THROUGH THE BIBLE IN THREE YEARS

This program of daily devotions is designed to take you through the Bible in three years. It is our desire to help you gain a better general understanding of God's Word.

Please understand that in a study this brief, we will be concerned with only the major emphases and context of the Scriptures.

Each day a devotion for one or two chapters is posted, beginning with chapter one of Genesis and going through chapter twenty-two of Revelation. You are free to print each page as it appears. If you miss a day, you may go to the archive below and find it.

Bruce McGee, Pastor
205 Adams
Columbia, LA 71418

We have a great friend in Gary Godard. He has set up an archive page. To view ALL the prior devotions by Scripture, just clik

HERE

Bro. Bruce's commentaries for the books of Genesis through 2Kings are
now available in hard copy for $7.50. Just mail your request for COMMENTARY ON (BOOK NAME) to the address above.

Jeremiah

CHAPTER 18

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. 7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. 11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

Here, Jeremiah is instructed to learn a lesson, then pass on the lesson to the men of Judah.

Quite simply put, the lesson is that we humans are only "clay" in the Potter's (God's) hand! We are His creation and He can do with us as He pleases!

When the clay becomes marred in the potter's hand, he has two choices. One, he can try and "smooth out" the scar or crack. Two, he can smash down the clay into a ball and begin to form it into another vessel.

When that which God has made becomes "marred" (unuseful), then He has the ability to smash down the clay and remold it to His own satisfaction. But God also has the ability to "smooth out" the scar or crack in us. He can do that only if we are pliable and willing.

In this case, God is telling Judah that He is willing to "smooth out" the scar if they will be repent and become pliable in His hand.

12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. 13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

Jeremiah passed on the lesson, but the people refused to be repentant. Notice in verse 12 that the basis for their decision was to do what THEY wanted rather than what GOD wanted.

God said this was a "very horrible thing." Is it not completely impractical for the clay to tell the potter that it will not conform to His molding?

How about you, my friend? Are you repentant and pliable in God's hand?

14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? 15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

Since the people would not repent, God said that He would remove them from their land. This would become a "perpetual hissing," or SHAME to the nation because they had the desire of God to help them, but they refused Him.

Friends, it is indeed a shame when a person refuses the Maker of our souls the opportunity to save!

18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. 19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. 20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. 21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. 22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. 23 Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

When the nation refused Jeremiah's prophecy, they began to PLOT against him, God's messenger. They wanted to force his silence. They determined to NOT LISTEN to the "Word" from God through His messenger.

The "WORD OF GOD" has "power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16), but only to those that BELIEVE.

When people refuse to believe that God has the ability to do with them as He desires, then they become "hardened clay," and unfit for use by the Master Potter. When they become unfit for use, then He has no choice but to smash them down.

CHAPTER 19

1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, 3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: 6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. 10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. 12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: 13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

God's use of the "potter's vessel" is a very clear example of His ability to do with us as He desires.

It is no harder for God to destroy a nation than it is for a man to break a clay pot!

Tophet (to'feth) was a valley outside the East gate of Jerusalem where garbage was disposed. The word itself means to be abhorred or spit upon. Tophet was located in "the valley of the son of Hinnom" (See Jeremiah 7:31), where there were also "groves" people had made for worship of false gods. This was the place that people offered child sacrifices to the god Molech (2Kings 16:3, 2Kings 21:6, Jeremiah 32:35).

God told Jeremiah to take some leaders of Judah with him to that valley. There, in the presence of those men, he was to break the "potter's vessel" and tell them that God would do the same with them.

Notice that God said things would become so bad for Jerusalem that the people would eat their own children! When the Babylonians came to besiege the city things became THAT bad!

Let me point out again the REASON that God did this to the nation. The reason is that they refused God and followed their own imagination of God! It is a DANGEROUS thing to try and tell God Who He is! We must accept God as He defines Himself in the Bible.

14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people, 15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

There it is -- the reason for the dismantling of the nation which God had chosen, anointed, and helped.

They "hardened their necks, that they might not HEAR" God's Word!

Salvation to mankind is offered. But man must accept the fact that he is a vessel in God's hand, and that he is "marred" by sin and in need of remolding.

If the "clay" is hardened it is not pliable in the Potter's hand and must be destroyed.

However, if the clay is soft (repentant), then the Master Potter can and will remold it to His satisfaction.

The remolding God would do in our lives is described in the Bible - God's WORD.

HEAR and HEED the Word of God!

PLEASE CONTINUE IN BIBLE STUDY WITH US TOMORROW.