Page 53 - Fundamentals Ebook

would ask again, “What are you making?” And I would take another
piece of clay and was asked, “Butchie, is that an ash tray?” I said,
“Yes.” I had no plan. I made a ball. I made a pancake. I made a
snake but I had no purpose.

When Jeremiah went to the potter’s house he saw the mind of the
potter and that he was making something. It’s not a game with God.
Pottery is His vocation. It’s not His hobby. He’s not trying to amuse
Himself with clay. You are not an experiment with the Lord. When
He deals with us, He has in His mind what He is doing. He’s
determined to make each of us according to His purpose and
knowing how great the Lord is, it’s a wise and loving purpose.
The clay doesn’t know what is going on. It’s not going to help for
the clay to get fussy and complain. The clay can’t kick and rebel
and can’t murmur. It knows nothing. Especially, the clay can’t give
the potter advice. The clay must just allow the potter to do what He
is doing. That’s the first thing that He said; that He was making
something. He saw the potter’s mind.

As he watched he saw something else. Jeremiah 18:3, “Then I went
down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on
the wheel.” He saw the potter’s hands and the hands were working
with the clay; sometimes on the outside and sometimes on the inside.
And He observed a very skillful hand. Sometimes He would press
and sometimes He would scrape off some clay. Sometimes He
would pound it. He would poke the clay and scrape the clay and
move the clay and sometimes it seemed gentle and sometimes it
seemed hard. He began to see that when the pressure was the
greatest the vessel was most unique.

Jeremiah watched the potter. He saw his mind and that he had a
purpose. He saw his hands and saw that he had skill. But then he
kept looking and he saw something else. The clay was on a wheel.
It was called a throwing wheel. In those days there was no electric
motor. In fact, there were no pedals. They had two wheels; a small
wheel on top and a large wheel on the bottom and there was a