God's dealings with nations and with individuals are full of interest for those who know Him, and while in their complexity His ways are past finding out (Rom. 11:33), there is yet much for us to learn from them. Moses desired to know something of God's ways with His people, and said to Jehovah, "If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee …" (Ex. 33:13), and it is recorded in Psalm 103:7, "He made known His ways to Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." David also desired to know the ways of God, saying in Psalm 25:4, "Show me Thy ways, O Lord," and no doubt knew like Asaph that although God's way in the sea and in the great waters might not be known, yet he could seek the knowledge of them in the sanctuary (Psalm 77:13, 19).
In Jeremiah 18:1-2, Jehovah tells His servant to "go down to the potter's house," and there He would cause him to hear His words. Obedient to the word of the Lord, Jeremiah went to the potter's house, and saw him working on a vessel on the wheels, "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter." The potter then took the clay again and made it "another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."
Having seen what the potter wrought, the Lord spoke to His servant as He had promised, and the words spoken were addressed to the house of Israel. God was instructing His servant as to His sovereignty, saying, "Cannot I do with you as this potter? … Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel" (Jer. 18:5-6). The nation of Israel was not free to do exactly as it pleased, for it was in God's hand and He could do with it just as He pleased.
At the time God was speaking to His servant Jeremiah, the house of Israel was "marred in the hand of the potter." God in His goodness had brought them out of Egypt, and had planted them in the land of promise to be a witness for Himself to the nations of the world. He had hedged them in, keeping them apart from the nations, so that they might be free from all the pollutions of the nations, and He had protected them, giving them His law that they might know how to be pure as a people for Himself. Alas! they were found marred in the hand of the potter. They had become polluted with idolatry, their kings, their priests, their princes, their elders, and the people themselves were all involved in the ruin that was about to bring upon them the judgment of God.
In longsuffering and mercy God was waiting, looking for some evidence of repentance, so that the judgment long since predicted might be delayed, or that He might, in mercy, turn from His anger and bless them. They could not escape from the hand of God, but God was prepared, like the potter, to make them into another vessel, a vessel that would be for His pleasure.
God then, through the promised word, shows something of His ways with nations, saying, "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that nation … turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them" (Jer. 18:7-8). How wonderful is God's mercy! He has no delight in judgment, but He delights in mercy.
Do we not see God acting in this way towards Nineveh? Jonah had pronounced the judgment of God upon the guilty city, crying, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4). When the people of Nineveh heard God's word, they believed it, and put on sackcloth, and the king led in the humbling that he decreed, and in addition to calling for a fast and for sackcloth, he added, "yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands" (Jonah 3:8). Then we read, "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not" (Jonah 3:10). How very sad it is to see that God's people Israel, who were just as evil as the Ninevites, but with less excuse, for they had more light, reject God's overtures of mercy in refusing to turn from their evil ways.
There is however another aspect of God's ways to consider, "And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them (Jer. 18:9-10). This was a solemn warning to Israel, for God had built them up, and planted them in the land of Canaan, but they had not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, but had wrought evil in His sight. Israel was indeed a marred vessel in the hand of the potter, but having rejected His mercy they would be the vessels of wrath.
In Jeremiah 18 we have seen God's ways with the nations, but in Romans 9 we learn something of God's ways with individuals. Romans 9:21 brings in the illustration of Jeremiah, where the Spirit of God says, "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" Every individual, like every nation, is a marred vessel in the hand of the Potter, for we have all become marred by sin, and in taking our own evil way. There are those who, like Israel, will not listen to the word of God by His servants, the word of mercy that is proclaimed in the Gospel, and God has the power to make these marred vessels, vessels of wrath. Again, there are those who, like the Ninevites, listen to the message of God, and turn from their evil ways to God, and God makes them vessels of mercy. No man can escape from the hand of God, and God in His sovereign power can do as He will with the vessels of clay that are marred in His hand. Those that reject His mercy come in for judgment, and those who listen to Him He brings into blessing.
