The Fable of the Vase

Jeremiah 18
New Living Translation (NLT)

The Potter and the Clay
1 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.

5 Then the Lord gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. 7 If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, 8 but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. 9 And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, 10 but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.

11 “Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’”

12 But the people replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires.”

13a So this is what the Lord says:

“Has anyone ever heard of such a thing,
even among the pagan nations? …

The illustration below is one of a number of Truth Bytes from Charles Price, pastor of The Peoples Church in Toronto, Canada and host of the Living Truth radio and television series.

Charles Price on Moral Law

Moral law is determined by the character of God, which is the moral absolute of the universe and which God revealed in practical terms when He gave the Ten Commandments.    In today’s world, they may seem outdated, restrictive, unreasonable and even irrelevant but we need to recognize that they derive from the unchanging character of God.   Perhaps it is because they are humanly impossible to keep that they are perceived with such skepticism and negativity, but that is exactly the point.   They are impossible to fallen people, but not God whose nature they are. …It is the indwelling Spirit of God who, alone, can reproduce and express the moral character of God within us.

Charles Price writing in Our Journey
devotional for 6/29/10