THE occasions spoken of in chapters 35 and 36 took place about 18 years before the closing days of Zedekiah’s reign which have been before us in recent chapters. They are clearly chosen to give further illustrations of the inward state of Judah at the end of the nation’s history.
Jonadab the son of Rechab, has a place in the Scriptures (2 Kings 10:15-28); he was evidently of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron. 2:15) though apparently in the land of Ephraim when Jehu ‘met him. We may judge that he was a man of marked godliness, who mourned over the state of God’s earthly people and because of it, became a Nazarite (Num.6:1-12). For more than 250 years his descendants had maintained the life of separation from the world which he had enjoined upon them. They were no doubt reckoned a very peculiar people, neither drinking wine, nor building houses, nor sowing seed, nor planting or possessing vineyards; but always dwelling in tents. O, that there were more true-hearted separation from the world seen among God’s children today! We have no thought of urging peculiarity of dress or dwelling, but long to see the people of God practicing in increased measure, a life that is toward God, and according to His Word. To please Him while here below should be the deepest desire of every Christian heart, and it is not without present reward.
Jeremiah, directed of God, went to the house of the Rechabites, and brought them all into one of the chambers of the temple building, there offering them bowls full of wine, and cups or goblets. Would they disregard the command of their father? Not they! They answered the invitation with “We will drink no wine!.. We have hearkened unto the voice of... our father in all that he commanded us ... and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us” (vv. 6-10. N. Tr.). They reckoned themselves strangers, having only come into Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar first came into the land, from a desire to get away from the contending armies (verse 11).
The latter part of the chapter reveals the reason for this testing of the Nazites of Jeremiah’s day. The prophet was to go to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem with a message from God charging them with their stony-hearted unbelief. The Rechabites among them were, as Jeremiah was to tell them, a living testimony of obedience to the commands of an ancestor, while the commandments of God—Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel—had no regard from the people to whom Jeremiah was sent.
Not the voice of one long dead, but the voice of the living God, speaking through all His servants the prophets, had been bore them constantly. All their blessings depended on obedience, but they loved to disobey; they would not hearken. There could be now but one issue of the matter (verse 17): “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 hearkened, and I have called unto them but they have not answered.”
But in that day the Rechabites would be spared; they were not to be judged with the world from which they walked in separation.
ML-02/24/1935