The Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem was the scene of gross, unspeakable human sacrifices, made by many idolatrous Jews to the god Molech. It was a place that righteous Jews shunned and detested.
The Gate of Broken Pottery was so named because the potters who worked nearby threw their unwanted cracked and broken pottery onto a pile of jagged pieces. Soft clay can be reshaped, but hardened clay can only be smashed and thrown out as unusable
Jeremiah is called The Prophet of Doom because of prophecies of this kind. He proclaimed that God’s judgement on his people would be catastrophic in order to show how angry He was at their disgusting crimes. So much so that the Valley of Hinnom would afterward be renamed The Valley of Slaughter. The pitiless Babylonians would execute God’s judgement on the people there as ruthlessly as they did in Jerusalem.
“Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who are with you, and say to them, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Likewise, I will break these people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again…” (Jeremiah 19:10,11)
After 63 years as a Christian and 50plus years as a pastor, I have witnessed many new believers who began like the softest of clay in the Master Potter’s soft, skillful hands, only to later become hard and unusable, and ending up on a pile of pottery pieces. They began with so much promise, but in character they were flawed. My heart grieves for them to this day.
Since God puts His treasure in earthen vessels, we are ‘pottery people’ so to speak and as such were made to be filled with His excellence (2 Corinthians 4:7).
How then to stay soft? Fellowship with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ, will keep you tender-hearted. So too will Christian fellowship, a personal life of prayer, devotion, a willingness to show mercy, unconditional forgiveness. These will develop an awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Good Christian books and music, while important, are helpful secondary influences.
What things harden a Christian’s heart? My list has to include prayerlessness; cold unconcern; harsh criticism; hard attitudes; unwillingness to forgive; and — perhaps worst of all — cold-eyed cynicism toward everyone and everything called Christian.
The prophet Jeremiah saw that change was possible while the clay was still soft, the wheel was still turning, and the patient potter was still working. When these ceased, change was no longer a possibility. What use a cracked pot (crackpot) or a hardened or distorted bottle? As God’s clay vessels, we may be “earthenware” yet His desire is that we be well-crafted and properly proportioned.
This message is prophetic in that it speaks to those whose hearts are beginning to harden. The prophet cannot work the clay or the wheel — only the Master Potter’s hands can do that. Jesus can cup your life in His hands, and ever so gently, skilfully, patiently, reshape it, until it is flawless.
This is not a pastoral homily but rather an invitation from God to those who are still soft enough to submit. It is written with an undercurrent of deep sorrow for those who appear so hard that even God appears unable change them. What a waste!