Jeremiah 35

1. THE word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of 2 Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to 3 drink. Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brethren, 4 and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; and I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of 5 Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door: and I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink 6 ye wine. But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons, for 7 ever: neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land wherein ye 8 sojourn. And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; 9, 10 nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father 11 commanded us. But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we dwell at Jerusalem. 12, 13 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will 14 ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed, and unto this day they drink none, for they obey their father’s commandment: but I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; and ye have not hearkened unto me. I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me. Forasmuch as the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people hath not hearkened unto me; therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not answered. And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he commanded you; therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

1-17. It was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign that this word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah. Nebuchadnezzar had invaded and devastated Judah, sent away many of its people (among them the youthful Daniel) to Babylon, and spoiled the Temple of its sacred vessels. Only Jerusalem itself was spared and those who had gathered within its walls. Among the latter were the descendants of Jonadab, the son of Rechab. They had temporarily left their tents and flocks in the fields, and sought protection within the defences of the capital. B.

There was a remarkable people whose presence in Jerusalem, to which they had repaired for refuge on the approach of the Chaldean army, in the time of King Jehoiakim, afforded to the prophet Jeremiah an occasion, of which he was directed to avail himself, of administering a significant rebuke to the Israelites. These were the Rechabites, of whom we seem to learn from 1 Chron. 2:55, that they were identical with or a branch of the Kenites, who were of the family of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, and came with the Israelites into Palestine and there continued to lead their former mode of life, as in the instance of Heber the Kenite (Judges 4:11). When, therefore, we are told that Jonadab, the son (descendant) of Rechab, imposed upon this family the obligation never to build houses, but always to dwell in tents; and never to sow corn, or cultivate vineyards, or to drink wine, he did not impose upon them any new law of life, but bound them to the conservation of their then existing and ancient usages. All these, in fact, except the last, are such as belong to this form of life; and the last also now belongs to it among all the tribes of like habit in Western

Asia, wine being forbidden to them as to other Moslems. Kitto.

Their great chieftain, Jonadab, had lived in the days of Jehu. He had been a zealous supporter of the true worship; and had actively aided Jehu in the destruction of the false prophets and of the iniquitous worship of Baal. Fearing for the morals of his own tribe from the universal dissoluteness that then prevailed in Israel, and rightly discerning in the luxurious living of the cities, especially indulgence in the intoxicating cup, the chief points of peril, he sought to counteract these evil influences. He therefore commanded his sons, and persuaded them to bind themselves and their children, not to congregate in cities nor to build houses, but to live in tents and to subsist by pasturage; and further, to abstain utterly from the use of wine. And now for nearly three hundred years this command had been obeyed, the pledge faithfully kept. For successive generations the descendants of this wise tribal chief had continued to live a comparatively pure, because a simple pastoral life, afar from the temptations of the crowded city.

Introduced into Jerusalem in the existing emergency, the temperate habits of these simple friendly shepherds of a foreign race were now visible to all the native Jews. Their still continued obedience to the law of abstinence prescribed by their ancestor Jonadab further distinguished them from the people of the beleaguered city. And it was the marvellous force of this long and signal example of obedience, now brought afresh before the very eyes of the persistently transgressing inhabitants of Jerusalem, that God now uses to point His stern rebuke and threatening.

By God’s command, the prophet openly imposes upon these Rechabites a definite test of their principles. They are formally gathered in one of the chambers of the Temple, large pots of wine and cups are set before them, and they are bidden to drink. But with courteous firmness they decline. And it is in direct connection with their touching reply (which should be very carefully read, verses 6-11) that Jeremiah is bidden to go forth with them into the great court of the Temple and utter God’s rebuking message to the inhabitants there assembled.

The substance of the rebuke consists in the contrast between these Rechabites and the people of Judah respecting the single matter of obedience. In the comparison, however, as stated or implied, were several points which greatly aggravated the contrast. And these are to be well heeded if we would understand the full force of God’s rebuke.

