WE ARE CLAY

 

Jeremiah 18:1  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2  "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3  So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Clay is a very common material.  It is available all over the world and can be dug up – once you have removed the thin layer of fertile soil.  The main elements of clay are Aluminium, Silica and water.  There are other trace elements, such as iron oxide, that give some clay a distinct colour.  So, in the same way that we read that Man was made from the “dust” of the earth – so a pot is made from the “dust” of the earth.

When I learned to make things from clay I also learned that it is not profitable to use clay straight from the ground.  Such clay – even when well moistened, could not be modelled and would crack and warp when dry.  And firing would usually produce an explosion and production of a thousand tiny fragments.  Clay needs time and preparation before it is suitable for the Potter!  In Japan a Potter would dig up clay and leave to weather and break up for his son to use!  So a generation of preparation.  Even then the clay would need soaking and sieving before being dried a bit from its very wet and sloppy state (slurry).  After this the clay undergoes a process called wedging.  This is a vigorous kneading, or treading, or slamming together that removes unevenness, air bubbles and foreign matter.  Only after all this preparation does a Potter use the clay to make a vessel.

So, if we take the analogy seriously, God will not make us into a vessel until we have undergone some serious preparation.  You might also consider the fact that clay experiences the natural elements of rain and frost to break it down before it is brought into the Potter’s House and prepared for the Potter’s Wheel.

We might draw out of this that life’s experiences will prepare us to receive God’s Word, accept his Spirit; rather as the broken down clay is able to receive water into its very substance.  Only then can the clay be brought into the Potter’s House.  This might be compared with being saved or redeemed.  After this, a lump of clay can be prepared and refined until it is ready to be made into a vessel.

Jeremiah’s visit to the Potter’s House taught an amazing lesson about the Grace of God. A vessel was being made on the Wheel.  As the expert Potter worked something happened in the clay and it was spoiled.  The Potter did not throw that lump of clay outside!  Instead he re-mixed it on the Wheel and re-worked it into another vessel.  Let us not feel useless or that we have completely ruined all opportunity for God to make us into a vessel for his glory.  While we are clay in his hand he is able to re-work us and re-shape us.  The challenge is simply about being submissive to his hands.

JUST DUST!

Isaiah 64:8  Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Genesis 2:7  the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

William Blake's strange interpretation of the Creation of Man

It is extremely re-assuring to know that God knows – that we are just dust! We are, physically, no more than the basic elements of the earth.  This is taken up in many places in the Bible where we are likened to a lump of clay – to be shaped by the Potter as he chooses.

Recently I have been teaching about Art and Pottery and the Biblical lessons contained within these things.  I used to teach Art, particularly Ceramics, for many years before I became immersed in church leadership.  So, Scriptures about creativity and pottery have a special meaning for me.  I love to read about Bezaleel being filled with the Spirit so that he could supervise and make the many artefacts needed for the Tabernacle.  I take special meaning from the words about Adam being clay – his name derived from the red earth.  I understand what Jeremiah saw at the Potter’s House.  I understand what Paul was driving at when he stated that the Potter has authority over the clay to make with it what he will and there is no possibility of the clay answering back or challenging this! I can see the meaning of the Scripture that tells us we are merely pottery vessels that can hold the treasure of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact there are many allusions to clay as a spiritual example in Scripture.  The lessons are not all the same and it is not sensible to take an illustration too far.  For example clay remains clay until it goes through the furnace.  Once fired the vessel remains a vessel and cannot be returned to clay – it has been transformed into another element.  Pottery is “indestructible"– archaeologists rely on ceramic artefacts to identify and date their findings.  Indestructible but not unbreakable!  Most ancient pottery is found broken – or shattered!

The idea that a Christian is shaped and “fired” in the kiln for service on earth is one way of seeing the illustration that we are clay and our Father is the Potter.  It carries ideas of permanence, eternal salvation, we bear the Potter’s Mark – stamped with the guarantee of the Holy Spirit.  However, there is also the idea of being taken as dry clay and becoming a lump of clay that the Potter can shape as he chooses.  This can be made a parallel of our whole Christian experience!  Then, the firing in the kiln becomes a parallel of the BEMA – the judgement Seat of Christ where we experience his loving fire and get through with whatever stands the test of the fire. 

So, analogies need care and, like the parables that Jesus taught, we need to keep them in a context and not get too mixed up with different applications.

This is the first part of this theme – more soon …