The Broken Vessel and Irreversible Judgment

Jeremiah 19: The Broken Vessel.

Jeremiah 19:1-3: "Thus says the Lord: 'Go and get a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, and say, "Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle."'

Jeremiah 19:4-9: "'Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents. They have also built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'that this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. I will make void the counsel of Jerusalem and Judah in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth. I will make this city desolate and a hissing, and everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.'"

Jeremiah 19:10-13: "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again. And they will bury them in Topheth till there is no room. Thus I will do to this people and this city,' says the Lord, 'even as I have done to Topheth and to its king. And I will cause their houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah to be defiled like the place of Topheth, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods."'"

Jeremiah 19:14-15: "Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy. And he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will bring on this city and all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, that they might not obey My words or hear My words.'"

Summary of Jeremiah 19: Judah has passed the point of being reshaped. In chapter 18, the clay can still be reshaped. In chapter 19, the vessel is hardened and broken. Jeremiah breaks the bottle as a sign of coming judgment. There is a difference between clay still soft in the potter's hand and pottery hardened beyond reshaping. Stiff-necked.