Jeremiah 18:2

Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. GO DOWN - namely, from the high ground on which the temple stood, near which Jeremiah exercised his prophetic office, to the low ground, where some well-known (this is the force of "the") potter had his workshop...

1-10 While Jeremiah looks upon the potter's work, God darts into his mind two great truths. God has authority, and power, to form and fashion kingdoms and nations as he pleases. He may dispose of us as he thinks fit; and it would be as absurd for us to dispute this, as for the clay to quarrel with the potter. But he always goes by fixed rules of justice and goodness. When God is coming against us in judgments, we may be sure it is for our sins; but sincere conversion from the evil of sin will prevent the evil of punishment, as to persons, and to families, and nations....

Verse Jeremiah 18:2. _GO DOWN TO THE POTTER'S HOUSE_] By this similitude God shows the absolute state of dependence on himself in which he has placed mankind. They are as clay in the hands of the potter; and in reference to every thing _here below_, he can shape their destinies as he pleases. Again; though while under the providential care of God they may go _morally astray_, and _pervert _ _themselves_, yet they can be reclaimed by the almighty and all-wise Operator, and become such vessels as _seemeth good for him to make_. In considering this parable we must take heed that in running parallels we do not _destroy_ the _free agency_ of man, nor _disgrace_ the _goodness_ and _supremacy_ of God....

HOUSE - i. e., workshop. The clay-field where the potters exercised their craft lay to the south of Jerusalem just beyond the valley of Hinnom. Compare Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:10....

EXPOSITION This chapter is the introduction of a group of prophecies (extending to Jeremiah 25:1.) of various dates; their sequence has evidently not been determined by chronological considerations. The prophet's first object is, perhaps, to refute the scoffing inquiry (Jeremiah 17:15), "What has become of the [threatening] word of Jehovah?" and to justify the glorious premise given at the conclusion of the last chapter. The fulfillment of threatenings and promises alike is conditioned by the moral attitude of the people (comp. Ezekiel 33:11). God, as it were, holds them in either hand, and there is still time (contrast...

ARISE, AND GO DOWN TO THE POTTER'S HOUSE,.... Which, no doubt, was well known to the prophet; but where it was is not certain. Some think Jeremiah was in the temple, and this house was beneath it, and therefore he is bid to go down to it; but of this there is no certainty, nor even probability: it is most likely that this house was without the city, perhaps near the potter's field, Matthew 27:10; and which lying low, he is ordered to go down to it: AND THERE I WILL CAUSE THEE TO HEAR MY WORDS; there the Lord would tell him what he had further to say to him, and what he should say to the people; and where by lively representations, by sensible objects before him, he would cause him to understand more clearly what he said and designed to do: as God sometimes represented things to the minds of the prophets in dreams and visions, setting before them mental objects, and rais

CHAPTER 18 The Potter and the Clay _ 1. In the potter's house and the message (Jeremiah 18:1) _ 2. The plot against the prophet and his prayer (Jeremiah 18:18) Jeremiah 18:1. He was commanded to go to the house of a potter and watch his work. The vessel Jeremiah sees fashioned out of clay is marred; it did not turn out well. Then the clay was taken up again and made in another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then came the message: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.” If the creature of the dust can do as he pleases with the clay, how much

THE POTTER AND THE CLAY. The potter (Jeremiah 18:1) moulding his clay on the upper stone, which he makes revolve by his feet resting on the connected lower stone, is compared with Yahweh in His control of Israel (Jeremiah 18:5). The point of the comparison, as worked out in Jeremiah 18:7 ff_.,_ is not predestination (contrast Romans 9-11), but the conditionality of Yahweh's treatment of a nation, according as it turns to good or to evil (_cf._ the story of Jonah and Nineveh, also Ezekiel's individualism, Jeremiah 18:20 ff.). Judah, however, will not repent (with...

THE POTTER'S HOUSE. Note the lesson, set to Jeremiah there: that Jehovah never _mends_ what man has _marred._ He always substitutes something _new._ The _interpretation_ belongs to "THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL", and, that being "marred", the new "nation" is to be substituted. See Matthew 21:43. Compare Romans 11:7; Ezekiel 36:25. The _application_ belongs to: (1) THE COVENANT (Deuteronomy 6:25), but it was marred (Jeremiah 31:32): for the _New_ Covenant, see...

CHAPTER ELEVEN THE POTTER AND HIS VESSELS Jeremiah 18:1 to Jeremiah 20:18 Chapter s 18-20 are composed of various types of literature centering around the common theme of the potter's vessels. The first seventeen verses might be captioned the marred vessel. In the prose section Jeremiah 18:1-12 God's sovereignty over His creatures is compared to a potter's sovereignty over his clay. The passage Jeremiah 18:13-17 is a poetic expression of the unnaturalness of Israel's sin. The passage Jeremiah 18:18-2