Some years ago, an old "Pukachumpi" Indian named Mateo confessed Christ as his Savior. He was a potter by profession, and frequently visited us in Tambala, bringing a variety of pots with him. I used to visit him in his mountain home on the side of what is known as "Lliqui" or the inner Andes mountains of Bolivia. It was there I understood in a clearer sense the meaning of Jer. 18:1-61The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. (Jeremiah 18:1‑6). Some of the lessons I learned watching dear old Mateo at work were:
1. I learned to stoop in order to enter his workplace, for his pottery work was not done in an upper room. It was even so in the days of the prophets. Notice: "Then I went down to the potter's house." v. 3. How contradictory this sounds, but God's way is ever thus. If we would diligently learn this lesson, it is always so that the way up first leads down.
2. In dear old Mateo's hands the unlovely mass of clay became a thing of beauty. We are the clay, which left to itself is ugly, but in His hands, our wise, kind, skillful Potter transforms such into things of beauty.
3. I noticed that the clay did not resist, did not strive against dear old Mateo's skillful hands. Here is a picture of sanctification. How great the gulf between the clay down in the workshop, and the perfect specimen above! God makes a new vessel out of the clay "as seemed good to the potter to make it." Thou art the Potter, we the clay.
God's eye rests, not on our feeble, faulty works, but on the perfect obedience of our great High Priest. How wonderful it is that we stand before our God positionally in all the perfections of our blessed Lord. Our condition varies according to our communion with His blessed heart. Not till Peniel did Jacob become clay; there he was vanquished, and only such become victors.
4. Another thing I noticed was that dear Mateo kneaded the clay over and over again. (Isa. 41:2525I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. (Isaiah 41:25).) "Why?" I asked. The reply was, "To rid the clay of air bubbles." "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words." Air bubbles caused the vessel to crack open when heat was applied, and the vessel was marred in the hands of the potter. Pride destroys the beautiful vessel. Oh, may we keep low down, remembering always from whence we have been digged.
How many lessons I learned that day! In Jer. 18 we read of the "wheel." Yes, it was a wheel with its axletree sunk into the earth. Mateo with his foot caused it to spin and the formless mass of clay was placed on the wheel, leaving his hands free to make and mold the vessel. Sometimes we think the wheel spins in our little lives altogether too fast; pain is the result. But remember, the Master's hand is molding the clay, even though it hurts in so doing.
5. Then Mateo would burn color into the vessel. How beautifully he did this by a secret process known only to these Indians. Some of us are not willing for this. We are not willing to go through the fire, forgetting that the Master is in the fire with us and in the fiery trial (Dan. 3:24, 2524Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. 25He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. (Daniel 3:24‑25); Isa. 43:22When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. (Isaiah 43:2); 2 Tim. 4:1717Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. (2 Timothy 4:17)). He trod the winepress alone, but we are never alone in the fire. And so He would have all His blood-bought ones finished vessels, "as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
“In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." 2 Tim. 2:20, 2120But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. 21If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Timothy 2:20‑21).
E. F. Smith