The Rechabites

Introduction

So, uh, I’ll be closer to you and, uh, I’ll feel more comfortable perhaps. Someone asked me this morning, “Are you have something more like a sermon tonight?” And I thought, well, I I I guess maybe I will. We’ll see. I have just had a good time this weekend meeting all y’all. It’s fun to meet See, I said y’all. Y’all you can see where I’m from. But, you know, it’s a just a great thing. And I think I said this first thing uh Saturday, yesterday morning, that when you kind of see all Christians you hadn’t ever met before, that’s so encouraging.

I think there are lots of Christians all over the world that I don’t know. God knows who are his. And it’s encouraging though to discover a few more of them and have them in your mind. It’s been fun to to be with Brian and Kelly. I think I might be an honorary granddad. Maybe someday. at least if I’m not, I’m in line uh for for that job if you need someone to serve that way and to get to know all of you. Rod and Cynthia, I mean, just had a wonderful time to get to know them and others treating me to more food than I needed.

So there um I always feel obligated to say thanks, but I I genuinely mean that. It’s just been a fun weekend and I it will stay in my memory for a while. But I’m going to have something more like a sermon tonight, I guess. and it will be about the Recoites which is found in uh Jeremiah chapter 35. You can open your Bible to that text. I’ve tried to put uh all the relevant scripture on here because we will be going throughout the Old Testament. Really for me, and this is a side point, but it strengthens my faith to see some of these threads of stories.

This one’s going to start with Abraham and end with Nehemiah. Can you imagine that? That’s almost the whole history of the Old Testament, right? It’s 15 what right 1500 years. Am I doing the math right? And and and that thread is contributed to by a lot of different authors in the Old Testament. Really think about it. Starting with Moses all the way through to Nehemiah and then the prophets in between including Jeremiah. Now the highlight of the lesson will be what happens in Jeremiah 35 uh during the re reign of Jehoakim right near the end of the southern kingdom before it was destroyed.

1. The Kenites: Not Among the Nations Conquered

But to get there, we’re going to have to learn some history or at least remember some history. I hope you remember a lot of it that we can weave together with this thread. Uh here would here’s what I would call the Sunday AM version of the sermon. Okay, so it’s short, quick, but we’re going to go back and look in detail. In Genesis 15, you remember that scene where God gives Abraham that promise? It’s the second major time in which God uh reveals that promise to Abraham.

And he says, “I’m going to give you the land of the Kennites.” Kennites. And you wonder, “Who are the Kennites?” Uh, but yes, we’ll figure out who that is. Well, it turns out if you go forward, Recob, from whom we get the term Recoit. And I noticed that this morning it was pronounced Recabitete. You I don’t even know. I’m going to go with Recoit. Y’all stick with me for the lesson. Recoit is what I’m going to call it. But he was a Kennite, as it turns out.

You can find that in 2 Chronicles 2:55. We’ll look at that verse in a little more detail in a minute. And Johnadab, who is mentioned in Jeremiah 35, the guy that gave those weird commands to his children, he is the son of Reck. So that puts him in the family of the Kennites. And the Recoites are called to the temple by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 35. So here’s the mention. Kennites, Rekub was a Kennite. Uh Johnab was a son of Recab. And both of those are mentioned in Jeremiah 35. That will help us understand that story.

All right. Now, let’s go back and look in some detail down the left side. And I hope it’s readable. No. Yeah, that’s good. Uh, we have about what 1500 years of history. And you can kind of attach Abraham to 2,00. You can kind of attach Moses to 1500. I know round numbers, dating, all that. So, but just for, you know, approximation. Uh, uh, and then a th000 BC you can kind of put David around there. David, saw the kingdom starts there. And 500, you can kind of think of that as the return and rebuilding period of time.

500 uh 444 whatever but that’ll be so that’s our timeline down the left the first mention is there in uh the promise to Abraham which I don’t know when that was some 2000 perhaps the late 1900s all these are BC y’all know BC is backward counting that’s what that stands for so you got to think backward and subtract funny numbers that way but here’s what it says I’m hoping we can read this I’ve given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kennites, the Kennesites, not to be confused with the Kennites, I guess, right?

