Marred in His Hands

3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Jeremiah 18:2-4

Hold up for a moment. There is some small matter with which I wish to discuss with you here. It is even that of being marred in the hands of the potter. Now I know it might not sound pretty to you. It might not even be your favorite theological text. I recognize such truth is as uncomfortable to hear likewise as it is to the one bringing it instead. For it is not a thing we like to discuss though we should be found in the potter’s house, even that of the Lord. Notice how much the word potter sounds like the ancient Egyptian one of Potiphar as seen in the text. Come with nme now as we review the incidents surrounding his life if you will. He was Joseph the favored sold into slavery at the hands of his brothers. Marred in the hands of the potter. He was falsely accused by the wife of the general who still kept his bond. Marred in the hands of the potter. He was given over to be a ward of the prison. Marred in the hands of the potter. He remained there a very long time. Marred in the hands of the potter. He was forgotten about again and again by the same ones to whom he once ministered. Marred in the hands of the potter. Finally, he was remembered only to be dragged out and stand before Pharaoh highest in that place. Marred in the hands of the potter. He was given there for surety while famine ravaged in the land. How many of you have been marred at the hands of potter before. I can almost hear some of you know with your hissing of ‘sacrilege.’ You are right, such is a very strong word. But not all doctrines are pleasant or easy to take and it is certainly not one to hold you and rock you off to sleep at night. Sure, we are all held in his hands. The same God who formed oceans and flung the stars into space is capable of keeping you and me in his hands. So too is there hardly anywhere we might go to be far from his hands. Nor are we beneath his notice as some are wont to think. Else what would he have sent Jeremiah down to the potter’s house for if not to observe all his work. See, such was not merely an exercise in futility to which he had been called. It seems there has been a vessel taken from out of the clay. This merely means the shape by which the potter chooses to form out the clay. Now later we find the resistance found in the clay as it shouts “why have you made me this way.” Yet it is not to nothing that some have been formed first of mud then partly from clay only to later turn to decay. So then the issue remains in the circumstances from which these have been formed. Thus it is hardly the fault of the potter if the clay refuses to take the shape of the form that it should appear. Then too is it hardly his fault that the clay should jump down on the ground. There is hardly no fault with the potter herein now that you see. So too does the the Lord a Heavenly work wrought on the wheels of the times, the weather, and whatsoever suits him better to bring about all his good will And work that he has purposed to do Even his pleasure. So often man likes to speak of the changing of fates or the wheels of time unhinged by the changing of man. Yet God is hardly like all that we see. Indeed, he is far greater being one and the same found of himself, the maker of man. So what then of this marring in the hands or the potter or where it should finally end up. Back in the Father’s house I must confess in itself sounds awfully nice. At long last then, the have come about the ages of man. Now they submit to the workings of God as he turns them around to do all that you see. Perhaps I am not saying that in everything bad you can see the hand of the Lord. But what I am saying is that in all this does Genesis 50:20 appear. Indeed, he makes all things to work together for our good and his glory even to us as those called according to his purpose. So then are the purposes of God at last seen in the house. It seems in all this there is found the makings again of the Lord. See, at no times has he ever lost control of this world nor the events of his house. Sure, life in the potter’s house might seem awfully chaotic at times, what with all the marring of man and the ever-present turn of the wheel. But come now and see the new life with the Lord. For now has he hardly called this Jeremiah there just to leave him alone. Rather he has purposed him there for a lesson and with it a blessing. Here like never before should be seen the hand of the Lord.