SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON. DECEMBER 3,2017,Topic: Lessons From The Potter’s Wheel

SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON. DECEMBER 3,2017

Topic: Lessons From The Potter’s Wheel

Memory Verse: Jeremiah 18:6. Oh house of Israel, can not I do with you as this Potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel (KJV)

Lesson Text: Jeremiah 17:5-10; 18:1-17.

Central Truth: Only by yielding ourselves to God can we fulfill His will for our lives.

Focus: To acknowledge God’s sovereignty and submit ourselves to Him.

Lesson Outline:

1.    God’s sovereignty Illustrated

A.    Like clay in the Master’s hand

B.    God’s Sovereignty over the Nation

2.    Man’s Stubborn Heart Revealed

A.    Rejection of Plea for Repentance

B.    Deceitful Human Heart

3.    Consequences of Rejection Foretold

A.    Israel Turned Away  from the Lord

B.    God Turned His Back on His People

               Learning Objective

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1.    Describe how God’s sovereignty can give us confidence in His promises to restore the backslider.

2.    Explain the trap of self-reliance and why people follow their own ways even today.

3.    Detail what they can do to help backsliders return to the Lord.

                   Introducing The Lesson

         Parables and other types of imagery are common in the literature of the East. Some of the prophets’ most powerful messages were illustrated with parables and vivid word pictures. Jeremiah’s trip to the potter’s house is one such example.

        Unfortunately, some people associate God’s mercy only with the new Testament and see nothing but His wrath in the Old . This week’s passage is striking example of God’s offer of forgiveness even as He warned of coming judgment.

             COMMENTARY AND APPLICATION

1.    God’s Sovereignty Illustrated

A.    Like Clay in The Mater’s Hand. Jeremiah 18:1-6

Just as God had used the branch of an almond tree and a cooking pot to give Jeremiah two earlier prophecies, so God directed the prophet to the pottery shop as He prepared to convey another divine message ( Jeremiah 18:1-2). Jeremiah was sent to observe a potter at work with a lump of clay on a pottery wheel ( verse 3). The man formed the clay on a potter’s wheel,shaping it into a pot. Before the pot was finished, however, the potter discovered a flaw in the pot. The clay had to be remoulded, but the outcome was another vessel that pleased the potter(verse4).

      With this images fresh in the mind of Jeremiah, God revealed the picture that He wanted Jeremiah to see in the potter’s actions ( verse 5). The Lord used the potter and the clay to illustrate His sovereignty- His complete lordship – over His people. The potter was in control of the clay not the other way around.

     Note that in verse 6 God is addressing the nation of Israel. This is important distinction. Often this story of the potter and the clay is applied to individuals, and although there can be some application made to a person, it is important to realize the focus of this parable is on the nation Israel. And as can be seen throughout the book of Jeremiah, God wanted Israel to repent and turn back to Him so He could relent on His plan of judgment.

 QUESTION: How can God exercise sovereignty–His overarching control over all His creation without preselecting who will or will not be saved?

     It is imperative to understand that God’s sovereignty should not be equated with the Calvinistic view of predestination: that God foreordains all those who will be saved to glory and all those who will not be saved to destruction. Sovereignty does not eliminate free will. The scripture tells us that God desires all to be saved ( see John3: 16, 2Petre 3:9), but people still reject salvation through Jesus Christ. Every person is held accountable for that decision.

      Another way of understanding God’s sovereignty is that He retains the ability, authority, and right to cause anything to happen that He wills, but that He is not exercising that right over every detail of creation. And in the case in point, He is especially not exercising it over our free will to accept or reject Jesus as Saviour. This is why throughout the Old Testament, and in this passage specially, the Lord was entreating Israel to repent.

B.    God’s Sovereignty Over The Nation. Jeremiah 18:7-10

    In Jeremiah 18:7-10, God gave Jeremiah two examples of how the lesson of the potter and clay could be applied. God first described a nation living in sin that was faced with the consequences of their evil choices. Such a nation was in danger of being destroyed (verse 7). But God immediately promised that their repentance would quickly meet with His forgiveness (verse 8).

     Looking at the scenario from the opposite direction, God spoke of a people or nation that He desired to be bless. At one time, they had lived for God (verse 9). But they allowed themselves to drift away from God and be enticed by evil. God could no longer bring the blessing He desired to give them (verse 10).

QUESTION: How can these national illustrations be translated into personal application?

      There is no one has sinned so deeply that the blood of Christ cannot cleanse from sin (see Isaiah 1:18; 1John 1:7).Throughout the centuries, and children who have turned to Him in faith and repented of their sin. On the other hand, no Christian is above God’s judgment of sin. Believers who yield to temptation and go against the truth will suffer consequences.

2.    Man’s Stubborn Heart Revealed

A.    Rejection of Plea For Repentance. Jeremiah 18:11-12

     After explaining His sovereignty over the nations, God narrows it down to Judah. He told Jeremiah to go Judah’s people and declare, “Behold I frame evil against you” (Jeremiah 18:11, KJV). When looking at passages like this, the important thing to realize is that God does not plan disaster on His people without people without giving them a way to escape. God’s purpose had never been to destroy Israel. God is always seeking a relationship with His people, individually and collectively.

    In the second half of this verse, God showed His mercy by appealing to His people to repent and turn from their sin. Regardless of what they had done, God still wanted them to turn back to Him ‘’and make your ways and your doings good” (KJV).

