Jeremiah was called as a young man “in the thirteenth year” of King Josiah (Jeremiah 1:2), around 627 BC, and prophesied for about forty years, through the reigns of Judah’s last kings and the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. He was a contemporary of Lehi, and his prophecies were on the brass plates Nephi took from Jerusalem (1 Nephi 5:13); Nephi also mentions that the people had cast Jeremiah into prison (1 Nephi 7:14). His message was unpopular: turn back to the Lord or Jerusalem will fall. He was mocked, beaten, put in the stocks (20:2) and imprisoned. His book is unusually honest about how painful his calling felt.
This week’s chapters touch many themes. Chapter 1 is his call: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (1:5), and his protest, “I am a child” (1:6). Chapter 2 says the people forsook “the fountain of living waters” for “broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (2:13). Chapter 3 pleads, “Return, ye backsliding children” (3:22) and promises to gather “one of a city, and two of a family” to Zion (3:14). In chapter 7, Jeremiah stands at the temple gate and warns people not to trust in the words “The temple of the Lord” while mistreating the stranger, the fatherless and the widow (7:4–6). Chapter 16 foresees the Lord sending “fishers” and “hunters” to gather Israel (16:16). Chapter 17 contrasts the person who trusts in man with a tree planted by the waters (17:5–8).
This lesson centers on Jeremiah 18. The Lord sends Jeremiah to watch a potter at work. The KJV says the potter “wrought a work on the wheels”; the Hebrew speaks of two stones, since an ancient potter’s wheel had an upper wheel for shaping and a lower one turned by the feet. When the vessel is “marred,” the potter doesn’t throw the clay away; he makes “another vessel” (18:4). The lesson follows: “as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand” (18:6), and the Lord’s warnings and blessings are conditional on how people respond (18:7–10). The tragedy is the people’s reply: “There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices” (18:12). In the next chapter, just outside this week’s reading, Jeremiah breaks a finished, hardened clay bottle before the elders (19:1, 10–11). Soft clay can be reshaped; fired clay can only be broken.
Twenty-five minutes won’t cover all eight chapters. Read Jeremiah 1 and 18 well, spend a few minutes on 2:13, and trust the class to read the rest this week. Jeremiah 20 (fire in his bones) is ready as a bonus step.