The Cadminites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Ref the Refam, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gurgasites, the Jebusites, and lots. And some people add in, you know, the Stelacttites in there, but but anyway, they’re not part of that. But if if you let me go forward just a minute, we’ll come back in a second, but down to the time of Moses at Moses at Sinai leaving there, God promises Moses almost the same thing. But look carefully how this reads. Look at that promise. He said, “I’m going to give you I’m going to actually scatter these nations before you, right? They’ll and the and there they are. They’re all listed there. I’ll cut them off. I’ll send to my fear before you. I will cause confusion.” Do you see that?

Do you notice what nation is not in there? Well, you should be able to because it’s a lesson on the Recoites, the Kennites. So, it is the land of the Kennites and when Abraham is when they’re mentioned in Abraham’s time, but they’re not among the nations that will be conquered. That’s what said to Moses at Sinai. Hm. I wonder what that could mean. And so we go forward to Moses and you remember that uh he brought he came out of Egypt with what two million of his best friends and he comes up he shows up at Jethro’s place.

Y’all you’ll remember Jethro. Jethro was a priest of Midian. A priest of what? I’m not so sure. Yahweh other gods I don’t know. There’s some hints given in the interaction between Moses. Moses was tending the flock of Jethro. By the way, Jethro has another name, Hobab. I think they’re the same character. Exactly the same. Hobab or Jethro. Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, who was a priest of Midian. Midian, I think, is a place, not a nation.

It’s that area east of the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia, I guess, now is what’s there. And when Moses shows up with all these friends, he says, “Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all the gods.” Did he not know that before? I don’t know these answers, but certainly it’s clear that Jethro was impressed with what happened at the Red Sea. And you remember that was Rahab had heard about that. A lot of people were impressed with that. God was showing his power and Jethro got the message.

I know that Yahweh is greater than all the gods. For in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, he was above them. That is these gods. Then Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. Jethro. Jethro. Same kind of conversation now, but in Numbers 10, they’re about to leave and set out. Um, Moses said to Hobab, the son of Ruel, the Midionite, Moses’s father-in-law. So, it seems like the same guy, though he’s called Hobab. Uh, we’re setting out for the place which Yahweh said, I’ll give it to you.

Come with us. Come with us. We’ll treat you well, for Yahweh has promised good things to Israel. Right. So down to verse 31, Moses said, “Please do not leave in as much as you know how we are to camp in the wilderness and you can be our eyes.” And it will be if you go with us. Indeed, it shall be whatever good Yahweh will do to us, the same we will do to you. Do you see where we are here? Is Jethro and his family and his I guess you’d say a tribe under him, are they Israelites?

No, what Moses is offering is come with us. You believe now in the same God we do. I think that’s what he’s saying. And when we’re blessed, you’ll be blessed. Do you see how that is happening there? Interesting story. So the children of what? The Kennite. Interesting. Moses’s father-in-law. So Moses’ father-in-law is a Kennite. As it turns out, that group of people, remember that Abraham said, “We’re going to get we’re going to go where their land is, and then later they’re not going to be destroyed.”

Now, I maybe understand why they aren’t among the nations that are going to be conquered or put to fear by Moses. They went from the city of Palms with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south near Arid. And they went and they dwelt among the people. I’m a little bit reminded of Abraham’s promise or the promise to Abraham that I will bless those who bless you. Remember that. And I’ll curse those that curse you.

I think maybe Jethro figured that out. And maybe the Kennites figured that out and said, you know what? These people are blessed of God. We saw that with the Pharaoh’s armies and chariots that that drown in the Red Sea. Let’s be friends with them. In fact, he’s invited us to go along. And did you notice Jethro had some wisdom? I’m not gonna cover. Well, I can’t hardly not cover it now that I’ve started. But you know about Jethro and giving advice to Moses. Y’all know that story where Moses wearing himself out, settling all those disputes among the Israelites.

And Jethro said, “Hey guy, you’re going to kill yourself. Why don’t you appoint some men that are reputable, that are have good character, don’t take bribes, and let them sort. Y’all remember that Jethro is a good guy.” And Moses wants him along because what did the Israelites live in when they were wandering in the wilderness? They lived in tents. And it appears that Jethro seemed to know how to do that. To survive in the wilderness. I don’t know what for sure the word camp means, but it does seem to me how do you survive and thrive as a mobile people, right, in a land where survival is a little bit of a challenge.

