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Jeremiah 18 NKJV
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:
2 "Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words."
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.
The process of making a vessel out of clay can be broken down into five basic steps. Each step is prerequisite to the next step being successful.
1. Obtaining the clay
2. Preparing the clay
3. Centering the clay on the wheel
4. Shaping
5. Firing
In Jeremiah’s day pottery making was a common and valuable skill. In the much closer knit society where each individual is mutually dependent and closely related to each other and the common trades which were necessary to sustain life, everyone was somewhat familiar with the work of the potter.
When God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house, God intended to draw some distinct parallels between the potter’s process of making vessels of clay and the process God employs in making human vessels to carry out His will. Of course, we are the clay in this narrative.
Tonight we are going to take a practical look at a spiritual principle in which we will discover the necessity of the clay being centered on the wheel.
Once the clay is brought up out of the miry pit and washed, tread upon and softened, it is then placed upon the potter’s wheel.
Psalms 40:2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my goings.
The Hebrew word translated “established” in this verse is pronounced, “koon”. In its greater definition is means: fixed; ordered; directed; determined; made ready, or restored.
There is a pre-ordained reason why the softened clay is immediately placed upon a rock, which rock, in our case is Christ. Our great Potter which is our God, has already determined, already ordered, fixed in His mind what He wishes to make of me and the path I should walk.
Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.
Proverbs 16:9 ¶ A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.
Suffice it to say that it is God who establishes our goings. Even though we may ponder our path, the Lord directs our steps.
On now to the wheel …
The potter’s wheel in Jeremiah’s time most likely consisted of two stones, a lower thick round flat stone that was larger and heavier connected by a wooden shaft to a smaller, less weighty round stone, also with a flat top, which the potter used as a working surface for the clay. The potter turns the heavier bottom stone with his foot thus driving the top wheel in circles, turning it at just the right speed for the potter to accomplish his work.
It is upon this top wheel the potter places his prepared clay. Thus far the potter has taken the clay out of the pit, prepared it, placed it on the rock, and has now established its goings.
After the potter places this lump, this glob of clay on the wheel and sets it to spin, he places his hands on the clay, not to shape the clay, but to center it. At first the clay fights with the potter’s hands, as you can imagine, uncentered on the rock, each time it comes around to the potter’s hands it finds resistance.
Like clay, we cannot center ourselves, but must allow the pressure of the hand of God, firmly positioned, lovingly consistent, to center us on the rock, which is Christ Jesus. It is not enough to be on the Rock, we must be centered on the Rock in order to ever become what God sees potential in us.
Have you ever known someone whom you considered to be eccentric? What in the world does eccentric mean anyway? It basically means to be off center; away from the center or the axis; to have an elliptical pattern of life instead of a circular revolution. Everyone is born into this world off center, eccentric, and needs to become centered on the Rock under the loving hand of God.
Many people are centered on many things, mostly themselves … this is called egocentric or self centered. This leads people to live life as though it was all about them. To quote Pastor Leonard Gardner, upon whose writings I have heavily drawn, “Simply being religious or going to church isn’t enough because even religious people can get centered on doctrines, preachers, churches, ministries, messages, or gifts.”
The potter cannot begin his work to form the vessel until the clay gets centered. If he tried to shape the vessel before the clay was centered it would result in aspect of the vessel being too thin while others too thick. The result of the thick side pressing upon the thin side with its weight and mass, during the drying process the vessel would crack under the stress. Again, Pastor Gardner referred to these vessels as “crackpots” – one who refused to be centered on the Jesus but is determined that they are just as usable as any other vessel God has made.
How does the potter get the clay centered on the wheel? There are no markings on the surface since every lump of clay is of a different size, weight, consistency and purpose … what does the potter do?
First he speeds up the wheel and places his hands as guides at borders which are acceptable to him and best for the vessel which he envisions in the clay. After making sure there is enough water on the clay to keep it soft and moldable without getting too sloppy to change form, the potter keeps his hands on the clay until it is centered.
How does the potter know when the clay is centered? When the clay no longer resist his hands but accepts the confines, the guidelines, the borders of the potter’s will. When the clay stops fighting the potter, the clay is centered.
Many people have been called, taken from the pit, prepared for shaping, but not for use. They find themselves living life on the wheel, never fulfilled, never complete, always turning, resistant to the hands of the potter which seem to be invasions, pressures, points and people of resistance to the eccentric life they live, always turning and coming back around to the same old thickness and thinness of their elliptical orbit on the rock.
True capacity is created only after a person becomes Christ centered and stops resisting the hands of God. Like clay, people can dry out on the wheel if they continually refuse to be moved. Or worse yet, they could spend life as a self centered, self made crack-pot, no one wants to use.
So, what’s the conclusion – don’t be eccentric by being self centered, ministry centered, or gifts centered, do be Christ centered, don’t become a crackpot, do yield to the loving pressure of God’s masterful hand, get centered on the Rock and let God begin to shape you and create in you what only He now sees.
