The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Wheels” it comes from the Hebrew Word “ovnayim” which means “potter’s wheels.”
Jeremiah visits a potter’s workshop and learns a profound lesson about God’s sovereign shaping. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Jeremiah 18.
Jeremiah is instructed to arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there God will cause him to hear His words, so Jeremiah goes down, and behold, the potter was working at his “wheels,” “ovnayim” in Hebrew, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jeremiah records God’s explanation, asking whether He cannot do with Israel as this potter, since as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are they in His hand, describing how at what instant He shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation turn from their evil, He will repent of the evil He thought to do to them, but if a nation does evil in His sight, that it obey not His voice, then He will repent of the good with which He said He would benefit them.
Jeremiah records the people’s stubborn response, “There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart,” Jeremiah then praying against those who plot against him, having dug a pit for his soul, remembering how he stood before God to speak good for them, and to turn away His wrath from them, asking God to remember this, and not to forgive their iniquity, closing with a description of their plots against Jeremiah, “Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet,” this chapter’s pottery imagery offering a memorable, accessible picture of God’s sovereign, responsive shaping of nations based on their genuine, ongoing response to Him.
Jeremiah’s visit to the potter’s workshop offers a vivid, memorable illustration of God’s sovereign shaping power, while also revealing genuine divine responsiveness, willing to reshape His plans based on a nation’s actual repentance or continued rebellion. The people’s despairing response, there is no hope, we will walk after our own devices, tragically illustrates how deeply entrenched rebellion can become genuinely resistant even to such clear, compelling illustration and warning.
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