Jeremiah 19:1

JEREMIAH 19

THE SMASHED POTTER'S VESSEL

The feature of this little chapter is the irrefutable and irremediable cancellation of the status of racial Israel as God's Chosen People, a status which, by their reprobacy, they forfeited to the New Israel in whom all the glorious prophecies of the fathers would be fulfilled.

Here is the parable of the smashed potter's vessel. The previous chapter showed God's patience and ability to accommodate to the imperfections of the clay; but this one stresses a far different lesson. It is no longer possible for even God to work with hardened Israel.

The symbol here is a potter's vessel; but one that has already been fired and hardened, a perfect symbol of the judicial hardening of Racial Israel, which, as Isaiah stated, had already taken place a full century before Jeremiah came upon the scene (Isaiah 6).

It was a new vessel, one just purchased, which means that it was empty. This symbolized the fact of the emptiness of the racial Israel and their complete failure to produce the righteous works which God desired.

The shattering of the vessel symbolized the divorce and casting off of racial Israel as God's wife and as God's chosen people.

There was no known way by which such a shattered vessel could be mended or repaired, and this symbolized the final, total, and irreversible nature of Israel's rejection, always with the exception of the "righteous remnant" destined to form the nucleus of the New Israel in the kingdom of Messiah.

Laden with such a terrible message, the events recorded here resulted in bitter persecution for Jeremiah; and Satan still releases his fulminations against what is written here: affirming that, "it is not written in Jeremiah's style";[1] "It was probably written by Baruch";[2] "It is conjectured that certain verses were added later by an editor";[3] (regrettably, Ash neglected to tell us whether this was his opinion or the opinion of unbelieving critics), stating that, "the reader can judge" the matter: Very well, this reader will judge such allegations; and the judgment is simple enough: such postulations are worthless.

(1) The claim that the style here is different actually refers to the fact that the third person is used instead of the first; and there's nothing unusual about that. Barnes declared that such an objection belongs to the "babyhood of criticism," and that, "It is the exception when any sacred writer refers to himself in the first person."[4] In our introduction to Jonah (see the Minor Prophets, Vol. 1) we discussed this fully, pp. 261-263. Also, Jeremiah would, in a moment, quote verbatim from Moses the author of Deuteronomy; and since Moses invariably referred to himself in the third person, it was quite natural and should have been expected that Jeremiah would also use the third person here.

(2) Ash's reference to "an editor" comes from the assertion of some critics that "the Deuteronomic editor" has influenced this chapter, as if such an imaginary figure were in any sense a real person, which he was not. Moses wrote Deuteronomy, not some editor; and it is not that imaginary editor that influenced this chapter but Moses himself. "Jeremiah 19:9 is quoted almost literally from Deuteronomy 28:33."[5] This fully accounts for the alleged influence of "some Deuteronomic editor," that influence pertaining to Moses the author of the Pentateuch.

(3) In a more positive attitude, the style of Jeremiah is most evident in this chapter and is seen in the scrambling of his subject matter, a characteristic of the whole prophecy. Green pointed out that, "Jeremiah 19:1,2,10,11 deal with the destruction of Israel, and Jeremiah 19:3-9 and Jeremiah 19:12-13 are portions of the sermon!"[6] Nothing could be any more Jeremiahic than such an arrangement. This total lack of any usual type of organization requires us to look at the chapter only one or two verses at a time.

Before leaving this discussion of the allegations about `interpolations, etc.' in this chapter, we summarize it by this quotation from F. Cawley and A. R. Millard, who rejected all such changes, writing, "There is insufficient reason for treating Jeremiah 19:3-9 as insertions."[7]

Jeremiah 19:1-2

"Thus saith Jehovah, Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and there proclaim the words that I shall tell thee."

Other occasions when the actions of Jeremiah became a part of his message are: the Marred Girdle (Jeremiah 13), his Abstinence from Marriage (Jeremiah 16), the Potter's Clay (Jeremiah 18), the Bonds and Bars (Jeremiah 27), and his Buying a Field (Jeremiah 32).

See chapter heading above for the meaning of this symbol; but there are additional teachings evident here. The fact of the bottle's being "earthen" symbolized the humble beginnings of Israel; the delicate design and value of the bottle symbolized Israel's earlier glory; and, if, as some allege, it was a very cheap and fragile bottle, it symbolized the vulnerability of the nation of Israel. It would be difficult indeed to think of a metaphor as effective as this one.

Furthermore, the very place where this sermon would be preached and where the bottle would be shattered carry their own implications. The gate mentioned here is hard to identify.

"Two gates led to the valley of the son of Hinnom: (1) the Fountain Gate at the southeast corner, and the Dung Gate at the southwest corner of Zion. Keil could not decide which was meant here; and Kimchi thought it was neither, but a small, postern gate, used for throwing out rubbish, the valley having been put to this degrading use from the time when Josiah defiled it (2 Kings 23:10). And thus the mean symbol of a proud nation was carried out through the back door to be broken upon the heaps of rubbish already there."[8]

"Of the elders ... of the priests ..." (Jeremiah 19:1). "These were probably prominent members of the Sanhedrin, representatives of the whole people."[9]

"The valley of the son of Hinnom ..." (Jeremiah 19:2). Some scholars write this: "Valley of Ben-hinnom," which means the same thing. It was located south of Jerusalem and was the location of the shrine of Molech, where the infants were burned as sacrifices to that god; after Josiah defiled the place, it was used for burning garbage and cremating the bodies of dead criminals.[10]

The potter's field was just a little southward, and it was there that Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord committed suicide.