2. Working With the Israelites, Helping Them Along

Have I am I are y’all with me so far? I mean, this is not too fantastic of a story. So, we’ve got Kennenites now and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, is a Kennite. All right, a little bit further and we get into the time of the judges. Actually, it may be before. Yes, time of the judges. Um, it seemed like there was one other reference that would come up before this, but I’ll just tell you what. Let’s read this. Y’all remember uh Cisora, who was the captain of Jabin’s army?

Um, I always figure the ladies know these stories if they’ve taught them to the kids class better than the rest of us do. But you remember in the time of Deborah and Bay. It was uh it was um Jabin who whose capital was Hazor and and uh Cisora had 900 chariots of iron. You know, that was his army. And they’d come out and kill everybody. Anyway, that’s who Bay had to go to battle against after Deborah got, you know, kind of talked him into what he was supposed to be doing all along.

But notice, you remember that the river Keshan flooded and those 900 chariots just got bogged down and apparently there was lightning and scared the horses and all of that. God delivered them on that day. But Cisora jumped out of his chariot which I presume was stuck in the mud and he started running toward Hazor, I think. And he came to the house, not really a house. He came to the tent of of who? Now Heber, the Kennite of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kennites and pitched his tent, pitched his tent near the terabin tree at Zaham, I think it says, um, which is beside Kedish.

You all know what’s going to happen in the story. Why is it important that it’s a tent? Because it’s a tent peg that ends up being used in the story. Interesting. So you remember what JL who the wife of um Hebrew the Kennite they were living in a tent. In fact it’s interesting that it looks like they were able to go separate and go live wherever they wanted to. And then when Cisora came by she was very good probably is the women’s role to set up the tent and repair it when the wind blew it over.

So she was good with hammer and a tent peg. And so she used that to help conquer Israel’s enemies. You see how the Kennites are working with the Israelites, helping them along the way with advice as well as even this case. Uh interesting too that when Saul, this is the second, maybe the third strike in Saul’s, you know, failure, but he’s told to go utterly destroy the Amalocites. Now, the Amalocites were a nation that when Israel was coming out of Egypt, they had left some of the older straggler or maybe the kids in the rear of the procession.

And the Amalocites, Amalocites attacked those people in the back. What a dastardly thing. Not a courageous thing. And God said, “That’s it. You’re going to be utterly destroyed.” So that that kind of prophecy was written down by Joshua at that time. And later Saul is told to go and utterly destroy the Amalocites. You probably remember that story. And he claims he did it and he didn’t destroy them utterly and and all of that. They were supposed to be really under a ban dedicated to God.

And he brought back uh the best parts. But something happened right before. You might have skipped this when you studied that story. But then Saul said to the Kennites, “Go depart, get down from among the Amalocites, lest I destroy you with them.” Why? For you showed kindness. You remember in contrast to the Amalocites, they were kind to Israel and help them on their way. The will bless those who bless you is kind of the idea of that when they came up out of Egypt.

I hope y’all are not bored by this. I love this stuff. I mean, just it’s all a thread and it’s a and I think there must be other threads. I know there are. I know some of them that you can trace through and come to much better meaning when you get to a passage like the one in Jeremiah 35. Now, I’m going to zoom down, I think, to the time of David. This passage in 1 Chronicles is a little bit difficult to date. It’s just a list of people, but I’m guessing it’s the time of David, right?

It’s chronicles early in the book of Chronicles. And the families of the scribes who dwelt at Jabz were the Treyites, Tathites, sorry, the Shimeathites, the Succathites. These were what? The Kennites who came from Hamoth, the father of the house of Recub. Now we’re getting close to the Recoit name that we had before. But you see, Kennites, Recoites, they’re the same line. Here’s another interesting thing. Remember, these are not Israelites. And yet they’re serving somehow as officers and scribes in the national government, David’s government.

You all see that? That’s not unusual. By the way, you probably have heard of Uriah the Hittite and Doe the Edomite. You know, that’s not unusual. There was actually an Ethiopian unic as it turns out in the time of Jeremiah. A guy from Africa is serving in the court at that time. So that’s not unusual. These were loyal people. And so the Kennites, among others, were serving in government offices and doing wonderful things for the nation of Israel, but living in tents.

