AS A VESSEL WHEREIN IS NO PLEASURE

The idea of a vessel is used a number of times by way of illustra­tion in both Old and New Testaments. It suggests something of practical use, which has the potential to be of value and of ser­vice to its owner. In Hosea chapter 8 the vessel is Israel, who, because of their persistent sins which are spoken of as sowing the wind, will now ‘reap the whirlwind’, v. 7, the displeasure of God, which Hosea was to witness, as the ten tribes were removed to Assyria, 2 Kgs. 17. 4-23.

In chapter 8, Hosea challenges the nation with the futility of their religion, which was nothing more than idolatry. True, they had ‘a form of godliness’, as in verse 2 they cry, ‘My God, we know thee’, yet they persisted in the calf-worship established many years before by Jeroboam, 1 Kgs. 12. 28-30; the reality was that ‘Israel hath forgotten his Maker’, v. 14.

As a result of this, the sentence is given, ‘Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure’, v. 8. In one brief sentence, the subsequent history of Israel is written! Scattered throughout the nations of the world, yet retaining a distinct identity, ‘a croc that no one wants’, Jerusalem Bible. Rejected, persecuted and reviled, for centuries, without a recognized homeland, truly they have ‘reaped the whirlwind’.

The simile of a vessel ‘wherein is no pleasure’ is used on two other occasions in the Old Testament; of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, Jer. 22. 28, and of Moab, Jer. 48. 38. However, when we come to the New Testament, the believer, though just an ‘earthen vessel’, having a body subject to mortality, has the capacity to possess those things which pertain to ‘the glory of God’, 2 Cor. 4. 6-7, through grace, by faith. A treasure indeed!

The primary requirement for the use of any vessel is that it must be clean. If we, as followers of the Lord Jesus, make this our constant objective we will be vessels ‘unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work’, 2 Tim. 2. 21.

‘My empty vessel I may freely bring: O Thou, who art of love the living spring, My vessel fill’, [M. Shekelton]