Can I Not Do With You?

            Jeremiah in the Old Testament was known as “the weeping prophet” because he lived at a time when the people of God were concerned more about living the good life than serving God. Jeremiah spent years preaching and prophesying to Judah and warning them of the consequences to come if they did not repent and turn back to God. The warnings were direct and clear; “Repent now everyone of his evil way…do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them…” (Jeremiah 25:5-6), and “And this whole land shall be desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). The preaching and prophesies were distinct and to the point as the people of God drifted away from all that God had given unto them.
            The prophesies of Jeremiah contained various living examples and illustrations of God’s message to Judah. One of those was when the Lord instructed Jeremiah, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house and there I will cause you to hear my words” (Jeremiah 18:2). Jeremiah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to the potter’s house and there he saw the potter at his wheel with the clay making “as it seemed good to the potter to make” (Jeremiah 18:4). It was then that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, that was a message to be preached to the people of God. The first words of the message were “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter” (Jeremiah 18:6). God’s people should have been and still should be like the clay in the hands of the potter. The talented potter that takes a lump of clay that is shapeless and unidentifiable as an object, but with the mindful creativity of the potter becomes a beautiful and artistic bowl, vase, cup, or even an object such as an animal or bird. The clay does not define or form itself, but it is the potter who makes it into a beautiful and useful object.
            The Lord asked the question to his people then and still asks the question, “…can I now do with you as this potter”.  That question is posed to each person individually and then to the church as a whole, as it was to Judah during Jeremiah’s day. Should not God be the potter of our lives? Should not God direct our thinking, our heart, our speech, our actions, our manner of living? Paul wrote the church at Rome, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…” (Romans 12:2). God does not want the church as a whole or Christians individually be like the clay that is put into the mold that the world has, the mold of immorality, hate, jealousy, materialism, etc., that force one to conform to that mold. The Lord desires that he as the potter transforms us into what we should be as the church and individual Christians “by the renewing of your mind…” (Romans 12:2). The mind and heart that gives itself over to the potter, the Lord.
            The people of God during the days of Jeremiah were not willing to do that. They were being conformed by the world that they lived into the godless world, and responded, “So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will everyone obey the dictates of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:12). There was no hope for Judah with that class of thinking. There is not hope for the Christian that desires to live by his plan rather than the potter’s plan. So, the Lord would ask each one of us, “Can I not do with you as this potter?”. Let the Lord through his Word be the potter of your life. Paul wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).