3. What Is Jonadab Seeing?

I hope you listen to the reading at the beginning because that’s kind of the the little bit of the story we’re getting to is who are these people? Don’t drink wine, don’t have vineyards, live in tents. What’s going on? Maybe you can begin to see some of why that’s so in this history here. Okay, fast forward and you can do the math there. It looks like maybe 600 years or so. And now we’re down to the divided kingdom. And in the north, you have um you have uh Jahu, who is who’s kind of like a second generation after the Omridian dynasty has been stopped.

You remember Ahab and Jezebel? And they were so terrible God said, “That’s it. I’m I’m killing off your dynasty. We call that the Omridian dynasty. But Ahab had been killed earlier. Jahab Jezebel was still alive. And the and Ahab apparently had a lot of sons. I can’t remember. I think it was 80 or so, but they’re still alive. But God had promised they’re all going to be wiped out. They’re all going to be destroyed. And so Jahu under orders from Elisha who sent a prophet to go anoint him and say, “Hey guy, you got a job?

It’s to finish off the house of Ahab.” That’s your job. That’s Jahu we’re talking about. And so he does it. So here’s what happens when Jahu departed from there. What what is happening here? He’s going up to Samaria to go finish off the job’s sons. Uh Jeannadab, it’s also Jonadab. That’s just another spelling or pronunciation. Jadab, the son of Reb, remember the Recoites is coming to meet him. and he greeted him and said, “Is your heart right as my heart is toward your heart?” He’s in the northern tribes.

That is not a faithful Yahweh centric kind of civilization up there. You’re aware of that, aren’t you, in the north right now. Jahu is a little better certainly than Ahab. We’re going to learn more about Jahu in just a second. But apparently Jonadab was known well enough or Jehannadab that Ju recognizes him as he’s on his in his chariot on his way to uh kill off the rest of Ahab’s dynasty and says you want to go with me on this task. You want to help me? Is your heart on this mission like mine is?

And John says yes. Especially now I guess he maybe knew this was God’s prophecy that Ju had been appointed to fulfill. And Jahu said give me your hand. and he gave him his hand. He took him up into the chariot and he said, “Come with me and see my zeal for Yahweh.” So they had him ride in his chariot and he came to Samaria and he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria till he had destroyed them according to the word of Yahweh which he had spoken a good while back to Elijah before Elisha.

So Jonadab a recite a Kennite helped Jahu fulfill this prophecy that Elisha had made and on in the name of Yahweh. There was more to that story. I’m not going to stop and do it. But you probably remember that they called for a a Baal party. Anybody wants to worship Baal, come. We’re going to have a big party. And of course they said, “Anybody that’s a Yahweh worshiper, get out of here. We don’t want you here.” And then they killed everybody. You remember that story? Well, Jonath John’s involved in that uh piece of work as well.

That’s good. Those are righteous deeds that that perhaps we could say the Kennites, the Recoites in this or Jonadab in particular. And I want to focus in on this guy Johnab. What is he seeing in the world in the kingdom around him? I’m trying to understand why did he make those laws that we read about in Jeremiah 35? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. What was the culture in Jonadab’s day? Um well probably two words Ahab Jezebel that started out and I think he was old enough to have remembered all the you know the decline under those people killing off the prophets right to the point that Elijah thought he was the only one left but she had prophets of her own of bales and other things going they were just evil and the last straw this is I don’t know if to make a big deal of this or not Ahab took the vineyard from Nabboth.

You remember that? It’s interesting. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not. One of the things John and Adab says, “We ain’t owning vineyards.” Did you notice that? I wonder if there’s any connection there. I don’t know. I’m not going to push that for sure. But you have Jahu. And you might say, “Well, that’s a bright spot. Ju seems to be a good guy trying to do good for Jehovah.” But this is what this is what the chronicle or the historian in Kings said.

Jahu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who had made Israel sin that is from the golden calavs or Bethl and Dan. And the Lord said to Jah, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in my sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, your son shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” But Juah took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin.

So the you know the Dan Bethl thing is still going on and this he’s a northern king maybe one of the best they ever had but he still didn’t get there. He walked in the ways of Jerobom which is a common refrain uh when the northern kings are described. So I’m picturing Johnab. He’s looking around. He knows the history of perhaps he witnessed the history of Ahab and Jezebel. Now here’s Jahu. I’m gonna help him. This is great. Maybe there’s a res a a revival coming in Israel, but it doesn’t happen.

