“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.’” (Jeremiah 19:10–11, NKJV)

Earlier, the LORD had told Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house to watch the potter forming the clay. Didn’t God have the right to form His people as He wished? And if they refused, didn’t He have the right destroy them and begin again? Now God told Jeremiah to get a potter’s earthen flask. The clay had hardened, and it was impossible to reshape it.

Even so, the people of Judah were hardened in their sins and unwilling to repent. They had forsaken the LORD and burned incense to other gods. They had sacrificed their own children as burnt offerings to Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Therefore, God would cause them to fall before the Babylonians in the same valley. Their many corpses would be consumed by the birds and the beasts. They would even eat the flesh of their own children in the terrible siege that would occur.

The LORD told Jeremiah to break the flask in front of the elders of the people to show them that God would now break them. They would be destroyed beyond repair.

It is a dangerous thing to harden one’s heart to the voice of God.

“He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1, NKJV)

It has been said that the same sun that softens wax hardens clay. When God shines His truth on us, do we soften our hearts and receive His instruction? Or do we harden our hearts and refuse to change? We can either be bent and reformed or else we will be broken and destroyed. The choice is ours.

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31, NKJV)