Jeremiah (1-31) 18:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The Lord on this occasion would not speak to Jeremiah until he was in the right place to hear that word. He had to be in the place of industry. He had to be in the potter’s workshop. He had to see the two great wheels on which the potter worked: the flywheel which was at the bottom, which was kicked by the potter to give angular momentum to the wheel, and the connected wheel at the top which span round, and on which the clay sat as it was moulded by the potter’s hands. The potter would begin to work and kick the bottom stone to get both wheels spinning. There would be noise and action, and the potter would begin to work on the vase or whatever was being worked on that wheel. You had to be there in that workshop or studio. You had to see it and hear it, to see the energy and the skill involved in the work. Most important of all, you had to see the malleability of the clay. You had to see how easily it was formed by the potter, and how by just a movement of the hands or fingers, he could completely reconfigure the clay at his will. Once the wheel was turning, it was entirely under his control. The clay had no mind of its own; it was an inert substance. But in the deft hands of a skilled potter it seemed to rise and fall, be hollowed out, grow and change shape at his will, and take on the form that he envisaged. Perhaps some imperfection in the consistency of the clay, a bubble of air hidden inside it, would cause a flaw to develop in the smooth consistency of the clay as it was worked. If so, the object of the potter would not be achievable, and he would need to start again and reshape it from scratch. It was while Jeremiah was watching that, that the word of God came to him. This word could not be given in his study at home. It could not be given in the house of God, or any of the other places, in the gates where Jeremiah customarily prophesied. It had to be given watching the potter at work, getting a deep sense of the power of the potter over the clay, to decide and then to act and to change everything, and then he would fully understand the prophetic word given him. As he watched the potter shaping the pot, a flaw appeared, which would ruin the work. The potter therefore immediately forced the clay back into a starting lump and began the shaping process all over again. This failure and reworking of the clay was what God wanted Jeremiah to see.