(see Part 1)
Though the world contain scoundrels a’plenty, though even in the congregation ones are not immune to falling away, the apostle says, “But in your case, beloved ones, we are convinced of better things, things related to salvation, even though we are speaking in this way.” (Hebrews 6:9)
Yes. Of course. The potter molds the clay and you hope for the best. It doesn’t always work out that way, but he hopes. At Jehovah’s direction, Jeremiah “went down to the house of the potter, and he was working on the potter’s wheels. But the vessel that the potter was making with the clay was spoiled in his hand.” (Jeremiah 18:3-4)
This recalls a visit to my college friend ages ago. There he was with a soldering iron in the lab trying to finagle a part for the centrifuge. But the project wasn’t go well. At length, he looked at the dubious results and said, “Well—this might be okay for the toilet, but I think not for a precision centrifuge.”
Maybe he tried it out in the toilet, but he probably just scrapped it. As to Jehovah and his spoiled project, “So the potter reworked it into another vessel, just as he saw fit.” He didn’t save it for the toilet.
Even so, the toilet is a better analogy than at first appears. A later passage of Peter speaks of another “toilet” of sorts, a “low sink of debauchery.” (1 Peter 4:4)
“For the time that has passed by is sufficient for you to have done the will of the nations when you carried on in acts of brazen conduct, unbridled passions, overdrinking, wild parties, drinking bouts, and lawless idolatries. They are puzzled that you do not continue running with them in the same decadent course of debauchery, so they speak abusively of you.” (4:3-4)
Not all translations keep the literalism of water. Even the 2013 NWT version has abandoned “low sink of debauchery” for “decadent course of debauchery.” Balancing literalism with conveying the meaning is ever a dilemma for translators. But there are plenty of translations on biblegateway*com that read “flood.” DARBY says “sink of corruption.” Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV) seriously ups the ante with “plung[ing] into the same overflowing river of filth with them.”
Suppose you accidentally drop your glasses or your pen or—Lord, I hope not—your phone in the toilet. Then you must brace yourself for an unpleasant task, made especially unpleasant if that toilet is occupied with substance. Imagine if the pen or glasses or—Lord, I hope not—phone were to say to you, “Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m good here.” It’s essentially what they say in the “low sink.”
‘Water’s fine in the low sink,” they say, both surprised and nettled that anyone would have a problem with it. They are “puzzled” at first. As soon as they resolve their puzzlement, they “speak abusively of you.” So it is with the crowd of Jeremiah 18:12. They’re both surprised and irritated that the prophet should call them out. ‘We’re good here,’ is their response. ‘Potter, schmotter—we like the way things turned out. “They said: ‘It is hopeless! For we will walk after our own thoughts, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his wicked heart.’” (Jeremiah 18:12)
But, defying theologians, the JW meeting that week of July 19, 2026 was more along lines of Hebrews 6:9. , “But in your case, beloved ones, we are convinced of better things, things related to salvation, even though we are speaking in this way.” (Hebrews 6:9)
“‘Can I not do to you just as this potter did, O house of Israel?’ declares Jehovah. ‘Look! As the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel,” the potter narrative resumes at Jeremiah 18:5.
****** The bookstore
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