Jeremiah 19:1-15 Broken Flask

Jeremiah uses an object lesson with the people. He demonstrates with a flask how Judah will be broken. A broken flask that can NEVER be mended.

Before I started reading this section, I was reminded of the story of the cracked pot. The heading of this section is “The Broken Flask”, in my bible anyway. I was wondering if this section would relate to that story. Nope. This pot isn’t leaky but broken to shards. Which is what God tells the people to prepare for.

In the beginning of the story, it looks like we are hearing God speak to Jeremiah before he does any of the things God instructs him to do. In the end of the story though, we see Jeremiah going back into town from the place where God sent him with the elders. I know. It’s not that big of a difference but I like to see where the characters are at as I’m reading. So, I would have originally put Jeremiah in a place away from the people so he could have private time with God. I’m pretty sure that he received this message during and in such a time and place. But we see him deliver the message. I would like to step back today and walk this out with Jeremiah.

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Early in the morning Jeremiah wakes. He likes to get up before the dawn so he can spend time alone with the Lord. Most of the town is still sleeping at this hour so he is not usually disturbed. Today, Jeremiah walks along the Kidron brook in contemplative prayer.

“Jeremiah.”

“Yes Lord. I’m listening.”

“It’s time for another demonstration. A lesson the people will easily be able to identify with.”

“Is it about the destruction that is coming again?”

“Yes. They are still not listening.”

“OR believing what I have been telling them! They are getting angry with me over this message.”

“I know. But I still want you to warn them. I want them to have NO excuse for saying they didn’t know what was coming. OR Why!”

“Ok. What is it You want me to do? And what am I to say to them while doing it?”

“The first thing you are to do is to go to the potter’s house and buy an earthenware vessel.”

“I was just there last week. Why didn’t You have me buy one then?”

“Would you stop complaining and just listen!”

“Sorry my Lord.” Jeremiah’s face burns with shame for a few minutes.

“Get the vessel and then gather some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. You are going to take them to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.”

“They won’t listen to me. They laugh at me. How am I supposed to convince them to come with me?”

“I will compel them to come. You just invite them and speak to them the words I give you.”

“What do You want me to tell them Lord?”

God then tells Jeremiah the words about breaking Judah. He emphasizes the reason for their upcoming judgment. He even gets graphic by telling Jeremiah about how the people will even be relegated to eating one another; even eating their own children! This shocked Jeremiah but he wondered how deeply it would shock the people. They had already been offering their children as sacrifices to some of the most detestable gods.

“And after you have told them ALL these words, it will be time to show them. Take the vessel that you have carried with you to the valley, raise it above your head, and throw it with all your might to the ground in front of you.”

“I would be injured by the shards!”

“I will watch over you. The demonstration will be enough to get their attention. And after you have broken the vessel, you will tell them that THIS is what I will do to Judah.”

“Ok. When do You want me to do this Lord?”

“Today. Be at the potter’s shop as soon as he opens for business. Then go about gathering the elders.”

Jeremiah is resolved to do as the Lord has told him to do. “I wonder if they will listen this time”, he thinks to himself.

“No. Not this stiff-necked people. But you are to go anyway” he hears as a reply from the Lord.

Jeremiah shakes his head as his cheeks burn. He wasn’t speaking to the Lord when he pondered that question. He should have known God would be listening though.

Jeremiah stands by the potter’s stall just outside his house. This is where he brings his pots for sale. While he waits for the potter to begin stocking his table, Jeremiah thinks back to the day he watched the potter working with his clay. He wonders if the pot he watched being made will be among those for sale. The one that the potter ‘rescued’ by changing his design when the clay didn’t respond as expected. “If it is here, I think that is the one I will purchase. It has special meaning to me.”

Finally, the potter is ready to do business. Jeremiah has been looking over all the pieces as he brought them out. The special one for the other day is not among them so he chooses another.

“How much for this one” Jeremiah asks as he holds the pot he has chosen in his hands.

“That one is an excellent choice. It is 15 shekels. It is a fine pot and will last you for years.”

Jeremiah haggles with the man and purchases the pot for 9 shekels. As he leaves, he is thinking about the man’s claims. “This pot won’t make it through the day, let alone for years” he thinks as he heads for the city gate.

The elders of the city are gathered at the gate, like always. As Jeremiah approaches, one of them leans over to his fellow and says “I wonder what he wants today?”

“To tell us how EVIL we are of course” answers his fellow.

Jeremiah waits until the people who have come to see the elders are finished before he approaches the group. “The Lord has sent me to speak with you this day.”

“What is it today? What are you to tell us that we have not already heard?”