I’m just projecting that that Jonadab must have maybe seen the world that way. Well, what about in the south? What about in the south where maybe they’re more faithful? Guess who was in the south ruling? Athaliah, right? Who is daughter of Ahab and Jezebel and her son, if you remember him, Jehoid, I think I mean uh what’s his name? Jehoid was the priest. What was his name? Uh, I want to say, sorry, my history pops out of my head every occasion. Let’s read this and see what we figured out. After the death of Jehoeda, it’s Joash right there. There it is.

Joash. Remember Jehoeda saved the kid, right? Athaliah killed them all off except for one guy they hid in the temple. Jehoa hid them, brought him out when he was, I think, six years old and had him coronated and Athaliah killed. Remember that? which was pretty good and he did pretty well. Joash did until Jehoeda died, his mentor, the guy that saved his life. And then in the end, Joash ended up killing the son of Jehoeda. That’s how he just listened to the voice of the young men around him.

So I’m thinking that Johnab is not seeing much righteousness there. Perhaps we should read this as well. He says, “After the death of Jehoeda, that’s the priest, the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king Joash. And the king listened to them and therefore they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers. They served wooden images and idols and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. That’s in the south. That’s Judah. And I’m thinking, what is Johnab who’s, by the way, remember, is he an Israelite?

No. Is he a Jehovah worshipper or Yahweh worshipper? Yes, he is. And he seems to have some degree of conviction. But this is the world he’s seeing. And Joash the king did not remember the kindness Jehoeda his father had done to him but killed his son Zachchariah perhaps the a toz Zachchariah that Jesus talks about. So it happened in the spring of the year that the army of Syria came against him destroyed the leaders of the people and so on. Things are not going well in Judah either. This is the world that um uh Johnab is seeing.

Maybe I want to stop and make a little application which we’ll fill out in more detail later. Who were the church people in these in those days there? We’re we’re talking about them. Ain’t that right? I mean, we look at the world, they might have looked at Canaanites and idoltors and all that and say, “Well, what terrible people? They’re not even Jewish, you know, or whatever.” And they say, “Well, uh, yeah, but the churches, you know, look at No, these are the religious people.

4. We Will Drink No Wine

This is the church if and actually Stephen uses that term. This is the assembly of God, the nation of God, Israel and Judah. And I’m thinking what is Johnab seeing in the church? The church in the sense the God’s people. Just hold that in your head. I think about it a little bit. All right. So, here we are back to this timeline. Now, I’m going to go forward a little time and then Jeremiah has this incident. It’s a good little ways like 200 and some years.

In fact, I think I have a timeline. But the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehookim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, “Go to the house of the Recoites. Speak to them. Bring them into the house of the Lord into the cham one of the chambers and give them some wine. Give them some wine to drink.” That just that seems like unexpected somehow. Um, hope you can see this timeline. Let’s let’s note where this happened. This is Johnab right there.

That’s where he is living. And apparently that’s the time he made these restrictions that he’s going to place on his descendants. Don’t drink wine. Don’t have vineyards. Don’t plant seeds. Don’t build houses. That’s when he did that. All right. That’s where we are now. I think that’s about 230 years or something like that in between that. And I’ll zoom in on that a little bit. And that’s where this incident is occurring in the early days of the reign of Jehoakim.

And you see the three red triangles are the captivities. That’s when Nebuchadnezzar came in and began to take away captives from the south there. And so Jeremiah goes and gets those people. But we’re talking about a command that came from Jonadab 200 years before. I don’t know how many generations that is, but that’s how long this these commands have been in place. when Jeremiah brings those people into the into the temple and the leaders of Judah to see that.

Okay. Uh here what’s going on now? We’ve passed we’ve gone 200 years forward. Is it any better? No. Jehookim, he did not. He did evil in the sight of the Lord. Uh the abominations which he did, you know, these are all the things. In fact, this led finally to Jeremiah’s prophecy which is pretty much it’s too late to repent. It’s coming inevitably. In fact, you just need to give into that and accept the fact the Babylonians are going to take you into captivity.

