Jeremiah 18:6

Jeremiah 18:6

I. Every human life is, first of all, an idea in the mind of God. The potter is an artist, and it is the thoughts of his head he embodies in the vessels he makes. Our beings are Divine productions, embodied thoughts of the Divine heart, the very work of the Divine hands.

II. Every human life is shaped for a Divine use. When the potter turns a vessel on his wheel, the first pulse of thought concerning it touches its use. It is the use which determines the shape. And this holds good in the shaping of human life by God. We are created to be vessels for God, and of God; vessels of His sanctuary, set apart for His service, and filled with all sweet and wholesome things.

III. The third truth in this parable is that lives tried in one shape are sometimes broken up and re-shaped to fulfil themselves in new spheres of different capacities and shapes of the Divine character and life.

IV. God has left it to man himself to decide whether he will be a vessel of honour or dishonour. If we were mereclay, God being Lord and Maker of us, each would pass to the fulfilment of the Divine purpose as stars and trees do, and there would be no after-story of sorrow no divergence from the Divine intention. But we are human beings, notmere clay. The Creator has power over the lives He moulds, but it is never so wielded as to quench the power of choice He has given to us.

V. Be true to the Divine intention and shaping of your lives. The Great Householder reserves for the highest honour the cup which carries the wine to His own lips or to the lips of His guests. Be, each of you, that cup for God. So shall God be well-pleased with the work of His hands.

A. MACLEOD, Days of Heaven upon Earth,p. 23.

References: Jeremiah 18:11. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi,p. 279. Jeremiah 18:12. Ibid., Sermons,vol. xii., No. 684.Jeremiah 18:18. J. S. Howson, Good Words,1868, p. 617. Jeremiah 19:13. S. Greg, A Layman's Legacy,p. 223.