Thursday: Plans Against the Prophet
Read Jeremiah 18:1-10. What important principles about prophetic interpretation do we find here?
In those same verses, what crucial spiritual principles do we find as well?
Image © Linda Lovett from GoodSalt.com
Despite all the evil, the Lord was still willing to give people a chance to repent. Hence, here too we see the grace of God being offered to those who will accept it. Even now, they still had time to turn around, despite all that they had done.
In these verses, too, we can see the conditionality of many prophecies: God says that He will do something, which is often to bring punishment. But if the people repent, He will not do what He said He would do. What He will do is conditional, depending upon how the people respond. Why would God do anything else? He would not admonish the people to turn from their evil ways and then still bring punishment upon them if they repented and turned from their evil ways. In such cases, He won’t punish, and He explicitly says so in these texts.
Read Jeremiah 18:18-23. What reasons do the people believe they have for what they want to do to Jeremiah? What is Jeremiah’s very human response?
How utterly frustrated Jeremiah must have felt to be condemned by people who attacked him because, they said, they wanted to save the teaching of the law,
the counsels of the wise,
and the word from the prophets.
How self-deceptive the heart really can be!
What lessons should we learn about how careful we need to be in doing things in the name of the Lord? Bring your answer to class on Sabbath.
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Thursday:Plans against the Prophet.
As discouraged as Jeremiah was, God tells him to go to the Potter for some more education. He went and saw the Potter as he worked on the wheels- there are actually three objects; the potter, the wheel, the clay- and all speak of God’s dealing and working with men. The clay, a common worthless material in its native state, and yet a material that has a potential of great value and utility, according to the skill of the potter. The potter, his total control over the clay to make of it whatever he desires--God's awesome power over our lives. The wheels--the circumstances of our lives by which God molds and shapes us.
Just as the potter will crumble the clay again if he is not satisfied with the vessel, God does his workmanship on us until what He desires and intended us to be is to his satisfaction. The potter has complete power over the clay, a symbol of God’s awesome sovereignty over man’s destiny. He can make of you what he pleases (Romans 9:20-21).
God desires to mold and shape us and to lift us to the highest level. Like the wheel that the potter uses to control the shaping, the circumstances of life help in shaping our life. God molds and shapes us by trials; some hard times as we know that a life without problems makes us forget even to pray.
When we read of Jeremiah’s agony, it still cannot compare to Christ’s disappointment of standing at ‘the door’ knocking in vain (Rev.3:20) and ultimately turning away in the humiliation of defeat- nobody is ready to open. That is what the devil wants but let us not give in to him but hope for complete success through Christ who died for us.
If Jehovah is willing to give even those people another chance, we should also.
Tho' they sin the same sin against you up to 70 x 7 times in one day!
Thank you Shirley. I very much agree.
We are to be stewards of God's manifold grace. And as stewards of His grace we are called to give favour to those that we feel do not deserve it. This doesn't mean that we should flatter an evil-doer, but we are to show that we love them with an everlasting love... and that there is nothing they can do to stop it.
These lessons are to reveal our character to ourselves whether we be for God or against Him. They also reveal the unlimited times God has given us to repent and follow Him. I am reminded of the books where the Angels are recording everytime we have accept or rejected the Holy Spirit's warnings.
Everytime we offer praise or everytime we neglect the Spirit. These books are to be opened and we are going to be judged from them. Revelation 20:12. Then we should take to heart the warnings that Jeremiah gave and apply them to ourselves whether we be for Christ or against Him.
Jeremiah 18:1-10 seems to teach the principle that while the clay vessel is still malleable (while it can still be re-shaped), there is hope. But the next chapter uses a different picture -- that of a fired clay vessel. It's shape is now set, and it can no longer be reformed. (Jer 19:1,9-10)
A general "close of probation" is coming, but individually, and in limited group settings, I suggest that we can close our "probation" even before we die. While the Jews were still malleable, they could be reshaped/reformed, but the time was fast approaching when their fate would be sealed. It would no longer be possible to reshape the vessel; it would be broken.
The prophet was committed to his people but they still wanted to destroy him.In the same way Jesus people sought to kill Him though He came to save them
"What reasons do the people believe they have for what they want to do to Jeremiah?" Good question. (Thank you Lesson writer/s.)
The Lesson directs us to Jer 18:18, "...let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for [or BECAUSE]the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet..."
The people did not accept Jeremiah as a true priest, nor a wise man, nor a true prophet. But they had priests [so-called] and wise men [so-called] and prophets [so-called], all of whom were instructing the nation, and leading them on towards disaster. "Peace and safety" was the popular message, and the 'moral guardians of society' fed the people with what they wanted.
The people felt that they had good, reliable, counsel, and therefore good reason to persecute "the outsider", Jeremiah.
Stewart, I think the real underlying reason is WHY they trusted the others over God. (Jeremiah only spoke for God, so they were rejecting God. Jer 17:5)
They preferred the false teaching because it let them continue in sin. God's warnings condemned their sin and like Cain, they wished to silence the reprover through whom God spoke rather than repent of the sin they found pleasure in(2 Thess 2:10-12). This spirit of Cain will not cease until Lucifer is ashes upon the earth.
In regard to Jeremiah's "very human response", could it be he was only saying that the unrepentant are doomed to the results that they themselves chose? Wisdom states that: "Those who hate me love death"(Prov 8:36), and in the end, every soul will receive the desire of their heart.