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David O. Bales
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| David Bales brings a unique perspective to this In The Original: Insights From Greek And Hebrew For The Lectionary Passages. Along with teaching World Religions and Ethics, he also taught Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Greek. He was a pastor for 33 years, and has written four books and innumerable stories, sermons, and articles about the Bible and the Christian faith. His website is: dobales.com. |
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In The Original: Insights From Greek And Hebrew For The Lectionary Passages is SermonSuite's newest sermon help. Each week David O. Bales will provide preachers with at least one and usually two insights from the lectionary readings. He'll elucidate the Bible passage with information that only comes from one who reads (not just "looks up") the biblical languages. Continued reading of this column will:
1) Better equip you for preaching;
2) Deepen and broaden your understanding of the biblical message;
3) Motivate you to learn or review your Greek and Hebrew; and
4) Increase your love for God and others. |
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Proper 18 | OT 23 | Pentecost 15
Go to the full installment
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Jeremiah 18:1-11
Yahweh says to Jeremiah, "Go down to the potter's house," and so he does, and sees a familiar sight, a person sitting at the horizontal wheel, hands cupped around the spinning pot he forms, clay oozing between his fingers. The clay changes shape on its way to be fired and to become synthetic stone. For thousands of years potters played a major role in everyday life. The potter was a chief artisan in every village. Potters made the pots and pans of antiquity, plus helping with bricks, roof tiles, drain pipes, bee hives, writing materials, kilns, and ovens. (See Isaiah 12:2-6 in Advent 3 for explanation of the name "Yahweh.")
Jeremiah stands watching this Jerusalem potter. Whenever a piece of pottery is spoiled in the potter's hand, he doesn't toss it away, but throws it into another lump on the wheel and makes something else.
Yahweh-God's message to Jeremiah: "Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done?" Jeremiah understands the comparison between God's actions and the potter's because the first thing Yahweh ever says to Jeremiah is, "Before I formed/yatsar you in the womb I knew you..." (1:5). The verb yatsar means "form, fashion, shape." When talking about God, it depicts God creating whether the verb is translated "create" or not (Genesis 2:7, 8, 19; Isaiah 27:11, 45:7). Here in verses 1-11 yatsar occurs in the participle form which becomes the noun, "potter." As a ceramic sculptor makes a toy or an idol-maker his statuette, so God shapes people with the care and involvement of an artisan.
The participle form occurs in verse 11 where Yahweh speaks, "Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you...." This (NRSV) translation has the advantage of showing that the verb used for Yahweh is the same as being a potter. However, it's also helpful for people to hear a more natural translation to figure out what Yahweh means. NIV, "Look! I am preparing a disaster for you...."
Some people reason simplistically about God and humanity, assuming God has an exact plan for us. Some people believe God already has a spouse picked for us, a profession waiting for us, and the children who will be ours. Consider that no matter what plan God might have for us, we continually deviate from it. If we take today's text seriously we see that God doesn't have a blueprint for us. God has a determination to do what's right or good for us. "The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him."
Does God have a long list of what we're going to do and be? Do we have that for our children? If we did, would our children follow it? God hasn't made humans like that. God hasn't created us so we'll live like the stereotypical military officer, following the manual. God has created us like God's very self -- able to relate to God and others and change. If we think God has our name on a computer disk with an unalterable program for our life, we must face what the Bible says: God changes. Many times in the Old Testament God changes courses. Jesus, who was God on earth, changed when the Syrophoenician woman argued with him. He changed his mind right in front of everybody! That's what God is strong enough to do (Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30). As some people are so weak they constantly change their minds, some people are so brittle they never change their minds. Not God....
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