On the one hand, these descendants of Rechab were not Israelites. Of a race whose fathers had been excluded from their original occupancy of Canaan in favor of the incoming tribes of Jacob, they yet had submitted to the Israelites, had voluntarily sought the knowledge and favor of Jehovah, and conformed to His established worship. Furthermore—in this matter of Jonadab’s command—he had simply spoken, manifested his wish, and laid it as an obligation upon his sons and descendants. He had spoken but once. His command had no accompanying promise. It was based upon no other ground than its inherent wisdom, enforced by no other appeal than its manifestly beneficent spirit and effects. But it had been filially honored and implicitly obeyed. Neither self-will nor self-indulgence had once arisen, in that long period among those successive generations, to question the wisdom or beneficence of the stringent ordinance left by their great chieftain Jonadab. And the more we ponder this filial loyalty of nearly three centuries the more signal and striking the lesson it conveys to us; the more worthy seems to be the use which God Himself condescends to make of it here; and the higher our estimate of its intrinsic force in this Divine application, by the mouth of Jeremiah.

On the other hand, it was upon His own chosen richly favored people that Jehovah’s commands were laid. To them He had spoken, not once or twice, but repeatedly and by many messengers, by providences and by prophets to every generation. He pictures Himself here as having patiently toiled, from the earliest morning hour, through the entire day, of many generations. In this toil He had employed not only terms of command and persuasion, but had exhausted every form of entreaty and warning. Promises too, rich and full beyond conception, had been multiplied in words, and illustrated in deliverances and mercies without number. But with all these urgencies of Divine influence, they had refused to hearken and to obey.

Recall now, in connection with these facts, that sharply aggravate the contrast, the two chief points of that contrast itself, as contained in God’s rebuking words. In these we find the emphatic suggestions of the story. The first is obedience, as set against disobedience; the second, filial obedience, as set against filial disobedience. The Rechabites obeyed their father, Jonadab; the Israelites disobeyed their Father, God. It is specially observable how God here emphasizes His Fatherly relation. To us Fatherhood is a fundamental element of His character. Childship is the supreme vital relation we hold to Him. This responsive connection is the beautiful suggestion which He makes in using this comparison. B.

6-10. It is a dull ear which does not catch in these words an echo, as from the rocks of Sinai, of the commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Eminent examples of filial piety, how might that law have been inscribed, as their appropriate motto, on the banners of the house of Rechab? Living in remarkable accordance with its precept, they were a remarkable monument to the truth of its promise. Distinguished from all around them by their superior respect for parental authority, they were equally distinguished by their happier fortune; while others perished, their days were long upon the land which the Lord their God had given them. That law is one of the Ten which, written by God’s own finger, and spoken in thunder tones by His own awful voice, were separated and distinguished from those Mosaic ordinances, the shadows of good things to come, that were buried in the grave of Christ. Like the other nine it was fulfilled, not interred by the Redeemer. Like all other parts of the Decalogue, it is of permanent authority; and God is still making good its promise in the well-doing, the health and wealth, and prosperity of thousands who honored their parents however humble they might be, cherished them, and yielded to father and mother the reverence that was their due. Guthrie.

12-15. The strong point which the Lord makes upon this noble example is, that this tribe had adhered with unswerving constancy through so many years to the precepts of their father Jonadab, the son of Rechab, while the Jews had utterly refused to adhere to His precepts; would not listen to His repeated messages and warnings, but spurned them madly away. They heard and obeyed a mortal man; this people will not hear and obey the eternal God! H. C.

14. I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking.** God had spoken to them early and late. The figure is taken from men who address themselves early to that in which they take a deep interest, and to which they devote themselves strenuously. It is a favorite phrase with Jeremiah (7:13, 25; 11:7; 25:3, 4; 26:5, etc.).

15. It is here explained how God had spoken to them, as had been said in the preceding verse. It was by the instrumentality of His servants the prophets, whom He employed as His messengers. What they spoke was God Himself speaking. While the Rechabites obeyed their ancestor, Judah did not obey God. A single requirement sufficed for the Rechabites; frequent repetition did not secure Judah’s compliance. A fresh contrast is suggested by what immediately follows. Jonadab’s commandment was a purely arbitrary one; God commands that which is in itself of the highest moral obligation. Return ye now every man from his evil way. Repentance of and forsaking all that is sinful is the first step required. This negative abandonment of evil must be followed by positively doing what is right. Amend your doings. And, inasmuch as the only effectual spring of repentance and good works is to be found in communion with God and right affections toward Him, it is added, go not after other gods to serve them: He will not admit a rival, or permit that homage and service to be given to another which is due to Him alone. A further contrast between Jonadab’s word to the Rechabites and God’s word to Judah is that the latter was accompanied by a promise such as the former could not make. This is that, if obedient, ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you: If faithful to the Lord, they had the assurance of His Divine protection and guardianship. Ye have not inclined your ear. They paid no attention to God’s reiterated commands, though the duty enjoined was so obvious and imperative and the reward promised was sure and faithful. W. H. G.

