Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today God sends Jeremiah on a little field trip. He has him stop in where a potter is making

jars. As the potter is shaping one of them, things get a little wonky with it and he reshapes it into

something new. Same lump of clay, different outcome. Then God tells Jeremiah

here's the message I want you to take away from this. I'm the Potter. The people are clay. I can do whatever I want with

them. Let Jerusalem know that because of their evil, my plan for them involves disaster. Then call them to repent. But just a reminder

before you do all this, they're not going to repent. They're going to keep doing

whatever they want, making their own plans and following their own hearts.

They've forgotten me. I can almost hear the heartache in God's

voice when he says the last part. My people have forgotten me. What's also

interesting about this metaphor is how obviously engaged the

Potter is with the clay. This isn't a computerized assembly line. This is

hands-on creative work. It's fitting because according to Genesis 27, God formed man out of the

dust of the earth, then breathed life into him. God has always been uniquely involved with

humanity in ways that are different from everything else he made.

We are made with his hands, not his commands. We are made in his likeness, unlike his other creations.

We are indeed the clay to his potter. And in fact this is a

common biblical metaphor. We saw it three times in the book of Isaiah alone and the

common theme is that the clay doesn't get to

argue with the potter. Isaiah 459 puts it this way. Woe to him who strives with

him who formed him a pot among earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who forms it,

what are you making? Or your work has no handles?

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