Parable and Sign of the Broken Vessel

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JEREMIAH 19
Lesson #20
THE PARABLE AND SIGN OF THE BROKEN VESSEL

• Memory Verse: Rom 9:22
• In our previous lesson, Jeremiah visited the shop of the potter. The message in parable form was that man is God’s creation. God demands obedient disciples.
  • If you stop and think about the original 12 disciples, their discipleship was to be a model for us as believers in Jesus Christ.
  • If the 11 disciples had not been totally obedient to the Lord, we would not have the spread of Christianity or the New Testament church as it exists today throughout the world.
  • Even Judas, the failed disciple, reminds us that the better way of discipleship is complete obedience.
• In this lesson, God is not finished with his pottery messages. The parable in this chapter builds on the previous parable.
• Read Jer 19:1-15 In the Valley of Hinnom
  • Jeremiah must get a pottery vessel and go the Valley of Hinnom.
    • He must take religious leaders and government leaders with him.
      • We have discussed how religion and government are supposed to complement each other for the good of the people. That was God’s design.
      • Unfortunately that is not always the situation. When government opposes God’s people or the move of the Holy Spirit, that government fights against God and God will take vengeance.
    • Both the religious leaders and the secular leaders are responsible before God for Judah’s spiritual condition and the physical consequences of that spiritual condition.
  • What is amazing is that these leaders listened to Jeremiah’s plea to go the Valley of Hinnom.
    • Remember that they were plotting his death.
    • Remember that they were not interested in Jeremiah’s messages. Exactly what they had in mind following him to this valley, we are not told. Maybe it was just simple curiosity.
    • Notice that even Jeremiah did not know ahead of time what the message would be.
      • As a prophet of God, he was required simply to be obedient to whatever God showed him and told him.
      • Jesus said the same thing in His relationship with God. He spoke the words God gave Him to say and did the things God told him to do. In complete obedience there was complete unity. Jesus is the model for the disciple of Jesus Christ.
      • Read Joh 17:8
  • The Location of the message:
    • The Valley of Hinnom is the location, and it is important to the message.
    • Remember we already discussed this awful valley southeast of Jerusalem.
      • It was the garbage dump of the city during Jesus’ day. Jesus likened this location to hell.
      • It was the place where the Israelites sacrificed their babies (the blood of innocents vs. 4) to the idols of the gods Moloch, and Baal.(4-5) (2Kin 23:10)
      • It was the place where the Potter’s field was located, where Judas, the failed disciple, was buried.
  • The significance of the name:
    • The name Hinnom means = their riches.
      • The wealth of a people is their children.
      • This was where they killed their own children and sacrificed the wealth of their posterity to foreign gods.
    • The name Topheth means = a drum. In other words, the call to war.
    • Jeremiah says this same valley will be called the valley of slaughter because this is where God will sacrifice them, His riches, to their enemy, Babylon, in a war that is coming in about 10 years.
      • Just as the Israelites sacrificed their children, which was a wealth they did not recognize, God will sacrifice His children, the Israelites to Babylon.
      • Notice how God makes the consequences of sin fit the sin so perfectly. This is the reason that God told Jeremiah to go to the Valley of Hinnom so the leaders of Judah would get the parallel message.
  • The gruesome siege of Jerusalem in 586 BC (7-9)
    • Those people caught outside of the city gates in Valley of Hinnom when the attack comes, would die immediately, and the birds would eat their flesh.
      • This is a common illustration of judgment all through the Bible.
      • We have the same illustration at the Battle of Armageddon in Rev 19:17-18.
    • Those people caught inside the city gates when the attack occurs will end up eating each other. This gruesome event actually occurred because the Babylonians laid an 18 month siege to the city of Jerusalem cutting it off with the intent of starving the inhabitants.
  • At this point Jeremiah was to break the clay vessel.
    • What is the message from the broken vessel?
      • Remember that in the previous parable, the clay was soft but had an imperfection, so it was put aside and the potter made the pot again.
      • In this parable the clay is hardened and now broken. It cannot be made again.
        • This parable reminds me of my parents. My dad knew that my mother loved her “possessions” more than anything else in this world. The love of her possessions caused her to have a stroke while they were relocating to a new house in the middle of a severe blizzard. One of those possessions my mother loved was a valuable antique vase. As my dad and I were unpacking everything after their move to their new house, we came across this valuable vase. It was broken into two pieces. Because my mother had just had a stroke, she was not present during the unpacking but in the hospital.
        • My dad said to me, “Don’t tell your mother about this broken vase. I will glue it together and she will never know.” He did a wonderful job of gluing it together taking great care to get it perfect, and my mother never knew it was broken. However, the true value of the antique vase was gone. What was once very valuable was now worthless.
      • The message of the broken vessel is that Israel, the clay, had become so hardened in their disobedience against God, the potter, that God could not use them for His glory.
        • Israel was the broken, useless vessel. Because the clay could not be reformed, the situation was hopeless. There was nothing left but to destroy Israel, the hardened, broken vessel.
        • God, the potter, had the right as the creator to use or to destroy that which He decided could or could not be used.
  • Then Jeremiah was to go to the temple and give the message again. (14)
    • What significance is this action in the temple?
      • Remember that in our study of Jeremiah, we learned that revival begins in the house of God with the people of God.
        • When we see Christians get divorced as frequently as non-believers, where is the righteousness self-sacrifice that God calls believers to live as a testimony to non-believers?
        • When we see Christians living together without the benefit of marriage, where is the priority of obedience to the Word of God in their lives?
        • When we see TV preachers get wealthy from the Gospel at the expense of the poor, where is the personal accountability before God?
      • The lives of believers must be different from the lives of non-believers.
      • The priesthood in Israel would bear God’s judgment:
        • …. for not teaching the Word of God.
        • …..for not personally living according to the Word of God.
        • …..for corruption and robbery of the poor.
    • God wanted the priesthood to understand that He will hold them responsible for the judgment He must send.
      • As New Testament believers, we are to learn from Israel’s mistakes.
      • Read 1Cor 10:11
  • Application:
    • Of course, even though Jeremiah does not tell us this, we know by the rest of the Bible that God gathered the pieces of the broken vessel, Israel.
    • He returned Israel to the Promised Land after 70 years of captivity. God waited until the next generation before restoring Israel to the Promised Land.
      • This tells us that in reality nothing is so broken and lost and without hope in the economy of God, that He cannot restore and remake it in His time. God uses everything good and bad in a person’s life to make something beautiful in the end.
      • God is a restorer of lives. He uses even broken lives to create something beautiful.

HOMEWORK
Jeremiah 20

• Application of Jer 19
  • Do you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ?
    • If your answer is yes, in what way are you faithfully fulfilling Jesus’ call on your life?
      • How can you be a better disciple, more like the 11 instead of like the 1 failed disciple, Judas?
    • If your answer is no, what is it in your life that keeps you from responding to Christ’s call?
      • If you need help with understanding God’s call on your life, your pastor or your teacher can help you and can pray with you.
• Preparation for Jer 20
  • Read Jer 20:1-18
    • Why could Jeremiah not quit the ministry when persecution became a reality?
• Memory Verse: Rom 8:35