Do you know what the very first words were that God said to Jeremiah? He says in Jeremiah 1, “The word of the Lord came to me and said, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.'"
That verb there, “formed,” is the Hebrew word yatsar, and God says to Jeremiah, “Before I yatsar you, I knew you.” Yatsar is the Hebrew word that actually means to take shape by squeezing. The very first word that God gave Jeremiah to understand his own life is the image God wants his people to have of who God is and what God does. God wanted Jeremiah to see this so much that he told him - “Up on your feet and go to the potter’s house!”
God yatsar Jeremiah while he was in the womb like a potter forms clay and God wants to yatsar His people like a potter forms clay.
What does God want with His pottery?
1. God created us to be useful: Yatsar is the exact same Hebrew word used to describe what He did in Genesis when he formed Adam. It’s another way to express God’s sovereignty over all of us: to express our need to yield to His divine purpose for all of God’s plans. Paul says “God wants to form us into a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work”.
2. God’s hands shape us into Christ’s image: Like a potter, God knows how to apply precise pressure, when to relax His grip, how to score our life with His fingernail, how to squeeze and nudge – all of which increase our fitness as a vessel for His use. Sometimes, He has to place us in the kiln where the fires of life turn us into stronger vessels.
3. God’s hands reshape our broken dreams: Sometimes we think we’re unusable and even unredeemable. Our problems are occasionally our own making, our pain may arise from our own stupidity. But when we bring it to God, confess it earnestly, and surrender it to the power of his blood, God takes our sin/shame and then molds us into that vessel that glorifies Him.
We’ve all heard this so many times and it can become like a clique. I know I’ve been guilty of it. Especially going through the various trials and asking the Potter, Whoa – wait, that’s too much pressure or I’m going to fracture beyond any use or my clay has been thrown over and over and has become too dry – and then Paul writes in Romans 9:19-23 (MSG),"
“Are you going to object, ‘So how can God blame us for anything since he’s in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?’ Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, ‘Why did you shape me like this?’ Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right?”
His hands are all over us all the time if we allow Him to continually yatsar us. We are all created unique and special for His purpose – not mine! When you go through tough times or trials try and imagine God is “yatsaring” His lump of clay - smashing it, pounding it, cutting it, squeezing it, smoothing out all of the cracks to create His intended purpose – you!