There was wicked leadership, right? Um it says here, “Turn now from every evil way. Do not go to other gods, but you have not inclined your ear, nor you have you obeyed me.” That’s this in this chapter verse 15. It was a wicked culture as well. Wicked society, ungodly society. And the other thing that’s important to know is they were in trouble militarily. Uh if you read I think the next verse beyond what we had in the reading maybe verse 11 or 12 in Jeremiah 35 the recobites note the reason we’re in Jerusalem is because Nebuchadnezzar’s Nebuchadnezzar is roaming around in the land.

They’re there for their own protection. That’s because things are getting bad militarily as well. He came up into the land and so on. So that’s the situation in Israel. So let’s read the story. Does all that background have make any sense to you how it might help us interpret this story? Now we know the Kennites, the Recoites, Johnadab 200 years later, Jeremiah brings his descendants into the room in the temple. I took See, I’m going to be brave and pronounce these words.

Okay, let’s just Jazaniah, the son of Jeremiah. I think a different Jeremiah, the son of Habisaniah, his brothers and all his sons, the whole house of the Recoites. I want to stop there and point out, do you think this looks like several generations? It’s sons and daughters or brothers or something like that. It’s a whole family of people. And he brought the whole house of the Recoites into the house of the Lord that I think that’s the temple into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Egdala.

Eggdaliah probably a man of God which was by the chamber of the prince above the chamber of Mayela in the son of Shalom the keeper of the door. So he brought these people all in and I have an idea that he gathered you know I set before them the sons the house of the recobites bowls full of wine and cups and I think the intent of that is yes here’s some containers but also here’s some cups that’d be easy to drink and I said to them drink wine now I think what we have here is an assembly of the leaders of Israel who are watching this this is a fancy word a sin act you’ve ever heard that term before Jeremiah is kind of famous for that where he he runs around and does something lays on his side or builds a you goes to the potter’s house.

There are things where the action is kind of the message, but then you have to look at that action and think, okay, what am I supposed to learn from this? That’s what’s happening here. Drinking wine might have been an attractive thing. Remember, the country is under military attack. Wine might been in scarce supply and they bought brought bowls full and cups. Please welcome. You’re welcome to have some of this. Jeremiah, I think, a pretty influential p person.

They’re in the temple. Jeremiah is commanding you to drink this wine. Do you feel that pressure? I mean, maybe in a way. And the whole family’s there. But they said, “We will drink no wine.” I just stopped for a minute there. As you read this response and think about the setting, do you think there was like I’m imagining here are all the Recoites. They’re lined up here in front of everything and then they put the bowls of wine. Jeremiah says, “Drink it.” You know, and they do. You think they went, “What?

What are we going to do? What what should we I don’t know.” Or do you think they just knew knew the speech they were going to make? I think they knew the speech. They probably given it before, right? They didn’t debate or, you know, some of them thought they should and they just said, “No, here’s the story. We don’t drink wine.” Why? Because Johnab, the son of Re of our father, he commanded it saying, “You shall drink no wine nor your sons forever.”

And there’s more than that, Jeremiah and other people of Israel. You shall not build a house. You’ll s not seow seed, not plant a vineyard, have any of these, but all your days you’ll dwell in tents. That you may live many days in the land where you’re sojourners. If your ears are tuned, you might hear an echo of something in that phrase. That you may live many days in the land. Does that ring any bells for you? Commandments, you know what I mean?

or the laws of Israel. Don’t ever buy a house. Don’t ever build a house. Always live in a tent. Don’t ever drink wine. Don’t plant any seed. Does that seem kind of harsh and strict? I think so. Compared to no, go in the land and enjoy it. That’s what God was telling the Israelites. Now, obey my other laws. But in this case, it was stricter versus easier. I think it’s human wisdom versus the wisdom of God. Moses said this in Deuteronomy. This is careful to observe these commandments.

This is your wisdom, your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” Why? Because they had God’s commands. It was a 230y old tradition compared to the prophets that God had sent every day. And there doesn’t seem to be any divine reward or punishment in what John said. He just said, “Do it.” And maybe they knew the reasons, but it doesn’t say if you don’t do it, then something terrible will happen to you.

