Jeremiah 17:19 – 20

Jeremiah 17:19 – 20

 

My mom grew up in Sile, New Mexico, a tiny town located between Cochiti and Santo Domingo Indian Pueblos.  The history of these pueblos stretches back for centuries and there is evidence of these people all over the land.  When I was younger, my brother, cousins and I would embark on grand adventures where we went on archeological digs and knew we were Indiana Jones in the making.  We would explore my grandma's land and squeeze through wire fences onto neighbor's land in order to find pieces of broken pottery that peppers this land.  We found a good number of broken pieces over the years, always with hopes that we would gather enough pieces to recreate the original piece.  Of course that never happened, but I couldn't help but think all those pieces that had been shattered, what once was a beautiful, practical, used pot or jug, resembling the many pieces of Indian pottery my mom and grandma have.  Each piece is precious and hand made by those great people.  For many it is their lively hood and they have artistic skills and craftsmanship that is beyond me.   

 

In the book of Jeremiah we have seen God as the Potter and have seen Israel as the pot.   What a practical, yet powerful image of the Creator and creation.  Knowing what I know about pottery, I know it involves design, time, and the major elements of earth, water, and fire.  The Potter uses His hands to mold and shape the pot.  On a spinning wheel, the shape is manipulated and unique.  It takes patience and precision to make the piece just the way you want it.  To harden, the pot needs to be put in a very hot oven to bake the clay.  We'll get to this later.  The finished product is hard, ready to use, but with one drop, one bad bump, it can crack or shatter beyond repair.   God wanted Jeremiah to use this image of the broken pot when speaking to Judah.  God was still their Creator and God had the power to shatter and break them.  But the people refused to listen and went as far as punishing Jeremiah for his message sent from God.

 

I can't imagine being in Jeremiah's position and you can see in the scripture the struggles he faced both spiritually and physically.  He is very transparent in this book.  He was shackled up in front of the very dwelling place of God, a humiliation and unpleasant place to be.  He was rebuked by the leaders and the people, facing insults and backs turned against him. I can appreciate Jeremiah's frustration and anger towards God, because I am guilty of the same.  It's easy to question the Maker and wish you had never been born.  He cursed his parents and lifted his hands and eyes up to God asking why he was even there.  Life is not easy and evil is all around us.  We have all faced struggles where giving up is the only thing that makes sense.  We question the Creator.  I love Jeremiah and see him as a great example because he has these conversations with God many times, and every time, he ends with absolute love, worship, and thanksgiving. 

 

In my NKJV chapter 20:7-18 has the title "Jeremiah's Unpopular Ministry."  He took God's message to a people who refused and did not believe.  There are many missionaries all around the world that can share the same title of their ministry.  I think of those missionaries in Europe, in the Middle East, North Africa, and in Asia.  They too take a message from God, but of hope and salvation in Christ Jesus.  In my Bible, I have a note from 8.13.03 with a little sun and the note, "God, make this my desire."  20: 9b says, "But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not."  Knowing that the pot must go through a burning oven to take hold, I pray that God would be that fire in my life.  I prayed back in 2003 that my heart would be on fire for God and His word that people would watch me burn.  This is my prayer again tonight.  That we would continue to fall in love with God's word that we would be grounded in faith, that it would fill our hearts, and we would burn.  Be a solid, and as Paul said in II Corinthians 4:7-10, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels [jars of clay,] that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.  We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed, we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."