The Rechabites & Book Burning
This week’s posts are going to be QUITE different than the reading guide. I’m trying to group chapters and content by who was king and keeping the narrative flow as smooth as possible.
You may handle that however you see fit.
THE RECHABITES – Jeremiah 35
During the reign of Jehoiakim, the Lord asks Jeremiah to test a family who were descendants of a man we saw only briefly back in the days of King Jehu of Israel.
🤔 Jehu… wasn’t he the wild chariot-driver?
The very same.
🤔 And didn’t he trick the Baal worshippers to come to a sacrifice and then kill them all?
Yup. And Jonadab, the son of Rechab (the father of the Rechabites), helped him do it.
“And when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. And he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand. And Jehu took him up with him into the chariot. And he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.” So he had him ride in his chariot.”
2 Kings 10:15-16 ESV
So Jonadab (Jehonadab) goes with Jehu and is with him – possibly helping him – to dispatch the remaining members of the house of Ahab.
Then, Jehu announced his “sacrifice to Baal” and ordered the people – on pain of death – to attend…
“Then Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab, and he said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search, and see that there is no servant of the Lord here among you, but only the worshipers of Baal.””
2 Kings 10:23 ESV
Once the men with Jehu had made sure there were no worshipers of Yahweh at the gathering, they killed every last one of the Baal-worshipers and destroyed the temple.
Maybe the wine was flowing freely at the Baal temple. Maybe it was seeing the judgment on Ahab’s dynasty… I mean, a major reason for that judgement was because Ahab murdered Naboth just to have his vineyard. Something convinced Jonadab that he and his family would be better off as teetotalers living in tents. So he made it a family custom…
Rechabite Family Rules
- No wine. None. Ever.
- Don’t even plant a vineyard.
- Ya know what, don’t plant anything.
- Actually, don’t even own real estate. I saw what happens when dudes get greedy about vineyards and land and building things on it and it’s not pretty. Just live in tents.
It must’ve worked because the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and took the people captive. But they didn’t get the Rechabites. They were “sober and vigilant,” and they weren’t tied down to a piece of real estate or trying to defend it.
Back to Jeremiah’s time…
The Rechabites saw the Babylonian (Chaldean) army on the horizon.
⛺️🏕️⛺️🏕️⛺️🏕️ 💂♀️💂♀️💂♀️🐪🐪
They pulled up their tent stakes and headed to Helm’s Deep Jerusalem.
The Lord knows this family. And He is going to use their commitment to their family values as an object lesson to the leadership and citizens of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah invites all the Rechabite men to a meeting at the temple!, and he offers them wine to drink. They immediately refuse.
And the point is, this family continues to obey their ancestor’s rules- that he gave them 1 time, over 200 years before! But the people of Judah can’t seem to obey God’s rules for more than 10 minutes together even though God has constantly sent prophets to remind them.
And this, God says, is why Jerusalem is about to face judgment.
“But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.””
Jeremiah 35:18-19 ESV
I wholeheartedly believe that somewhere in this world, there are still descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab.
🤓 And I bet they love to go camping. ⛺️
BOOK BURNING – Jeremiah 36
By the time of the visit with the Rechabites, Jeremiah has been giving God’s messages for a while. They may be scribbled on scraps of paper like Post-It Notes or perhaps Jeremiah has just got them all memorized. Or, maybe it was a bit of both. However it was, Yahweh tells him to get a scroll and write them ALL down in it.
So Jeremiah calls on Baruch. He was the scribe who handled the deeds when Jeremiah redeemed and bought the field in Anathoth just back in chapter 32.
This doesn’t necessarily imply that Jeremiah was illiterate or couldn’t write at all, but Baruch is a pro. It’s like the difference between you hand-writing a report and having a professional type and format it for you.
So, under divine inspiration, Jeremiah speaks and Baruch writes. The Apostle Paul will employ this same method.
Then Jeremiah sends Baruch to read it at the temple on the upcoming day of fasting. Now, this wasn’t any normal festival. This was “the ninth month,” (v9) which is December.
If they’re fasting doesn’t that show that they’re trying to do right?
Not necessarily. When Baruch reads these messages from God, the scroll is confiscated, Baruch and Jeremiah are urged to hide and the king cuts up the scripture and burns it. That hardly sounds like people who truly want to listen to God. They want God to hear them, but they don’t want to listen to him.
But here’s an important thing to glean from this chapter – this is God’s Word. Man cannot erase it. Or, as the longest chapter in the Bible has it…
“Forever, Lord, Your word stands in heaven.”
Psalm 119:89 NASB2020
So God has Jeremiah make another scroll and, again, under inspiration, he receives the exact same Word of Yahweh and speaks it out and Baruch writes it down. But this time, there’s more.
Yahweh gives Jeremiah the very words that Jehoiakim spoke as he was burning the scroll. He was asking a question to Jeremiah who was not even present:
“…Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?’” Jeremiah 36:29 ESV
It’s like when you ask questions of other drivers on the road even though you know they can’t hear you.
“Why on earth did you pass that car if you were just going to slow down and exit?!”
“Where are you headed, a fire?”
“Is your blinker out of blinker fluid?”
Not only does this scroll include Jehoiakim’s words as he burned the scroll, it has a specific judgment on Jehoiakim:
“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.”
Jeremiah 36:30 ESV
This chapter should serve as a warning to all who think they can “cut out” certain parts of scripture or outlaw it as “hate speech.” Those people should know this:
This is not man’s word you’re censoring. It’s God’s. He can and will defend His Word as He chooses. And if He determines the destroyers of His Word will end like Jehoiakim, He will do it and there won’t be a thing anyone can do to stop it.
The pathetic attempts of humans to destroy the Word of God are utterly futile and a waste of time. The Word exists outside of our time domain and physical universe. You cannot touch it. You can only destroy copies of it.
Note the contrast between the Rechabites and Jehoiakim. The Rechabites cherished and obeyed their father’s words. Jehoiakim burned them.
Consider the destiny of each.
To The Reader 