Life-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, by Witness Lee

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III. ISRAEL AS A POTTER’S
EARTHENWARE JAR TO BE BROKEN

In 19:1-13 God showed Jeremiah that Israel was as a potter’s earthenware jar which had been spoiled and needed to be broken.

A. Illustrated in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom
at the Entrance of the Potsherd Gate

The breaking of Israel as a potter’s earthenware jar was illustrated in the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entrance of the potsherd gate (vv. 1-3). A potsherd is a fragment of broken pottery. Israel would be punished and broken by God into potsherds at the gate that leads into the valley of the son of Hinnom, a place where evil persons and things were burned.

B. Because of Israel’s Evils

This breaking would take place because of Israel’s evils. Their evils included forsaking Jehovah, estranging this place from Him, burning incense in it to other gods, filling this place with the blood of the innocent, and building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal (vv. 4-5).

C. Jehovah Wanting to Break Israel
as the Potter’s Earthenware Jar

Verses 6 through 13 reveal that Jehovah wanted to break Israel as the potter’s earthenware jar, to make the place of Judah and Jerusalem the valley of slaughter as the valley of Topheth for the burial of their corpses. He would make Jerusalem an astonishment and a hissing, and make her eat the flesh of her sons, daughters, and neighbors.

(Life-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, Chapter 18, by Witness Lee)