JEREMIAH 35


1 The word [Davar] which came unto Jeremiah [Yirmeyah] from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah [Y'hoyakim Ben Yoshiyah Melech Yehudah], saying,

2 Go unto the house of the Rechabites [Bais of the Rechavim], and speak unto them, and bring them into the house [Beis] of Yahweh, into one of the chambers [leshakhot (side rooms)], and give them wine [yayin] to drink.

The Rechabites were a faithful community when the ecclesia in Jerusalem at the time of Jeremiah were unfaithful. The Rechabites were not true Israelites according to the flesh, but descendants of Heber the Kenite father in law to Moses. Their record is one of service to Yahweh (Jdgs. 4:11; 5:24; 2Kgs. 10:15; 1Chr 2:55; Num. 10:28-32; Exo. 2:16-22; 18:1-27).

Though of Gentile extraction, they honoured their father when Israel did not honour its heavenly Father. They would have been taken captive with Daniel into Babylon. Thus, they had retired to Jerusalem on the approach of the Babylonians (v. 11).

Jeremiah records the testimony of this diligent remnant in ch. 35: [1] The Rechabites tried: vv. 1-5. [2] The Rechabites remain true to their charge: vv. 6-11. [3] Israel contrasted with the Rechabites: vv. 12-15. [4] Israel condemned, and the Rechabites commended: vv. 16-19. •

There are true Rechabites today in those Gentiles who seek the things of Yahweh in spirit and in truth. The term "stand before Me" implies attendance upon royalty as a follower which requires the presence of the Prince when, at last, the fulfilment of the parable will be completed.

- GEM, Logos.

www.logos.org.au


8 Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters;

Yahweh regarded with such favour the fidelity of the Rechabites to the paternal traditions of their house, that He decrees the continuance of their posterity amid all the circumstances tending to their obliteration.

There is little to be known accurately of the state of the tribes and families in the east, but, doubtless, if we could know matters as they are known to God, we should discover the descendants of Rechab, intact somewhere among the peoples of the east.

They will, doubtless, be revealed in their ancestral identity in the great day of manifestation that comes with Christ, and will as doubtless occupy an honourable place in the mortal arrangements of the Kingdom of God. But, however this may be, we cannot mistake the emphasis of the divine endorsement in the case of a virtue which is little to be found in our day in these countries of the west; a virtue, not only of obedience, but of obedience to parents.

This is a very unpopular virtue in our day. It had become so in the days of Jesus, who condemned the Rabbinical traditions by which a man was absolved from all obligations towards his parents on the payment of a sum to the temple. It remains the fact (however men may disregard, or may have forgotten the fact), that to the Lord God of Israel, who is the Creator, Upholder, and Proprietor of all things, it is well pleasing, and a matter of command from Him to us, that,

"children obey their parents,"

and honour the hoar head, and be respectful and merciful to the aged and infirm.

Seasons 1.97.



10 But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

When we think of this matter of cities, we are reminded of the Rechabites, whose father commanded them not to drink wine, build houses, sow seed, nor plant vineyards, -- but to dwell all their days in tents. Not that there was anything wrong in these things as such, but they were to remain perpetually pilgrims, and be constantly reminded of their difference and separation from the surrounding people and their evil ways.

There is much of deep significance in these Rechabites. In the midst of general corruption, Jeremiah found that they had remained true to their covenant of separation, and because of this God pronounced a solemn blessing on their family for ever.

Bro Growcott - Not ashamed to be called their God