America, hear the LORD’s message to The Voice of Jeremiah. “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working at the wheel. But the vessel that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “O people of America, don’t I have the right to do with you what the potter did with the clay?”—this is the LORD’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O people of America![1]
The Voice of Jeremiah’s Rebuke: America, the Sovereign God of the universe is the Potter and you are the clay! And just as when the clay resists the potter’s hand so that the vessel is ruined, and then the potter patiently kneads the clay and makes another vessel, so God will do with you, America![2] Just as the potter has power over the clay, so God has Sovereign authority and power over you! America, God—the Potter—does not need nor seek advice from you—the clay! He is interested in neither your counsel nor your criticism!
This what the LORD says: “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor and is able to give Him advice? Who are you, a mere man, to criticize and contradict and answer back to God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’”[3]
The Voice of Jeremiah’s Rebuke: America, you are a nation of individuals and each individual has the ability to receive God’s Word or reject it. Each individual is made from the dust of ground[4] and lives in a fragile body.[5] But unlike the clay on the potter’s wheel, each individual in America has the ability to resist or submit to God.
God has announced to you, America, that He is framing evil and judgment against you! If you repent as a nation, God will deliver you. But if you are so chained to your sins that you would rather choose to follow your own evil and wicked plans, and you would rather worship dead idols and suffer for it than serve the true and living God and enjoy His blessings! Then surely, it is true of you, your hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked![6]
People of America, in rejecting your God and choosing dumb, worthless, useless, and powerless idols, you are acting contrary to everything reasonable and right. God has made you for Himself, and you cannot succeed apart from Him.[7] Instead of choosing to walk on God’s clear and safe highway of holiness,[8] you willfully choose to walk on a dangerous and painful detour. You do it, because you have abandoned the blessed paths of God’s holy Law. And because you will not repent, God must judge and chasten you; this means ruin for the land and scattering for the people. Instead of God’s face shining upon you in blessing, God will turn His back to you and leave you to your own wicked devices resulting in your judgment and destruction!
The Voice of Jeremiah’s plea: O America, like the patient potter, God is willing to mold you again even though you have resisted Him and damaged your own lives. Although you will certainly suffer for your sins, no failure in your lives needs to be fatal or final. God is merciful! He gave new beginnings to Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, and Peter when they failed, and He can do the same for you!
O America, overwhelming chaos is coming to your nation! [9] No matter where I look, the LORD shows me ruin and devastation! Even the stable mountains will shake! But America, only God’s mercy can keep you from complete destruction! [10] But the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, specializes in hopeless cases. He breaks the power of sin and He sets the prisoner free from the bondage of his sin. [11] Repent, mourn your sin, turn back to God, and be saved before it is too late!
[1] Jer. 18:1-6; [2] Jer. 18:1-17; [3] Rom. 9:20; [4] Gen. 2:7; [5] Job 4:19; 10:9; 2 Cor. 4:7; [6] Jer. 17:9; [7] John 15:5; [8] Isa. 35:8; [9] Gen.1:2; [10] Jer. 4:27; see 5:10, 18; 30:11; 46:28; [11] John 8:34-36; cf. Ps. 102:20
Tags: America is the clay, God is merciful, God is Sovereign, God is the Potter, God will mold you, not repent, receive God's Word, reject God's Word, wicked devices
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