5. They Obey Men Better Than You Obey God

That’s the Israelites had grievous consequences if they disobeyed. All right. Surely the sons of Jonadab, the son of Recub, the Recoites have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed me. You see the sign act that Jeremiah was saying here, right? Contrast the two. What do we learn from the story? Well, let’s put ourselves in the story as residents of Jerusalem. Later I want to put us ourselves in the story as Recoites.

But let’s say we’re the Israelites and we’re looking at these people. What does Jeremiah want me to see in these people? Here’s one thing I think about. Are we as motivated to obey God as other people who actually are following man-made religions even today? I think about some people who take their young people and send them off to a mission field for two years as a requirement. It’s a false religion. But they do that and I think, do we do things like that?

Do we have the conviction that’s suggested there? I think of the personal work that some of the groups do and they’re false. They’re not from God. Do they ever put us to shame in our evangelistic fervor? How about our submission to our spiritual leaders? How about behavior that suggests that we really do live separate from the world? You know, there’s some groups they dress funny. They don’t use machines or whatever. I’m not preaching for that. Y’all see what I’m saying, though. It does says that we could do better than we do.

I’ll just say it this way. There are two lessons. One is we can do what God requires. It’s not too hard. And there’s examples of people who do harder, harsher things that don’t even follow the true God in what they do. We could do better, right? And we can do more than we’re doing now is maybe another way to think of it, too. I hope that point is clear. There’s a danger that I that sounds like I’m endorsing some other false religion. That is not my point. My point is we can take an example just like I’m sure the Israelites watched those recite.

Yeah, those weird people, you know, they didn’t have, you know, black dresses and buns and stuff, but they were weird in a different way than the Israelites, right? Those are people, they don’t even they don’t even live in houses. They just live in tents. They don’t ever plant vineyards. They don’t own property. Y’all know that. And and you can tell they’re different. That’s the way the Israelites would have seen them. But Jeremiah is saying, “Here’s a lesson for you. They obey men better than you’re obeying God.”

6. Let’s Be Jonadab: Set Family Traditions

Okay? You see you you get that point. Um what about what about Jonadab and his descendants? Could we be in the story as them? What would it mean? What if you were a stranger sojourer somewhere? Read this. And Jeremiah said to the house of Recabites, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, because you have obeyed the command of Johnab your father, and have kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he has commanded you, I am charging you with phariseaical lawmaking.”

Right? You’ve bound where God hasn’t bound. Right? You’re making up laws that God hasn’t made up. Is that what he’s going to say to the Recoites? I mean, you know, we first see the story and we think, “Oh, that sounds a little bit like what the Pharisees did, I guess, where they made up laws that were harsher than God’s laws and said, “Now that’s God’s law.” Remember that? We love to talk about the Pharisees and how they bound things that weren’t bound. Well, here it seems to me Jeremiah is saying, “Hey, these people are obeying Jonadab and all of his precepts, and those are not in the Ten Commandments.

there. Nothing I ever told you to do. I wonder what’s his opinion of the Recoites will be. And they’re sitting there thinking, “What have we done? We just doing what our dad our our our dad’s dad dad said.” And Jeremiah’s about to talk to them. I I’m going to summarize a little bit before I answer what Jeremiah said. Jonadab witnessed Israel’s sin and God’s judgment and he’d seen the consequences for years and years and he knew it was going to continue and get worse.

He observed the decline in Judah, Joash, for example. And what he had done is established a family tradition, I think, based on godly principles. Hey, we’re sojourers here. This will keep us from being tempted. This will keep us being separate uh that will keep us separate from the evil around us. and they were even um even the standards of the what would be called the religious culture around them. He exceeded those. And so his descendants were praised and preserved by God for their continuing obedience.

And they’re represented by God as an example of setting and keeping commandments. Let’s go back to that verse. Since you’ve kept his precepts and done all according to what he’s commanded you, here’s what he says. Therefore, ah, this strikes me. Oh, I wish I could some way I could get this promise from God. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Johnab, the son of Reck, shall not lack a man to stand before me forever. Would you like to say that about your family? I have four boys. They’re faithful.

And you know, my deepest desire for them and their children and their children, their children. Do you see what this promise is? It’s made to And they’re not even Israel. I keep saying that they’re not even Israelites. You think God was pleased with what Jonadab had done with his family? I have to conclude that he was. He set some standards and traditions that helped his family stay separate from the world and the religious world of the day. I’m sorry to say.

