Covenant Keepers - Jeremiah 35

In Job 1:8, “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?’”

In Jeremiah 35, the Lord wants to showcase the faith of the Recabites.

In the previous chapter, King Zedekiah and the slave owners of Jerusalem made a solemn covenant in the house of the Lord to emancipate their slaves. They passed through the parts of an animal cut in two, implying that they wished to be cut asunder if they broke the covenant that they made in God’s house. Even so, soon after releasing their slaves, they broke that covenant by enslaving them once again. [JFBC]

The Recabites kept a covenant for more than 200 years. Jonadab son of Recab was one of the 7,000 in Israel who did not bow the knee to Baal during the days of Elijah. Jonadab was with Jehu in 842 BC when he slew evil king Ahab and his entire family. [1]

“The Word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, ‘Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.’” Jeremiah 35:1-2

Jeremiah finally got a break from speaking to non-compliant people, or so it seemed. The Lord sent him to the Rechabite clan. His mission was to invite them to God’s house for some wine. He gave them cups of wine, and then said, “Drink.” Guess what? They refused to comply.

Jeremiah wanted his fellow priests to see this...

“Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, his brothers 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, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door.” Jeremiah 35:3-4

Jeremiah led a priestly group of brothers, their sons and the Rechabites into a room inside the Lord’s house. Perhaps, a large group of men!

Incidentally, Maaseiah was Jeremiah’s uncle. His father’s brother! Shallum was Jeremiah’s grandfather and the husband of Huldah the prophetess. See 2 Kings 22:14, 1 Chronicles 6:13, 9:11; 2 Chronicles 34:8 for more details.

“Then I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, ‘Drink wine.’ But they said, ‘We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, you shall drink no wine, you nor your sons, forever.’” Jeremiah 35:5-6

Wow, ample wine! Cups and bowls full! A nice gesture from the host! A crowd of witnesses watching! How did the Rechabites respond? They said, “We will drink no wine.” Why? They wanted to be faithful to a covenant that their forefathers kept for over 200 years.

Their father also commanded them...

“You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.” Jeremiah 35:7

“The Rechabites worshipped God in the nomadic fashion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Crops, vineyards, houses, towns, and cities all tied men to one place, they said, and so bred luxury, strife of possession, materialism, worship of fertility gods, and all manner of soft, lazy, extravagance, very different from the hard, disciplined life of herdsmen under the stars.” [2]

“The amazing thing is that the Recabites had kept their promise for more than two centuries! Jonadab son of Recab was one of the 7,000 in Israel who did not bow the knee to Baal during the days of Elijah (1 King 19:18). He was the mighty man who rode in the chariot when Jehu purged Ahab’s palace in 842 B.C., killing that evil king’s entire family (2 Kings 10:15-17).” [3]

The faithfulness of the descendants of Rechab to keep the vow not to drink wine for over 200 years contrasts with King Zedekiah in the previous chapter of Jeremiah. He broke his treaty to pay tribute to the King of Babylon. His unfaithfulness compelled Babylon to make a military response and to destroy Jerusalem.

Rechabites were a nomadic tribe belonging to the Kenites of Hemath (1 Chronicles 2:55), of the family of Jethro, or Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law (Exodus 18:9; Numbers 10:29-32; Judges 1:16). They came into Canaan with the Israelites, but in order to preserve their independence, chose a life in tents without a fixed habitation (1 Samuel 15:6). [JFBC]

The Recabites declared, “We will drink no wine.”

According to valleyhope.org, alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the USA. Up to 40% of non-maternity and non-intensive care hospital beds are used to treat health conditions related to alcohol consumption. Roughly 5,000 people under the age of 21 die from an alcohol-related incident annually.

Alcohol is involved in 40% of violent crimes. About 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually which is the third leading cause of death. 10% of children live with an alcoholic parent. It is the primary cause of liver transplants. Alcohol increases the risk of mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, liver, and breast cancers.

Proverbs 23:29-33 asks, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things.”

It is better to be filled with the Holy Spirit than with the spirit of alcohol. Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation (a descent into decadence or debauchery); but be filled with the Spirit.”

“Thus 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, or our daughters, nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; nor do we have vineyard, field, or seed. But we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.” Jeremiah 35:8-10

Hebrews 11:9-10, 16 says, “Abraham dwelt in tents… he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. God was not ashamed to be called his God. God prepared a city for him.”

