Jeremiah’s analysis of the potter producing pottery (Jeremiah 18:1-11) presents us with a parable of predestination – although that term does not mean what most people think it means. At first glance the imagery suggests that we are all clay to be formed however God chooses: we will become whatever the Potter decides. And indeed, many people suppose that that’s the way Paul understood the passage (Romans 9:20-21). Actually, though, he did not; his words there were hypothetical, as the “what if?” in his next lines made clear.

In Jeremiah’s case, the story shows us that when the clay doesn’t do what the potter expects, he can decide to rework the clay into another vessel (Jeremiah 18:4). That seems strange: we can easily see how a human potter might be caught off guard by the clay’s unworkable texture, but how could it be that God would be surprised and need to reshape the clay in a new and unplanned way?

Yet that’s exactly the interpretation that God gives Jeremiah. Consider a nation on which God has declared judgment: “if that nation … turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it” (18:8) – cue the music for Nineveh (Jonah 3:10). Similarly with a nation God intends to bless, that then turns to wickedness: “I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it” (Jeremiah 18:10). And indeed: “I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings” (18:11).

We should glean from this, and from the great sweep of the message of grace across the scriptures, that God’s plan to bless us (29:11) is the ordinary meaning of “predestination” – yet we must not allow ourselves to presume that it means we can get away with anything (18:9-10). And in some cases, including Judah in the time of Jeremiah – and maybe us today! – the destiny God has chosen for us is judgment. I am creating such a severe disaster for you, says the Lord: yet if you repent, I can change my mind and bless you instead.

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We are so quick to presume upon your grace, O Lord, as if it’s your job to bless us, despite our laziness in serving you, despite our lack of gratitude in worship and our slackness in doing your will. Are you even now shaping judgment for us? Will we ever learn to be earnest, and repent?