God here explains why He had commissioned the prophet to bring the Rechabites into the Temple, and commanded him to set wine before them, and invite them to drink it; namely, that by their refusing to comply with the invitation, in obedience to their father Jonadab, he might convince the Jews of their disobedience to his commands, though those commands were more obligatory than the commands of Jonadab. For, first, Jonadab was but an earthly parent, and so had no absolute universal sovereignty over his children; but God was “the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.” Secondly, Jonadab’s commands were not for the performance of any moral duty, but the doing of a thing which they might do or leave undone; God required of them what was but their moral duty, and for which there was the highest reason. Thirdly, Jonadab’s commands had no promise annexed; God’s precept had a promise annexed, yet they had not yielded Him that obedience which the sons of Jonadab had yielded him. He was the Father, but where was His honor? Poole.

16,17. Judgments are threatened, as often before, against Judah and Jerusalem for their disobedience thus aggravated. The Rechabites shall rise up in judgment against them and shall condemn them; for they very punctually performed the commandment of their father, and continued and persevered in their obedience to it (verse 16); but this people, this rebellious and gainsaying people, have not hearkened unto Me; and therefore (verse 17) because they have not obeyed the precepts of the word, God will perform the threatenings of it: “I will bring upon them, by the Chaldean army, all the evil pronounced against them, both in the law and in the prophets, for I have spoken to them, I have called to them; spoken in a still small voice to them that were near and called aloud to them that were at a distance; tried all ways and means to convince and reduce them; spoken by My word, called by My providence, both for the same purpose, and yet all to no purpose; they have not heard nor answered.” H.

18, 19. The promise of God to the Rechabites. This promise instantly and openly follows the open rebuke, and as designed, gives that rebuke an emphatic intensity and force. Because of their filial obedience, they receive the promise of the Fifth Commandment—of a perpetuated existence. The phrase “Stand before Me,” which is figurative, implies that there should always be some of the tribe as participants in the service of Jehovah. Like all the Divine promises, this was probably conditional; and “its accomplishment may have depended upon the fidelity with which their descendants kept their pledge.” Modern travellers assert the existence at the present day, in Arabia, of small tribes claiming a lineal descent from the Rechabites, who are still loyal to the precepts of Jonadab. It is well to point the argument and appeal in behalf of abstinence from wine, with this noble example of the sons of Jonadab. But let us remember that the single point directly and designedly conveyed by this Divine message respects solely the contrast of obedience on the one side, and disobedience on the other. By pressing this point, of the superior obligation of obedience to God’s commandment, a more effective use of the example may be made, even as regards the intemperate. A legitimate use of the Rechabites’ example respecting abstinence from intoxicating drinks lies in the fact that they, in an age of comparative ignorance, were able to discern the evils of indulgence in the use of wine. B.

18. Having delivered his heavy message of judgment and woe upon Judah and Jerusalem, he turns to the house of the Rechabites with a message of approval and blessing. “Honor thy father and mother,” says the apostle (Eph. 6:2), “which is the first commandment with promise.” And throughout the Word of God this duty is emphasized and the promise reiterated. The commendation bestowed upon the Rechabites is for this one thing—their filial obedience—the reward for which is “that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12). This Judah had forfeited; but the Rechabites had a right to claim it. W. H. G.—The thing which the Lord blessed on this occasion is one which He always blesses, and without which nothing can be blessed—obedience. The Rechabites thought that they were fulfilling a duty. The Rechabites had obeyed. It seems as if God was unwilling to look farther; the principle of obedience is so precious, so fundamental, so easily neglected, that God, when He meets with it, does not inquire too strictly into the form in which it has been realized. He does not quarrel captiously, if I dare so speak, with regard to the garb of the principle, for in His eyes, as in those of sound sense, “the body is more than raiment;” and as the abstinence which the Rechabites prescribed to themselves had nothing bad in itself, He blesses it, judging that obedience cannot be too much encouraged, nor the scruples of obedience handled too tenderly. Vince.

The symbolical lesson which God instructs Jeremiah to read to the Israelites from the conduct of the Rechabites, whom no temptations could induce to swerve from their “father’s commandment,” while Israel so easily forgot and trampled upon His, is wonderfully touching. Nor is it the least instructive part of the lesson, that though “the children” He had “nourished and brought up had rebelled” against Him, He declares He would signally reward and honor the filial obedience even of the inferior type; and commissions Jeremiah to assure the Rechabites of it. H. Rogers.

19. Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me forever. The connection and the contrast which is plainly intended determine the meaning of these words to be that, while the inhabitants of Judah shall be cut off and banished from the land, the Rechabites shall be saved from threatened destruction. To “stand before the Lord” here does not mean to exercise the priestly office, as in Deut. 10:8 and Ezek. 44:15, nor to take the attitude of worshippers, as in Jer. 7:10, but to be preserved by Him, and possess His favor, as in Jer. 15:19 and Ps. 5:5. W. H. G.—The commands of Jonadab the Rechabite had been kept centuries after his death by his people, who are not descendants of Abraham, and who consequently participate in the covenant of promise only mediately and in the second line. Israel, however, had not obeyed the commands of Jehovah, the God of hosts, though they have been presented and inculcated unceasingly by prophets; therefore all the threatenings pronounced by the Lord on Israel shall be fulfilled. But to the Rechabites it is promised that Jonadab shall not want a man to stand before Jehovah. Lange.

In 1832 Dr. Joseph Wolff found the Rechabites of Jer. 35 near Sena. One of them, Mousa by name, in answer to the question, Whose descendants are you? read from an Arabic Bible (Jer. 35:5-11), and said, “You will find us sixty thousand in number.” You see the words of the prophet have been fulfilled: “Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before Me forever.” Even as late as October, 1862, an Eastern traveller, Signor Pierotti, read a paper at the Cambridge meeting of the British Association, stating that he met a tribe calling themselves by this name near the Dead Sea. They had a Hebrew Bible, and told him the same story that had been told Dr. Wolff thirty years before. Even these historical proofs, for which I am mainly indebted to Smith’s Bible Dictionary, are not exhaustive. But they suffice to show that the Rechabites are one of the Lord’s standing witnesses preserved by Him age after age to testify to the reality of certain great Scripture facts over which the waves of time have rolled for several thousand years. The distinct preservation of the Rechabites belongs to the same class of facts with the preservation of the Jews and of the ancient Samaritans, all of whom are among the Lord’s special witnesses to the historic and prophetic credibility of the Old Testament. H. C.

The superiority, or the greater nobleness, of self-denial, self-mortification, self-abnegation, in contrast with self-indulgence, self-gratification, self-enjoyment, is found reflected in the teachings of the Bible, both in connection with the assurance that ultimately the truest objective gain to one’s self is through the surrender and forgetfulness of self, and in connection also with the primary and more elementary truth that selfishness is a lower attribute of man’s nature, and that self-seeking is unworthy of a man’s truer and better self. Precept and illustration combine for the enforcement of this truth, in the Old Testament and in the New. No better example in this line could perhaps be given from the Old Testament record than that which is furnished in the incident of the self-denying Rechabites and their commendation. It is not said that Jonadab exacted any vow from his people, or that they made him any specific pledge on the subject. It is only declared that he enjoined upon them this life of self-denial as a duty, and that they nobly adhered to the restrictions which he pointed out to them as desirable. For so doing they deserved credit; and for so doing they had the Lord’s commendation. It was their filial adherence to their father’s injunction of self-denying abstemiousness that was the immediate cause of their being held up before Judah, and so held up before the world, as examples worthy of imitation for all time to come. Not merely because they were obedient, but because they were self-denying in their conformity to the wise injunctions of their ancestor, were they thus honored above their fellows.

It is nobler now, as it was in the days of Jeremiah, to deny one’s self than to indulge one’s self; and without a readiness to exercise self-denial daily, even to the extent of the restrictions of the Rechabites, there is no possibility of serving God acceptably in city or in country. Says a greater than Jonadab, to all who would hear and heed His word—even Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master: “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me;” and again: “Whosoever doth not bear his own cross [and to bear a cross involves self-denial] and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. So, therefore, whosoever he be of you that renounceeth not all that he hath [and so practises self-abnegation], he cannot be My disciple.” There is, obviously, a great deal more than filial obedience covered by the example of the Rechabites, and the requirements of our Lord from His disciples. Intelligent self-denial for the sake of the right and at the command of Him whose we are and whom we serve, is an essential element in the noblest Christian manhood. This self-denial may—it often does—demand as an absolute duty the specific requirements of the Rechabite nomad-life—total abstinence from all that can intoxicate, the shunning of wealth-seeking, and a pilgrim life on earth. However this may be in any particular instance, the spirit which prompted the Rechabites to be self-denyingly faithful to the wise injunctions given to them by their ancestor is essential to the very existence of the Christian life, and is inseparable from the duties of Christian discipleship. S. S. T.

