David Troxler
September 5th, 2010, 02:43 PM
I preached from Jeremiah at the Potter's House today. I was struck by two things in particular as I reviewed and prepared for this week.
First was the call of God to Jeremiah to go to the Potter's House and there he'd receive the word of the Lord. What struck me about this in particular was that God did not have to speak for Jeremiah to get the message. He saw it in the story of the potter at the wheel. God will speak the language we understand in order to communicate His word to us. In the opening verses of Jeremiah we learn God knew Jeremiah before he was in the womb and had a plan for him. There is a popular affinity with another verse in Jeremiah (29:11). We all want the great plans God has for us. Yet we find that the plans can change just as the potter changes the pot on the wheel as marring or scarring or imperfections are encountered.
This gave rise to the second particular observation. God could change the plans for a person, people or nation as imperfections arise. This greatly spoke to me as I reflected on the openness of God. God, in relationship to the pottery, can shift gears based on the way the pottery (us) develop.
This was a very challenging application for me. The 12th verse of the chapter, while not strictly part of the lectionary passage certainly adds to the discussion on the openness and relational aspect of God because we, the pottery, has the ability to yield to our own plans. We read "But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans..."
I marvelled at the scope of God's plans here, through His knowledge of Jeremiah before his birth to the plans we can take comfort in (29:11) and how we can access those plans by yielding our hearts to the Lord. The difference in the knowledge of God is left in our hands by whether or not we yield.
[Thanks to Dennis Bratcher for some excellent material through crivoice.org. It was in reading there that expanded my message beyond the proper lectionary listing.]
First was the call of God to Jeremiah to go to the Potter's House and there he'd receive the word of the Lord. What struck me about this in particular was that God did not have to speak for Jeremiah to get the message. He saw it in the story of the potter at the wheel. God will speak the language we understand in order to communicate His word to us. In the opening verses of Jeremiah we learn God knew Jeremiah before he was in the womb and had a plan for him. There is a popular affinity with another verse in Jeremiah (29:11). We all want the great plans God has for us. Yet we find that the plans can change just as the potter changes the pot on the wheel as marring or scarring or imperfections are encountered.
This gave rise to the second particular observation. God could change the plans for a person, people or nation as imperfections arise. This greatly spoke to me as I reflected on the openness of God. God, in relationship to the pottery, can shift gears based on the way the pottery (us) develop.
This was a very challenging application for me. The 12th verse of the chapter, while not strictly part of the lectionary passage certainly adds to the discussion on the openness and relational aspect of God because we, the pottery, has the ability to yield to our own plans. We read "But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans..."
I marvelled at the scope of God's plans here, through His knowledge of Jeremiah before his birth to the plans we can take comfort in (29:11) and how we can access those plans by yielding our hearts to the Lord. The difference in the knowledge of God is left in our hands by whether or not we yield.
[Thanks to Dennis Bratcher for some excellent material through crivoice.org. It was in reading there that expanded my message beyond the proper lectionary listing.]