Pharaoh, in Romans 9:17, is an example of a vessel of wrath. He had been raised to a place of eminence in Egypt, and in relation to the nations around, and in this high position God had spoken to him time and again by His servant Moses. The self-willed monarch hardened his heart and refused to do the will of God. His constant rejection of God's word produced a hardened state, and finally God intervened in His government and hardened his heart, and so made him a vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction.
God, though willing to show His wrath, has no delight in judgment but delights in mercy, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). In those who come to repentance, God makes known "the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared for glory" (Rom. 9:23).
The vessels of honour and the vessels of dishonour had been alike as vessels marred in the hand of the Potter, ruined by sin and rebellion against God, but those who repented and turned to God, in His rich mercy He formed to be vessels for the display of His glory in the coming day, the rich glory of His grace, as giving them to share His own Son's place before His face, and also in the day of His glory.
After the Lord had appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus, He sent His servant Ananias to Saul, but Ananias was amazed, saying, "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem … ." (Acts 9:10-14). Saul had indeed been a vessel marred, but he was in the hand of the Potter, and the Potter had decided to make him a vessel of mercy for the display of His glory, and to make him "a chosen vessel" to bear His Name "before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15).
As a marred vessel, Saul "was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious" (1 Tim. 1:13), but he was able to add, "but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." When the testimony of the Lord reached him on the way to Damascus, he no longer continued in unbelief, and as such he was made by the Potter "a vessel of mercy," and "a chosen vessel," for the Lord put him into the ministry and His grace was exceeding abundant towards him "with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Saul obtained mercy, as a vessel of mercy, that in him the Lord might show what He was able to do for them that believed in Him to life eternal (verse 16).
As a chosen vessel, Paul had a double ministry committed to him, for he was minister of the Gospel and minister of the assembly. From his epistles we learn something of Paul's Gospel, that which was his own as having received it from Christ in glory. In 2nd Corinthians we have some of the features of Paul's Gospel, one of which is found in 2 Cor. 4:6, even "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This was a wonderful treasure for Paul, and for Timothy, who is associated with Paul in the writing of this letter. The glory of God is seen shining in the face of Jesus where He is in heaven, and the knowledge of this was given to Paul in a special way for ministry to make known to others.
This knowledge is indeed a wonderful heavenly treasure, far surpassing any knowledge that the natural man could acquire. It could only come by divine revelation, and could only be received in hearts prepared of God. No man could, of himself, be the depository of such a divine treasure, but God prepared the vessel to receive it, and to make it known. In this way we see that the excellency of the power to make known the Gospel belongs to God.
Although Paul was specially referring to himself and Timothy as the vessels who made known the knowledge of the glory of God in their preaching, those who received the Gospel also received this precious knowledge, and also bore about in their earthen vessels the heavenly treasure. Soon we shall have bodies of glory, like Christ's body of glory, and then we shall have the precious treasure received while here in a casket suited to the treasure, but as having it in bodies of humiliation the greatness of God's power is known.
In Romans 9:21 Paul asked, "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" In 2 Timothy 2:20-21 we have the other side of the matter, for here it is not the sovereignty of God but the responsibility of the Christian that is presented.
Christendom is viewed as "a great house," and in it there are not only true Christians, but also mere professors, and those who, like Hymenaeus and Philetus, are teachers of evil, "who concerning the truth have erred" (2 Tim. 2:17-18). This is what we see all around today, and God's word to the faithful is that we are to purge ourselves from the vessels of dishonour, from those who teach evil things.
No doubt there are many true believers in the human systems of Christendom who have not apprehended what God's mind for them is, and are found associated with teachers of error, but this in no way excuses those who have learned the mind of God from remaining in such associations. The word of God is plain, those who would be found as vessels of honour, meet for the Master's use, are to purge themselves from the vessels of dishonour, and to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:22).
Separation from evil is taught in both Old and New Testaments, for association with evil defiles. Such Scriptures as Numbers 6, where the water of separation is provided for the defiled, and Haggai 2:11-15 in the Old Testament, and Romans 1:32 and 2 John 10, 11 in the New Testament, show how God views association with evil. The path of separation is the way marked out by the word of God, a separation in which the believer walks in communion with God.