get his flash of insight while he was praying but while he was watching a potter engaged in his daily work,” wrote Charles E. Jefferson. “God reveals Himself in strange places and at unexpected seasons. For instance, He once revealed Himself in a stable.”

The potter sat before two parallel stone wheels that were joined by a shaft. He turned the bottom wheel with his feet and worked the clay on the top wheel as the wheel turned. As Jeremiah watched, he saw that the clay resisted the potter’s hand so that the vessel was ruined but the potter patiently kneaded the clay and made another vessel.

The interpretation of the image was national, relating to the house of Israel (vv. 6–10), but the application was individual (vv. 11–17), calling for a response from the people of Judah and Jerusalem. It also calls for a personal response from us today.

Interpretation (vv. 5–10). As the potter has power over the clay, so God has sovereign authority over the nations. This doesn’t mean that God is irresponsible and arbitrary in what He does, even though He is free to act as He pleases. His actions are always consistent with His nature, which is holy, just, wise, and loving. God doesn’t need any advice from us, nor do we have the right to criticize what He does. “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” (Rom. 11: nkjv, quoted from Isa. 40: and Jer. 23:18) “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” (Rom. 9: nkjv)

The Lord presented two scenarios that illustrated His sovereign power over nations (Jer. 18:7–10). If He threatened to judge a nation and that nation repented, then He would relent and not send the judgment. He did this with Nineveh when Jonah’s preaching brought the city to repentance (Jonah 3). On the other hand, if He promised to bless a nation, as He did Israel in His covenants, and that nation did evil in His sight, then He could withhold the blessing and send judgment instead. God neither changes in character nor needs to repent of His actions (Mal. 3:6; Num. 23:19), but He has the sovereign freedom to alter His actions depending on the responses of the people.

To be sure, there’s mystery involved in the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, but we don’t have to explain the will of God before we can obey it. We live by divine promises and precepts, not theological explanations, and God isn’t obligated to explain anything to us. (If He did, we probably wouldn’t be able to grasp it!) “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29: nkjv). Jesus promised that if we obey what we know, God will reveal more of His truth to us (John 7:17).

Application (vv. 11–17). Nations are made up of individuals, and individuals have the ability to receive God’s Word or reject it. Yes, humans are made from the dust (Gen. 2:7) and live in a fragile body (Job 4:19; 10:9; 2 Cor. 4:7). Unlike the clay on the potter’s wheel, however, we have the ability to resist. God uses many different hands to mold our lives—parents, siblings, teachers, ministers, authors—and we can fight against them. But if we do, we’re fighting against God.

God announced that He was framing evil (“preparing” niv; “fashioning” nasb; a word related to “potter” in the Hebrew) against the kingdom of Judah. If the people would repent, however, He would deliver them. But the people were so chained to their sins that they chose to follow their own evil plans. They would rather worship dead idols and suffer for it than serve the true and living God and enjoy His blessings! Truly, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9)!

In rejecting their God and choosing dumb idols, the people of Judah were acting contrary to everything reasonable. God made them for Himself, and they could not succeed apart from Him. The birds obey what God tells them to do (8:7); even the heathen nations don’t abandon their gods, false as these gods are. Water in nature is consistent: On the heights, it becomes snow; at lower levels, it flows in the streams. God’s people, however, were totally inconsistent, willing to enjoy God’s blessings but not willing to obey the laws of God that governed those blessings. If nature acted like that, where would we be?

Instead of walking on God’s clear and safe highway of holiness (Isa. 35:8), the people were on a dangerous and painful detour because they abandoned the ancient paths of God’s holy law. Because they wouldn’t repent, God had to chasten them; this meant ruin for the land and exile for the people. Instead of His face shining upon them in blessing (Num. 6:24–26), God would turn His back to them and leave them to their own devices.

Like the patient potter, God is willing to mold us again when we resist Him and damage our own lives. The famous Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte used to say that the victorious Christian life was a “series of new beginnings.” No failure in our lives need be fatal or final, although we certainly suffer for our sins. God gave new beginnings to Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, and Peter when they failed, and He can do the same for us today.

The conspiracy of the enemy (v. 18). Proud sinners don’t enjoy hearing about God’s sovereignty or the threat of impending judgment. They think that by silencing the messenger they will silence the Lord. “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision” (Ps. 2: nkjv). Their argument was “We have plenty of priests, prophets, and elders, so we can do without Jeremiah!”

This wasn’t the first time Jeremiah had faced a conspiracy that threatened his ministry and his life (Jer. 11:18–23; 12:6; 15:15), and it wouldn’t be the last time. His enemies plotted a “smear campaign” consisting of lies about him (see 9:3). The plot probably included quotations from his messages that suggested he was a traitor to the kingdom of Judah. Like the men who plotted against Jesus, Jeremiah’s enemies tried to prove he was breaking the law and stirring up the people (Luke 23:1–7).

Faithful servants of God don’t enjoy opposition, but they learn to expect it. “In the world you will have tribulation,” promised Jesus, “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16: nkjv). He also said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (15: nkjv). And Paul reminded Timothy and us, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3: nkjv).

The agony of the prophet (vv. 19–23). This is the fifth of Jeremiah’s private “laments” to the Lord concerning his situation and his ministry (see Jer. 11:18–23; 12:1–5; 15:10–18; 17:14–18; 20:7–18). His words seem terribly harsh to us and unlike the spirit of Jesus, but keep in mind that Jeremiah was a divinely appointed prophet who represented God to the nation. Those who opposed him were opposing God, and Jeremiah asked God to deal with them (Deut. 32:35; see Rom. 12:17–19).

Like Elijah and all the other prophets, Jeremiah was “a man subject to like passions as we are” (James 5:17, “with a nature like ours” nkjv), and he felt deep pain because the leaders rejected the truth. I suppose if you and I were attacked by hateful enemies who lied about us, set traps for us, and dug pits for us, we’d get upset and ask God to deal with them. At least Jeremiah expressed himself honestly to God and left the matter with Him. He needed to remember God’s promises when He called him (Jer. 1:7–10, 17–19) and rest in the assurance that the Lord would see him through.

There is a righteous anger against sin that is acceptable to God. “Be angry, and do not sin” (Eph. 4: nkjv, quoted from Ps. 4:4). “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Ps. 97: nkjv; see Rom. 12:9). Jesus was angry at the hardening of the hearts of His critics (Mark 3:5), and Paul was angry because of professed believers who were leading others astray. “Who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn?” (2 Cor. 11: niv). Unrighteous anger takes matters into its own hands and seeks to destroy the offender, while righteous anger turns the matter over to God and seeks to help the offended. Anguish is anger plus love, and it isn’t easy to maintain a holy balance. If Jeremiah seems too angry to us, perhaps some of us today aren’t angry enough at the evil in this world. Thanks to the media, we’re exposed to so much violence and sin that we tend to accept it as a normal part of life and want to do nothing about it. Crusading has given way to compromising, and it isn’t “politically correct” to be dogmatic or critical of ideas that are definitely unbiblical.