     There was still hope for Israel to turn around; however, their fate (verse 12). They would not turn away from their idolatary and evil ways. They claimed that it was hopeless to try to persuade them to turn from their wickedness. In fact, the people of Judah actually were so deep-seated in their own devices and “imagination” (KJV) following “the stubbornness of (their) evil hearts” (NIV).

QUESTION: What can Judah’s rejection of Jeremiah’s message teach believers when their efforts to share Christ are rejected?

   God’s messenger will sometime experience negative resposes to their message, but this must not cause them to doubt the authenticity of their message or their faith. Evan though the Lord sent prophets like Jeremiah to implore them to recent, Israel’s rejection of God’s word was common throughout Israel’s history. The believer stands with Jeremiah when he faithfully endures rejection.

B.    Deceitful Human Heart. Jeremiah 17:5-6, 9-10.

  Jeremiah 17:5-8 are similar to Psalm 1. Verse 6-8 give the same problems and consequences, but with different purposes.

   Psalm 1 was written for instruction, while Jeremiah 17 was a judgment against Israel for their wickedness. Verse 5 specifically details why Israel turned from God, while verse 6 specifies the consequences.

    QUESTION: What are the consequences that were prophesied for Israel’s not following the Lord and how could this apply to believers today?

      The Israelites were going to be like a bush with small roots in a place where there was little water and where plants cannot grow because of salt in the ground. The picture is clear that they will be like a wasteland. The consequences of trusting in people rather than God always end in disaster, so as Christians, we would do well to heed this warning. Although God can make it turn out well for us ( If we repent and turn to Him, see Romans 8:28), it is always better to avoid God’s judgment, risking our relationship with Him and our own ways.

     Jeremiah 17:9 gives us the primary reason people do not seek the Lord but go their own way: ‘’The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” While we would like to believe that we are above such foolishness, how many times have we tried to do things without first seeking the Lord and His will( Matthew 6:33)? Thankfully, through Christ, we can be forgiven and avoid the most serious consequences of our folly, but we must be ever mindful that the Lord searches our hearts and examines our minds (Jeremiah 17:10; see also Hebrews 4:12-13).

3.    Consequences of Rejection Foretold

A.     Israel Turned Away From The Lord. Jeremiah 18:13-15

   Judah’s record of sin was long and detailed, quite different from what God had planned for His people. In God’s sight, the people of Judah were “the virgin of Israel”( Jeremiah 18:13), KJV), a picture of the purity and righteousness God wanted for them. But they had done “a very horrible thing”

QUESTION: What was Judah’s sin, and why was it so “Horrible”?

    Many times in the Scriptures, the Lord said that He was espoused to Israel, that she was His bride. But like an unfaithful wife, Israel turned from their true and faithful Love, and went after other lovers, the abominable

Let false goods of the nations around them. Israel had committed spiritual whoredom by worshiping idols.

    Verse 14 asks two simple questions for which the answer is obvious. The snow never recedes from the mountains of Lebanon and the cool water that flows from distant places (likely the mountains form a contrast to the “horrible thing” (verse 13) that Israel had committed.

   Judah had repeatedly turned from God and worshipped “ vanity”( verse 15,KJV;or “worthless idols, ”NIV). Their faith in false gods caused them to stumble spiritually away from the “ancient paths,” away from the covenant, to pursue many different “byways” (NIV) of error. Because Judah had been blessed with a covenant relationship with the living God and had been given His laws which would only do good for them, it was all the more baffling that they would fall into such error. They had not sinned in ignorance, but knowingly and flagrantly.

B.    God Turned His Back on His People. Jeremiah 18:16-17

In broad strokes, Jeremiah 18:16-17 speaks of Israel’s grim future. Their land would be laid waste to such an extent that other nations would be appalled at their destruction. The people would exile. Their enemies will triumph over them as God withheld His blessing from them.

      It is easy to see the historical fact of God’s judgment on His people in that the Jews were scattered throughout the world during the time of the exile. They forgot God (verse 15). They failed to live according to His word.

QUESTION: What happens when Christians forget God, consistently to obey His Word?

     Rebellion and disobedience, when continued without repentance, will eventually sever a Christian’s relationship with God. God will always do His part in maintaining and strengthening the relationship He has with believers. He will do whatever is necessary to draw backsliders into renewed relationship. Believers, however, must do their part, in which includes repenting and yielding themselves to God through obedience to His word.

                   DISCIPLESHIP IN ACTION

  There may be times when we feel that we are a lump of the clay on the master Potter’s wheel, being formed again. But unlike a piece of clay, we have a choice as to whether or not we submit to the changes God desires to make in our lives. Hebrews 12:1-11 tells us that although God’s discipline is not a pleasant experience, if we allow God to do His work in us, afterwards it will yield in us the “peaceable fruit of the righteousness”(verse 11,KJV).

    Take inventory this week as to what God is doing in your life. Then evaluate the degree to which you are responsive to His voice and His leading. During your prayer times in the coming week, mention especially the areas where you feel God is dealing with you, and surrender those areas to Him. Commit to greater sensitivity to the Lord’s voice in the future.

                 

                        MINISTRY IN ACTION

     If you know anyone who is going through a struggle, pray for them. Then ask God to show you how to encourage them while they are in the trail and to not give up until the Lord has finished His work in them ( see Philippians 1:6).