Malleable or Hard Baked?

In the book of Jeremiah, there are two occasions when God uses the illustration of a clay pot. The first is in Chapter 18. There it talks about a pot that becomes mis-shapen while the potter is making it. The potter squashes the clay down, working it into a new pot according to his purposes. He is able to reshape the clay into a vessel that will still be useful to him, because it is still soft and malleable in his hands.
In Chapter 19, however, it is a very different story. This time God tells Jeremiah to go and buy a clay jar from the potter. He is to pronounce the judgment of God against the nation of Israel, then to break the jar as a sign to them. Just as the jar cannot be restored, they will not be rescued from His judgment.
What is the difference between these two clay jars? It is not their beauty or the quality of their workmanship – we are told nothing about these in relation to either of them. It is not the kind of clay used, not the purpose for which they were designed.
No, there is just one difference between the two: the first is still soft, pliable. The second has been fired and is hard baked.
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The Relationship Between Men and Women

This article is prompted by a recent conversation on Facebook about the roles of men and women. Let me begin, in case you have not followed my ministry and writing up to this point, by saying that I hold the Bible to be the Word of God, absolutely infallible in its original form, and the sole rule for faith and life for the believer. My argument is not with the Word, but with the interpretations that have been given value over the Word. So much of what has long been taught in the church as the Biblical standard is in fact a distortion of Scripture, based on poor interpretations made by a male-dominated society over many hundreds of years. I would like to try to correct some of those misconceptions.
(Note: It is not my purpose here to address the particular issues surrounding women in ministry. I have already written a whole article about that, which can be found on my ministry web site at http://wordandfireministries.com/women-in-ministry/)

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Welcome

Welcome to Lynn B. Fowler Writes. This blog is an extension of the blog on my writing site, http://lynnbfowler.com, and will serve to notify you about new posts there. I hope you will be blessed by this blog and my site, and will invite others to come and visit.