Jeremiah and the Rechabites - by Bryan Ellis
When reading the Bible we can easily cover the history books and the gospels because of their compelling narrative. We can read the poetic books because of their pithy nature and mostly short chapters. We can handle some of the prophets like Daniel because of the stories that are included. We can grasp the epistles because they are short. But many of us have difficulty mucking our way through the vast amount of prophecy. While skimming through we can miss stories that have a great meaning like the one discussed here.
Back in the time of the Divided Kingdom a prophet told Jehu that he would destroy Ahab’s household because of their evil. While going about this work he found Jehonadab (Jonadab) the son of Rechab – a Kenite. Jehonadab went with Jehu and helped him finish off the house of Ahab as the Lord had commanded. This story is in 2 Kings 10 which chronicles events around the year 840 BC. The Kenites were a group of non-Israelites who went with the Israelites from Egypt and into the Promised Land. While most lived in cities among the Jews, Jehonadab commanded his family to live a nomadic life and to abstain from wine.
Fast forward to the end of the kingdom of Judah when Jeremiah is prophesying to the Jews about obedience to God and submission to His punishment. Jeremiah is told (Jeremiah 35) to find the Rechabites and bring them into the house of the Lord. He was told to make them drink wine. This is around the year 600 BC during Zedekiah’s reign. The Rechabites, though faithful to go with Jeremiah, refused to drink wine because of their father’s commandment. God praises them for this in that they would not forsake the law of their father even hundreds of years later.
Remember that Gentiles were still under patriarchal rule until Pentecost. Obeying their father’s commands was paramount. The Rechabites held their father’s words as law in their lives and strictly obeyed them. God is making a comparison to how His children had gone after other gods and had disobeyed His covenant and continued to rebel even though they had been given His love, mercy, and grace. God had spoken through Moses and the prophets, had confirmed His word by miracles, had punished the northern kingdom with the Assyrians, had blessed the Jews, had chosen them as His people, and still the children of Israel rebelled against Him.
Today we need to follow what God has said. Not because our fathers tell us to, not because of tradition handed down by men, but because He is our Creator, our Lord, and our God. God’s word has not changed. Just as the Rechabites held fast to their father’s instructions – though hundreds of years had passed, times had changed, and he was just a man – God expects us to keep His Word in our hearts and obey Him regardless of external forces and changes. After all, He is not just a man. He has accurately predicted the future and made prophecy into reality hundreds of times. He has the ability to make a timeless law that can stand until the world ends without the need for constant tweaking to fit the current societal norms. Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away”.
