Build and Plant | God the Potter, Us the Clay

Jeremiah 18—comparing God to a potter and Israel to clay—is a famous passage used in debates about free will and God’s sovereignty. But to think of it only as that misses the point, and Pastor Joel explains how that approach to reading Scripture (squeezing it into debates and ideas about God) causes us to miss what Scripture actually is. It’s not a zoo where we observe God and learn information about him for our own enjoyment. It’s a safari where his word is on the loose, and we are forced to react to it. 

When we approach this passage, we see God as the potter, working with us the clay. We have responsibility, but this passage asks what we will use it for. To drift from God, or to trust his design as the potter? Pastor Joel walks through this question, and then explains why God the potter is good news for us.