There’s one more thing on this timeline I’ll mention now that we know that promise and this zooms forward down to the time of Nehemiah the mid 400s. Nehemiah, you remember him? They’ve been to captivity. They’ve been back from captivity. They built the the temple. They’re building the walls. And guess who helped build the walls? This guy named Malchazah, the son of Reub. Leader. The what? The son of Recub. They’re still there. helping build the temple. I mean, build the walls back in Jerusalem.

I guess God kept his promise. Those Recoites are still there. I hope 400 years from now, you know, or however long it is, my sons will be helping somebody somewhere build a temple of God. But I don’t know how to make it happen. But let’s be Johnab for just a minute. We’re sojourers here. We live among a society that’s going down and we’ll see the consequences it pretty soon I guess. I don’t know. It’s God’s plan. But we also already see the consequences.

We’re even part of a church that ought to be holy people that sometimes does not live up to that separation or that dedication. And dads, I’m talking to you for a second. What are you doing to set in place some traditions and practices in your family? Oh, I don’t know that you have to find book, chapter, and verse, but what would be something that would help your family remember they’re separate from the world and avoid the temptations all around them?

And I’m afraid I have to say you might not find them in the local church you’re a part of. You might you might find some good ideas. What do we learn? the residents, the families like John Adab assess the influences and fate of our culture even when we see effects in the church and set some family priorities not related to affluence and pleasure and all the things that this world lives for and establish permanent family practices that emphasize spiritual values and separation from the world.

Let’s think of some examples. I don’t mean to be offensive, but I get to run out of town. I keep saying that. So, I’m going to say some of these things. In my family on Saturday night, we always do our Bible lessons and we’re prepared for Sunday morning. Now, would it be wrong not to do that even one Saturday? But what if that was a tradition that your kids know? No, Dad makes us. He checks our lessons every Saturday night. And you know what? We don’t miss a service ever for a sports event. That’s just our family rule.

I’m not bounding on anybody else. I’m trying not to judge. But that is going to help send the message to the kids that we have some importance in our life and we’re not going to compromise that. It’s not a matter. See, this is partly why we have the pyramid. Would it be wrong? Do you see how kids learn things? It’s kind of what’s consistent. You can try all you like to say, well, just one time it doesn’t say the B is not God doesn’t expect. They don’t get all that. I think they get consistent rules.

You know what I mean? And so, I’m encouraging dads, take some leadership, set some traditions. This is what our family does. We go on vacation. We don’t forsake the Lord. We find some place. In fact, we build our vacations around doing that. We have some families in the church where I go and they have now with their teenagers decided that every year they need to take their vacation time and go to somewhere Mexico or somewhere and go work with the church for a week and let the kids experience that and that’s what they do with their vacation time.

You think that’ll make a difference in those kids looking back to say this was our family tradition. It’s what we did. I’m not judging all the other families for not doing that but our family to help keep us faithful. We’re going to demonstrate our separation from the world and our dedication to him. And you can probably think of a lot of other examples that we can do like that. But we’re so reluctant. Oh, we’re binding where God hasn’t bound. Please look at the example of Johnab.

Conclusion

How did he do that? For hundreds of years, he kept his family faithful with some pretty strict rules. Do you notice that they’re faithful to Yahweh? H what a wonderful story. I wish I had done that. I’ll just say and lived up to these kind of challenges that I think we can see in John Adab’s family. And I think we should aim for a long line of descendants to stand before God. Would that be a great goal for our family? What we’re doing, the rules we set, the traditions we’ve set are intended to help us have a man to stand before God for generations to come.

That’s it. Was that more like a sermon? Yeah, thank you for listening. I appreciate it. We’ll offer the invitation and sing a song if someone that would maybe the song all of us singing it together would encourage you if you need to uh come forward and and we’d love to see you be baptized into Christ to put on Christ with the waters of baptism. If you’re prepared in the heart to do that, if you believe you can and you can confess him and you can repent of your sins and then start your walk uh with your sins forgiven uh in our journey, our journey as sojourers here uh to be with the Lord forever.

If you need to do something in a public way, we’d encourage you to come as we stand and sing.