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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Then break the jar while those who
go with you are watching, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty
says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is
smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there
is no more room. This is what I will do to this place and to those who live
here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. The houses in
Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place,
Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry
hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’”
Jeremiah then returned from
Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the
Lord’s temple and said to all the people, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the
God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the
villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were
stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’”
Jeremiah 19:10-15
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
Have you
ever dropped a clay jar?
The
results are usually not very good. In fact, typically the jar shatters into
many pieces, nearly impossible to ever repair again.
So what
do a broken clay jar and the Old Testament Israelites of Jeremiah’s time have
in common?
As we see
in today’s devotion, drawn from the word of God found in Jeremiah 19, they have
a lot. Look again at this passage:
“Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, and say
to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and
this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They
will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. This is what I will
do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make
this city like Topheth. The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah
will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned
incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to
other gods.’”
Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to
prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the
people, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am
going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I
pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to
my words.’” Jeremiah 19:10-15
As this
chapter opened, the Lord commanded His prophet to “go and buy a clay jar from a
potter.” He doesn’t tell Jeremiah what to do with the jar, just to have it
along with him when he traveled with some of the elders and priests to Valley
of Ben Hinnom. After proclaiming God’s coming judgment on His people, Jeremiah
is directed by God to break the jar before the people, smashing it in their
clear sight. The symbolism was striking for just as the clay jar was shattered
into pieces, so too would the people of Judah and Jerusalem find their nation
and city after the Babylonian invasion had finished. There would be no
repairing what was damaged. Rather, such would be the devastation that after
their seventy year exile, the Israelites would have to start over. It wasn’t
going to be adjusting what was already existing, remodeling things to get right
with God. No, the Israelites would have to completely start over and rebuild
everything, even God’s temple.
Back to
the question about what the broken clay jar and the Israelites had in common.
The main
similarity came in the matter of being broken before God. The people had chosen
to worship false gods and had even gone as far as sacrifice their own children
to the god Baal. Their behavior was referred to as detestable and an
abomination before the Lord, actions that would not escape His wrath. And what
riled God up even more was that time after time after time, He had sent them
warnings to stop their illicit worship practices or suffer the consequences but
His people were too far gone, stubbornly rejecting His calls to stop by
refusing to listen to what He had to say. In their sin, the Israelites were
just as useless as that shattered clay jar.
Once
judgment came, I am sure many of them knew that was simply a bad idea but at
the time, they were on their own program and their will and desires trumped God’s
for them.
Today, many
people have become like the broken jar and the Israelites of old. They have
allowed sin to dominate them and in doing so, have allowed their transgressions
to make them broken and useless before God as well as in the crosshairs of His
judgment.
Is that
where you are today?
If not,
then you are living a life devoted to the Lord, a life that reflects obedience
and compliance to His word, will, and way.
If so and
if you are broken before Him, won’t you consider repenting, turning away from
your sin, and allowing the Lord to pick up the pieces of your life and reform
you into usefulness again, once again clay in the hands of the Mighty, Master
Potter?
Know and
trust that He is waiting for you to return to Him, to go from being lost to
being found, to allow Him to repurpose you and make you so all your actions are
done in a way that honors and glorifies His precious and holy name.
Without
the Lord, we are broken but in Him, we can be made complete again.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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