The potter
Day 367, Wednesday, Aug. 13
Jeremiah Chapters 18 – 20
Sometimes prophecies come with object lessons like a grown-up children’s time at church.
In today’s reading God tells Jeremiah to go to the house of the potter.
The first lesson to come from that is the image of the potter re-working the wet clay when the first pot he tried to make from it is less than he had wanted.
God, like the potter, can change his mind and re-mold his workmanship.
In 18:7-8, God says, “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.”
The reverse, of course, is also possible if a nation begins its journey in faith but turns aside.
The second lesson from the potter is that of an unfaithful nation, where Jeremiah buys a pot and shatters it, destroying it like God can destroy an unfaithful people. This is a prophecy of the upcoming exile of the people from the promised land.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Wednesday meditation

Job 20:12-29
“Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, though he cannot bear to let it go and lets it linger in his mouth, yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him. He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up. He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him. He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream. What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading. For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.
“Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure. Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure. In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him. When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him. Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him. He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him; total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent. The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him. A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath. Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”

Prayer focus
Lord, remold us where we have failed to be your people.