Chizuk Emunah Under the Microscope: Chapter 27

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’ (Jeremiah 18:5-11)

First, this reference is Paul's reference to the potter in Romans 9. That chapter does not teach that personal salvation is independent of human free choice, but that God's decision to use the church to witness to the world is God's sovereign choice. The metaphor of the potter is conditional. We are like clay in the potter's hand. If we do well, God will shape us into vessels of honor. If we do poorly, God will shape us into vessels of wrath. Hence, God's election, including election unto salvation, is indisputably conditional.

This warning given by Jeremiah was not that Israel would be destroyed, but that Israel would be punished for doing evil. The Northern Kingdom is completely dead, never to recover. Judah was meant to be a sovereign theocratic state, and is also dead, but waiting the resurrection as Ezekiel foretold in chapter 37.

Another interesting observation is in N.T. Wright's book The New Testament and the People of God, Wright shows from a survey of the literature that in the Second Temple period, the people of Israel believed that they were still in exile. They had not received the ingathering and were not a sovereign state for any length of time. In this case, it is history, and not biblical prooftexting, that vindicates the church's position against objectors like Troki.

Lest anyone think Paul was quoting the Wisdom of Solomon, remember that Romans was written in the year 58 at the latest. The Wisdom of Solomon was written around 70 at the absolute earliest, although modern scholarship attributes a date of around 200. So if anything, Wisdom would have been quoting Paul, not the other way around.