The simple purpose of this introduction of the Rechabites into the Word of God is to reprove bad men in the Church by contrasting them with good men out of the Church. The value of such a fragment in the Scriptures for practical use in all ages may be seen by a brief notice of the following hints:

1. The popular criticism upon the Church is true: “Better men are out of it than some men in it.” There are bad men in the Church, and very imperfect good ones. Men profess religion who will cheat in a trade, who will lie to cover the cheat, who will take a false oath to bolster the lie.

2. The contrast between apostates in the Church, and good men out of it, is an exception to the general fact. As the Rechabites of old were a small and exceptional sect, no fair representative of the heathen world, so now the good men who are not churchmen are not a fair specimen of what men naturally become who live out of covenant with God. As in the Jewish Church there were men and women who were not apostates, so there are multitudes in the Christian Church now who do not deserve the charge that they are no better than other men. The apostates and hypocrites on the one side, and the good men who are not churchmen on the other, are both exceptions to the general law. It is but fair to admit this. It is but just to claim it. The very fact that the alleged contrast attracts attention and provokes satire is proof of this.

3. The concessions which Christians make to cynical critics of the Church need often to be qualified by loyalty to the brotherhood. There is a virtue in loyalty to one’s guild, which truth and justice sometimes call to the front. There is a tone of criticism of the Church which sounds very candid, and very faithful, and very independent of clanship, which, after all, is unmanly and mean, simply because it is not true. The faults of Christians are exaggerated. The numbers of the hypocritical are overrated. Guilt is assumed on insufficient evidence. Evidence which a jury would scout is deemed sufficient to condemn a professor of religion. Such accusers do not face the accused like men. They will swell a secret into common fame; yet, when summoned to bear witness, they skulk. The truth is that conscious hypocrites in the Church are comparatively few.

4. The virtues of good men who are not churchmen are due largely to the salutary influence of the Church upon them. The Rechabites owed their knowledge of the true God to the Jewish people. Their virtues were due to their association with that people, not to their knowledge or practice of heathenism and its fruits. Similar is the teaching of history in all subsequent ages. The virtues of the world in their finest growth live upon the graces of the Church. Christian ideas govern the public opinion of the world to-day, though spiritual religion is by no means in the ascendant. It takes but a small minority of earnest believers to carry with them the speculative belief of a large majority. So nations populous and mighty are nominally Christian to-day because they contain a nucleus of spiritual Christians. These keep alive the Christian religion as a power of restraint, of culture, of refinement, of civilization, of virtue, to multitudes to whom it is not yet a power of salvation. That such men are what they are, they owe to the living faith that is in the Church. They owe it to godly mothers and praying fathers, and Christian wives, and the recollections of their own Christian childhood. That among them are found Christians in heart who are not such by profession, they owe to the more positive and consistent ones, who do not fear to profess before the world the faith they cherish in secret. The Church of Christ achieves thus a vast amount of unacknowledged conquest.

5. While God blesses goodness and the right wherever He finds them, He still depends for them chiefly upon the Church which He has created for all time. History, in this old Judean line, seems to turn aside for a moment to salute respectfully these ancient sons of temperance. Yet it speedily returns again to the old channel of the Church of God. No sect is taken as a substitute for the Church. God does not abandon His people and take up Rechabites in their stead. He knew His own mind when He founded the Church, and said to Abraham, “In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The great stream of civilization and redemption has flowed down the ages of the past, not through any accidental and wayside canal of Rechabite or Masonic virtue, but through the great river-bed of the Christian Church. Here are the living fountains. Here are treasured the truths which the world most needs to know. Here are garnered the promises which gild with golden radiance the world’s future. The hope of all coming time is in this Church of the living God.

It becomes us all to walk humbly before God. Vows in the Church or out of it cannot save us. The contrite and believing heart—this and this only is the place in which God dwells. This is more to God than the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud—more than the Shechinah and the holy of holies. This is more to Christ than church and clergy and sacraments. “I heard a great voice out of heaven saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them. God Himself shall be with them and be their God.” Phelps.