Jeremiah 18–19

Pottery and Judah

Jeremiah often used objects to teach his message. He used one in each chapter of Jeremiah 18–19. In chapter 18, Jeremiah was told to go to the potter’s house. When a potter makes an object that doesn’t look like he wants it to, he throws the clay back on the wheel in a lump and tries again. The Lord said that all people are like clay being worked by a potter and that He was reworking the people of Judah.

Jeremiah 19 tells about a finished piece of pottery. After Jeremiah explained the sins of Judah and what would happen because of those sins, he broke the piece of pottery. He taught the people that the Lord would “break” them and that just as it would be impossible to put broken pottery back together again and make the object look as it originally did, this particular generation of the people of Judah would not be restored as a people to their lands or to their relationship with the Lord.