O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:6 (AMPC)
God tells Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house in order to teach him a life lesson. While there he sees the potter working away at his potter’s wheel.
Jeremiah notices that the vessel that the potter is working from clay, gets spoiled in the potter’s hand and what he does is simply make it over, reworking the clay into another vessel as it seemed good to him. See- Jeremiah 18:1-4.
Then in verse 6 which is our theme Scripture we are taught a life lesson from the potter and the clay.
The Lord is the potter and we are the clay and as the clay in the potter’s hand so are we in the Lord’s hands. He works on and with us not as we want but as He sees fit. We didn’t and we can’t make ourselves, the Lord is our maker. Psalms 100:3 (AMPC) Know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
It is very easy for the potter to work with clay fashioning it into any vessel or shape he wants because clay is malleable — it can be easily extended or altered. Clay is pliable — it bends freely without breaking.
For us being clay in the Lord’s potter hands speaks of yielding easily and readily to His leadings and workings in our lives.
We can easily and readily yield to the Lord’s leadings and workings in our life by being quick to hear — being ready listeners, slow to speak — not rushing to say anything, first weighing what you’re going to say; slow to take offense and to get angry. James 1:19.
Being quick to hear means paying attention to what the Lord tells us with the willingness and readiness to act on what He’s said.
The number one way and most effective way the Lord works on and with us is with His Word. Your attitude and response to God’s Word shows whether you’re acting clay soft or stone hard in His hands.
Hebrews 3:7-8 (AMPC) Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as [happened] in the rebellion [of Israel] and their provocation and embitterment [of Me] in the day of testing in the wilderness.
The children of Israel were not clay soft in God’s hands in the wilderness. They remained stone hard – they hardened their hearts and as result they all perished in the wilderness. They did not believe or pay attention to the Word that the Lord spoke to them with the willingness and readiness to act on it.
Hebrews 4:2 (NKJV) For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard [it.]
So today don’t be stone hard and cold. Stay clay soft as you really ought to be in Him. Listen to His voice, hear His Word and willingly readily yield to it. He’s the potter you’re the clay.