There are indications in this message that God might yet avert judgment (vv. 7-8, 11), so Jeremiah evidently delivered it before the Babylonians invaded Judah.
18:1-2 The Lord told Jeremiah to go to the potter's house where He would give him further instructions.
18:3-4 The prophet observed the potter making a vessel on his wheel. As he worked the vessel became damaged, so he made it into a different vessel. Ancient potter's wheels consisted to two disc-like stones with a connecting vertical axle. The potter spun the one below by kicking it with his feet, and the stone on top served as a rotating table on which he formed his art (cf. Eccles. 38:29-30).275
18:5-6 The Lord's message to Jeremiah for the nation was that He had the right to deal with Judah as the potter dealt with his clay (cf. Rom. 9:20-21). Judah was like clay in Yahweh's hands. Yahweh was also like a potter (Heb. yoser) in that He created and shaped (Heb. yasar) His people.
18:7-8 The Lord might purpose to destroy Judah, but if the people changed by repenting He could change His mind concerning how He would deal with it.276
18:9-10 Conversely if He purposed to bless a nation and then it did evil and was disobedient to Him, He could change His mind and not bless it.277The character of the clay determined to some extent what the potter would do with it. People who broke the covenant and rejected Yahweh's sovereignty over them were not material through which He would fulfill His purposes.
"The principle is simply the working out of covenant stipulations. Treaties and covenants regularly included conditions for the covenant. For the keeping of covenant, the lord promises blessings on the vassal; but for breaking covenant, the lord promises punishment for the vassal. What was true in the political arena was also true for God and his relationship with his creation. The closest biblical parallel to a working out of this principle is the case of the Ninevites in the Book of Jonah."278
"This is a statement of first-class importance for our understanding of all prophecy, removing it entirely from the realm of fatalism. However stark the prediction (except where God has expressly declared it irreversible), it is always open to revision . . ."279
18:11 The Lord told Jeremiah to tell the people that He was planning to bring calamity on them and that they should repent.
18:12 However, the people would respond that repentance would not bring any change. The situation was hopeless from their viewpoint. Really they did not want to change.
"Here is a sad reflection on the end result of evil-doing and of continuous breach of covenant. A state is reached where all desire and hope of repentance is lost and men are content to follow the uninhibited promptings of their own rebellious and wicked hearts. At this point judgment is inevitable."280