“But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, ‘Come, 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.’” Jeremiah 35:11

I would like to think that Recabites saw themselves as people in Hebrews 11:13 – “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

In Luke 9:57-58, when Jesus walked the earth, He said to a would-be follower, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Jesus lived in a similar fashion to the Recabites... in constant transition.

Jim Elliott wanted a small but fierce tribe of Waorani Indians in Ecuador to hear the Gospel. This tribe had a reputation of killing outsiders. Jim Elliot was killed by them. Prior to his death, Jim said, “He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” After his death, many Waorani Indians believed in Jesus through the witness of Jim’s wife, his children and other missionaries who did not give up on them.

The Rechabites temporarily settled in a city to protect their families from the Babylonian army, but they could in a moment’s notice leave since they lived in mobile homes... tents.

After Jeremiah listened to the testimony of the Recabites, God told him to ask the people of Jerusalem why they would not listen to God. For over 200 years, Jonadab’s sons had obeyed their forefather’s command, but the Jerusalemites refused to obey God.

“Then came the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will you not receive instruction to obey My words? says the Lord. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; for to this day, they drink none and obey their father’s commandment. But although I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, you did not obey Me. I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way, amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them; then you will dwell in the land which I have given you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear, nor obeyed Me.” Jeremiah 35:12-15

In Luke 13:34-35, Jesus spoke a similar lament, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord.”

“Surely the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed Me.” Jeremiah 36:16

The sons of Jonadab were in some ways better representatives of God than the priests. They did not just talk about obedience, they demonstrated it. In Isaiah 1:3, the Lord said, “The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel does not know, My people does not consider.” Did oxen and asses deserve higher academic awards than Jerusalem’s priests?

“Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the doom that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard, and I have called to them but they have not answered.” Jeremiah 35:17

God told them NOT to serve other gods. They served them. He expected them to keep their covenants, they broke them. Like dysfunctional clay, they would not be shaped by His hands.

The Recabites preferred obedience to opulence. God’s Spirit to alcoholic spirits! Tents of God to mansions of men! They preferred fields for God to fields for themselves!

As God walked amidst Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, He walked with them. As Jesus walked with His disciples, His Spirit was with them. The Heavenly Father met their needs as sure as He provides for the needs of birds and flowers. They were God’s witnesses.

“And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.’” Jeremiah 35:18-19

The Lord held up the sons of Jonadab as an example to the people of Jerusalem. He told them that because the Recabites obeyed the commandments of Jonadab their father, they would never lack a man to stand before Him.

“God kept His promise. When the Israelites went back home after the exile, they started to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. The engineer in charge of the building project, Nehemiah, carefully recorded the names of his best workers. One of them was a Rechabite: ‘The Dung Gate was repaired by Malkijah son of Recab, a ruler of the district of Beth Haccerem.’” [4]

God’s promise to Jonadab never to a lack a man to stand before Him brings to my mind His promise to another man named Phinehas.

In Numbers 25:1-15, Israelite men joined themselves to Moabite women and sacrificed to their gods. A plague ensued. One couple openly defied God. They were children of leaders. Phinehas took a javelin and killed them. The plague stopped, but not before 24,000 people died. The Lord’s word to Phinehas was, “Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.”

In Luther’s Small Catechism, each time he explained a commandment of the Lord, he began with the phrase, “You should fear, love, and trust in God.” For example, for the first commandment, he wrote, “You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”

For the fourth commandment, Luther wrote, “Honor your father and your mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.” Ephesians 6:1-3 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.”

As to the consumption of alcohol. I like that the Recabites enjoyed freedom FROM liquor, but the main point God is making in Jeremiah 35 is that His people are to be covenant keepers.

In Matthew 26:26-29, Jesus made a new covenant with God’s people that involves partaking of the fruit of the vine and eating bread...

“As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

We should partake of these elements. In 1 Corinthians 11:25-26, Jesus is quoted as saying, “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

Praise God that this new covenant focuses on what Jesus did for us. Praise God that this new covenant emphasizes faith in His shed blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Glory to God!

Praise the Lord! Jesus washes our sins away. He fills us with His Holy Spirit. His Spirit gives us zeal... a zeal like the Recabites, Jeremiah and Phineas to honor God!



[JFBC] Jamieson-Fausset Brown Commentary

[1] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 536-537 (See also 1 King 19:18; 2 Kings 10:15-17)

[2] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 536-537

[3] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 536-537

[4] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 541 (See also Nehemiah 3:14)