Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. — Jeremiah 18:3
Once Jeremiah was obedient to God’s request, we see that he went down to the potter’s house. Jeremiah wanted to hear from God. He knew that God had something special for him to see at the potter’s house. The only way he could hear from God was through obedience and going down to the potter’s house.
As Jeremiah enters, we see that he finds the potter already at work. The potter was not waiting on Jeremiah. We don’t see a greeting of Jeremiah or any indication that Jeremiah’s arrival disrupted anything. We simply see that the potter was already hard at work, making a vessel on the wheel.
The lesson from the potter’s house in this verse is that the potter’s house was important. I am certain that this potter could certainly make some type of vessel from clay outside of the potter’s house. I’m sure he was an expert in using his hands to mold and shape clay. He could make something without being at the potter’s house specifically.
But there was an importance of the potter’s house in that he had all the tools of his trade there. He had extra clay available there if needed. He had the water resources he needed. The wheel was there and there was a lot more in depth work that could happen here.
The potter here in this story is used as a representation of God. God was sharing the story of how he can mold and shape the children of Israel into something, even amid destruction and disappointment. But we find that to teach this lesson, he taught it from the potter’s house.
There are a lot of people that want to overlook the importance of the church today. They want you to believe that you can get the same experience from God by simply sitting at home. Just like the potter, it is true that God can work at your home and in your life when you are not in church. But there is something special about God’s house. There’s something important about being there.
The church is the place where we find that God has placed many resources to help us in our journey. There’s a spiritual leader of the church to bring the word of God to us. There are other leaders, such as deacons or elders, who are charged to help minister on a more personal level as an outreach of the church.
Outside of the leadership, the idea of the church puts together the full picture. Where we may have weaknesses, there are other members, who altogether make up the church. When one is having a difficulty, another can provide encouragement. When one is in sickness, another can provide help. God designed our lives to go together as Christians under the banner of the church.
There are many lessons from the potter’s house that we can see. To learn these lessons, it requires our obedience as we saw in the first lesson. In the second lesson, we see the importance of the potter’s house, or God’s house. It’s important to be there and be part of the work that God is doing.
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