Jeremiah 18

but he mercifully gives them 40 days to respond.

This recalls Jeremiah 18 verses seven and eight.

In this passage, God is speaking through Jeremiah to Israel about how he is the potter and all the nations are the clay.

in salvation and judgment, both belong to the Lord pertaining to the nations.

And he says in Jeremiah 18, if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

God gives Nineveh 40 days.

40 days or everything will be overturned, which in the original, that word overturned, it's an ambiguous word used in a multiplicity of ways throughout the Old Testament, sometimes for destruction, but also for transformation and the change of a curse to a blessing.

But can God's action towards people change when people change? And the answer is absolutely.

And so to give an answer to that, Jeremiah 18 is probably the clearest explanation where it says that if God announces judgment against the nation and then that nation turn from their evil, then it goes on to say that I will repent of the evil that I thought to do on them.

And then conversely, the promised blessing can be withdrawn if they then turn to evil.

So the scripture gives us its own principle that God's character does not change, but his response changes when people change because he consistently responds to both rebellion and repentance the way that they should be dealt with, with justice and with mercy.

Notice what it says in chapter 3 and verse 10.

It says that God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil.

This is exactly the same principle that was explained in Jeremiah 18.

A warning of judgment is often intended to prevent the thing being warned about.

And through the resurrection, matter would become reformed.

Precisely, the prophet Jeremiah mentions this very same thing from Jeremiah 18, verse 3 to 6.

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.

And the vessel he was making of clay fell off from the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Yet that did not happen as he predicted.

Why? Read Jeremiah 18 verses 7 to 10.

What does this teach us too about conditional prophecy? beginning at verse 7 of Jeremiah 18.

The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, to pull down and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it, and the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it, if it does evil in my sight so that it does not obey my voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

Conditional prophecies are prophecies that depend on how people respond to God's messages.

But if they didn't, they were on their own.

And that's when he told Jeremiah, before the end, before all this actually happened, he took him to the potter's house, Jeremiah 18.

And he said, this people, this group of individuals are the clay that I'm trying to fashion into a civilization that can go forward successfully.

into the future, and create a method for governing themselves along the pattern that I have given them, and these people will have my support.

If you're gonna live a surrendered life, you're gonna have to allow God to shape you.

Jeremiah 18 verse one to six says this.

It'll come up on the screen.

So he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make.

It's not the psychological depth of Rembrandt.

Later on in Jeremiah 18, God tells Jeremiah to go to the potter's house, the scene of the potter's house.

And God says, arise, go down to the potter's house.

There you will hear my word.