First, a personal update. I am safely back at college for my senior year as a Theater major. And my family is safely back home, which I am so grateful for! It was a L-O-N-G trip! It was really hard saying goodbye to my family, as always. I love them so much and it's very hard to think of being separate from them for 7 weeks. But I am also glad to be back here with my very dear friends that God has blessed me with.
This morning I was reading in the book of Jeremiah rather randomly. I read chapter 18, and discovered a connection to Jonah that I thought was pretty neat, and so I wanted to share it with you. In the beginning of the chapter, God sends the prophet Jeremiah to a potter's house where something was being made on the wheel. The vessel was spoiled in the potter's hand, so he remade it into another vessel. The Lord said, "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does? . . . Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it." Likewise, the Lord God goes on to explain that if he promises good to a nation and they turn to evil, He can retract His promise of good for them.
My Bible's commentary says, "This is the clearest statement in the O.T. of the conditional nature of prophecy and of God's promises. God is free to revoke any promise or threat, because He chooses to consider man's conduct as a factor in whether it is carried out or not. For example, He promised that His people would never again return to Egypt, but He warned them through Moses that their action could nullify that promise (Duet. 28:68). Through Jonah He threatened to overthrow Nineveh. Though He stated no condition of reversing Himself, He still accepted the city's repentance and revoked the threat (Jonah 3:4-10).
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