“He commands me to speak His words to you only in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. He requires your attendance as well as the elders of the priests.”

“Might as well get this over. He won’t leave us alone until we do as he asks.” The chief elder points to one of his compatriots. “Go to the Temple and tell the elders of the priest to join us here.”

The elder quickly rises and heads off in the direction of the Temple to complete his task. Jeremiah watches him as he hurries about his task.

“It is alright that I sent him isn’t it Jeremiah? God didn’t tell YOU to fetch the elders did he. God forbid that I should step out of line!” This is said with a sneer aimed directly at Jeremiah.

“If I had been told otherwise, I would have done so myself” replied Jeremiah without even a hint of reacting to the disdain in the elder’s voice.

While they wait one of the elders asks Jeremiah about his pot. “Do you want to take that to your home while we wait for them to come?”

“No. I have need of it.”

“It is not such a long journey that you need to bring a jar of water. Certainly not one of that size!”

“All we be made clear in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.”

It doesn’t take long before the elders of the priests and our elder who went to fetch them arrive back at the gate. Jeremiah looks around at all of them and nods his head. “Shall we go?”

“By all means. Lead on man of God.”

Jeremiah can feel their disgust as they walk to the place God has specified. “You got them to come Lord. That’s a miracle in itself” he thinks quietly to himself.

They have reached the spot the Lord dictated. Jeremiah turns to face his audience. “Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel…” (verse 3a). Jeremiah continues to share ALL the words that God has spoken to him.

Jeremiah first spoke of Judah’s profaning the land with their worship of other gods. Ones that even their own fathers had not heard of or followed. Ones that enticed them to burn their own children as an offering! Ones that filled the land with the blood of innocents. Ones that they worshiped EVERYWHERE imaginable!

“…therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, of the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter…” (verse 6b).

Jeremiah speaks God’s words of how the people will be killed by the sword, famine and disease. That their bodies will be so numerous that there won’t be space to bury them. The dead will be thrown into this valley. “Not only will this place be a horror, a thing to be hissed at by everyone who passes, but the acts committed here will rise to a new level of depravity!”

Jeremiah then tells them how they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and even their neighbors. How there will be a time of siege that will drive them to this new low. Jeremiah pauses a moment to make sure all eyes are on him.

Once he is certain he has all their attention, Jeremiah raises the pot he has brought above his head and then throws it violently to the ground. The men surrounding him jump back, startled. Now it’s time for the final words of the Lord for this object lesson.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks the potter’s vessel. So that it can never be mended…” (verse 11a).

Jeremiah emphasizes that this is to happen to ALL the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the king of Judah. “…ALL the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the hosts of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods – shall be defiled like the place of Topheth” (verse 13b).

The men are silent for a few minutes as they look at the shattered pot. Jeremiah can feel the heat of their anger rising. This is NOT a message they wanted to hear. Some of them are wondering why they even came. They KNEW Jeremiah didn’t deliver good messages from God. But they couldn’t seem to resist the urge to follow him. Before they can act on their anger towards Jeremiah, he leaves. He isn’t twenty paces before he hears them begin grumbling about God’s message. He closes his ears to their words. He has heard them all before.

Jeremiah had one more message to deliver before his task was done. He went to the House of the Lord and stood in the courtyard. This message was for all the people. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words” (verse 15).

Even as Jeremiah finished sharing God’s words, he KNOWS the people will not listen. A few stopped to watch him as he entered the courtyard. A couple even listened to what he had to say, in the beginning. But before his words were completed, the crowds were surging around him as if he were not even there. Jeremiah’s heart was both hurt and angry at their behavior. Hurt, because he KNEW that if they would only listen, God would save them. And angry because of how they were treating the very God who had given them even the breath in their lungs.

Jeremiah shook his head and was ready to leave. Before he could make good on his intentions…

(to be continued)

God tried to reach the people in SO MANY ways! He didn’t stop with one avenue of address. He brought out ‘visual aids’, sent multiple messengers, ANYTHING possible to get the people’s attention. They wouldn’t listen. All they did was get further and further entrenched into their own sin. And this is EXACTLY how the world is behaving today! Instead of turning and repenting, our world is going deeper into sin and farther away from God. Judgment is coming. As surely as God punished the nation He called as His own, He WILL punish this world.

Father God, thank You for letting me ‘walk with Jeremiah’ today. I know I took a few liberties with the story by adding in little bits of dialogue that MAY not have been in Your original conversation with Jeremiah. I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful but was thinking that this was how I might have spoken at the time. I believe You are trying to reach people still and that You can use my imagination and humor to that end. Don’t let me EVER step over the line thought Father in either area to where it takes away from Your message.