The Example of the Rechabites

Ran across what I feel to very interesting and eye opening passage from the Old Testament the other day during my lunch/study time at work. Jeremiah chapter 35 highlights an interesting clan or family of people known as the Rechabites...apparently the decendents of Jonadab, and members of the larger Kenite clan - all the background information on them is neither here nor their... Really, there's not even a whole lot of detail about them in history, though Wikipedia does have a brief article on them and their possible decendants. I said all that to say this: I would like to highlight a few brief points that we can all benefit from in Jeremiah's thirty fifth chapter regarding this otherwise mysterious group of people known as the Rechabites.

²Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then give them [who are pledged to drink no wine] some wine to drink.

First thing we should go ahead and make note of here is that God is using the Rechabites as an example, or more so a contrast to the Israelites, who at the time were of course backslid and headed into the Babylonian captivity. Now I find the setting here interesting. I think it would be easy at first glance just to think that God and Jeremiah are setting up to tempt the Rechabites to sin, but I think we would be too cautious to negate God's obvious sense of humor and irony; He's really saying to Jeremiah: "hey, watch this. I'm going to give you a good example of obedience and loyalty." Much like when he told the devil "Have you considered my servant Job..." Sometimes what may be a tempting situation is just putting you in a better position to be God's example (will you pass the test?) I digress...

Main point: more than two hundred years previously, the patriarch of the Rechabites had basically established for his family a principle or standard of living that they had been completly loyal to. They did not drink wine, namely. (They had established a few other traditions as well, of which we will mention momentarily.)

⁵And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink wine.

⁶But they said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, commanded us: You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever.

Here is a people, with an opportunity, at the invite of the man of God, to basically forsake all they had ever stood for for two hundred plus years: but notate, please highlight this in your Bible, their response - WE WILL DRINK NO WINE. It was a flat, curt, maybe even rude response - but it was immediate, and their was no wavering; we just don't do that, we havn't done it yet, we're not going to do it now...why? Because "our father commanded us..."

So where are the Christians? And what traditions shall we hold to and not compromise? What commands has our Father passed on to us that we, as His children, should loyally obey? The Rechabites, even though they were not technically considered Jews, were exactly by the example given what God was looking for from His people.

Christ spoke to us so clearly in John 14:15, the Father robed in flesh stated, almost in the form of a challenge: "If you love me, keep my commandments..."

Compromise them? Throw them away? Discard them as outdated and non relevant traditions? Put them on a display shelf to speak of, but not actually pull down off the shelf and apply to the daily living part of our lives, much less our hearts? KEEP THEM! LIVE THEM!

Read how the chapter ends: (taken from the Amplified translation)

¹³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to My words and obey them? says the Lord.

¹⁴The command which Jonadab son of Rechab gave to his sons not to drink wine, has been carried out and established [as a custom for more than two hundred years]. To this day they drink no wine, but they have obeyed their father's command. But I, even I, have persistently spoken to you, but you have not listened to and obeyed Me.

¹⁵I have sent also to you all My servants the prophets earnestly and persistently, saying, Return now every man from his evil way and amend your doings and go not after other gods to serve them; and then you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers. But you did not submit and consent to Me or listen to and obey Me.

¹⁶Since the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have fulfilled and established the command of their father which he commanded them, but these people have not listened to and obeyed Me,

¹⁷Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, but they have not listened, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

¹⁸And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and have kept all his precepts and have done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab son of Rechab shall never fail [to have] a man [descendant] to stand before Me.

Look at the reward for those that were obedient. God promised them a place - a place of right standing with Him, a place of ministry - and that too can be ours if we will simply KEEP the commandments already given; as Jude put it "THE FAITH that was ONCE delivered unto the saints..."

Let it not be said of us, God's true church:

I have spoken to them, but they have not listened, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

Are we listening? Are we answering the call? I'm not just referring to alcohol usage, although that would not be out of context. I'm not just referring to NOT doing the things that God hates, but what about DOING the things He has commanded we do?

To Be Continued....