Chapter 13: The Rechabites
Chapter 13: The Rechabites
(JEREMIAH 35:6-10)
Happy if full of days—but happier far
If, ere we yet discern life's evening star,
Sick of the service of a world that feeds
Its patient drudges with dry chaff and weeds,
We can escape from custom's idiot sway,
To serve the Sovereign we were born to obey."
COWPER.
THE MARCH OF Nebuchadnezzar on Jerusalem was anticipated by incursions of Syrians, Moabites, and the children of Ammon. These may be compared to the squadrons of light cavalry used in modern warfare to harass the enemy and prepare the way for heavier armaments. They swept up the valleys, massacred the peasantry, devoured the crops, and spread terror on every hand. The inhabitants, therefore, of the neighbouring country, eager to save their lives and some relics of their property, left their houses and lands to the mercy of the invader, and fled for protection to the metropolis; accounting that within the massive walls of Zion they would find safeguard. What a stir there must have been as day by day the motley groups pressed in under the old gateways, gray with age, and sought accommodation and food in the already over-crowded tenements of the city!
Amongst the rest came a tribe that excited much curiosity by reason of its strange and antique manners. It came in full force—of men, at least. The sheikh's name was Jaazaniah— "he whom Jehovah hears"; and his brethren and sons and the heads of other households were with him. They refused to shelter in the houses or permanent buildings of the city, but pitched their dusky tents in some open space within the walls, and there awaited the turn of events.
Their record was an honourable one, and reached far back into the early days of Hebrew history. When Israel was passing through the wilderness of Sinai, the tribe of the Kenites showed them kindness; and this laid the foundation of perpetual friendliness between the two peoples. They seem to have adopted the religious convictions of Israel, and to have accompanied them into the Land of Promise. Retaining their integrity as a pastoral people, the Kenites maintained these friendly relations with Israel during the intervening centuries; and it was of this tribe that the Rechabites, for such was the name of this strange tent-loving people, had sprung (Judges 4:17-24; I Sam. 15:6; Chron. 2:55).
About the time of Elijah, and perhaps largely influenced by him, the sheikh, or leader of one branch of the Kenites, was Jonadab the son of Rechab. He was dismayed at the abounding corruption and iniquity of the time, and especially of the northern kingdom, then under the fatal spell of Jezebel's and Ahab's influence; and resembled some rank jungle in whose steamy air, heavy with fever and poison, noisome creatures swarm, and foul pestilences breed. In his endeavour to save his people from such a fate, this noble man, who afterwards became Jehu's confederate in extirpating idolatry, bound his people under a solemn pledge to drink no wine for ever; neither to build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards, but to dwell in tents. Two hundred and fifty years had passed since then, but when they arrived in Jerusalem they were still true to the traditions of their race; and with sturdy strength stood out among the effeminate and idol-loving people of Jerusalem, living representatives of the noblest and purest days of Hebrew story.
I. JEREMIAH'S TEST OF THE RECFIABITES.- So soon as their arrival was noised abroad, and had come to the ears of Jeremiah, he was seized by a Divine impulse to derive from them a striking object-lesson for his own people. With an inventiveness which only passionate love could have suggested, the prophet caught at every incident, and used every method to awaken his people to realize their true position in the sight of God. Taking the leaders of the Rechabites with him, he went into the Temple, to a room belonging to the sons of Hanan, known as a man of God, immediately adjacent to the room occupied by the princes, and above that occupied by the gatekeeper.
Probably a little group of Jews, arrested by the prophet's association with these strange-looking men, followed them in to watch the proceedings. They were curious witnesses of the prophet's action, as he caused bowls of wine to be set before the tribesmen, and cups to be offered them, that they might dip them in and drink. They also heard the blunt unqualified refusal of these quaint old-fashioned Puritans, "We will drink no wine," followed by an explanation of the solemn obligation laid on them centuries before.
The moral was obvious. Here were men loyal to the wish of their ancestor, though he was little more than a name to them, and refusing the offered sweets in which so many freely indulged. How great a contrast to the people of Jerusalem, who persistently disregarded the words of the living God perpetually remonstrating against their sins! The prohibitions of Jonadab were largely arbitrary and external; whilst those of Jehovah were corroborated by the convictions of conscience, and consonant with the deepest foundations of religion and morality. The voice of Jonadab was a cry coming faintly from far down the ages; whilst Jehovah was ever speaking with each new dawn, and in the voice of each fresh messenger whom He rose early to send.
There could be but one result. Judah, eaten through with the crimes and corruption against which God had protested in vain, must reap the whirlwind, as she had sown the wind. There could be no escape from the judgment which was drawing nearer with every daybreak. If the people could not heed words of expostulation, of entreaty, and warning, accounting them exaggerated and vain, they should at least be compelled to admit that not one of God's threats of vengeance fell impotent on the air or missed its aim.
On the other hand, such devotion to principle; such persistent culture of simplicity, frugality, and abstinence; such literal adherence to the will of the father of their house—not only carried within them the assurance of perpetuity to the people who practised them, but must receive the signature and countersign of the Almighty. "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."
This phrase had a very profound significance. It suggested, of course, obviously, that the tribe should not cease to exist. And it is to be noted that Dr. Wolff, the missionary traveller, met a tribe in Arabia who claimed to be Rechabites, and read to him these words of Jeremiah from an Arabic Bible; and that Signor Pierotti, near the southeast end of the Dead Sea, met a tribe who also called themselves Rechabites, and quoted these words. But there was a yet deeper thought. The phrase is often used in Scripture of priestly service. And may we not infer that where we meet that devotion to principle, and that detachment from the world, which characterized these men, there will always be a strong religious tone, a knowledge of God, a power in prayer and intercession, which are the essential characteristics of the priests? This will lead us to thoughts which are alike suggestive and salutary.
The phrase "to stand before God" designates a high-toned religious life, and includes the knowledge of God, the faculty of executing his commands, and the power of interceding for others. The phrase was a favourite one with Elijah, as expressing the spirit of his great career; and it was chosen by the angel Gabriel as conveying to the maiden of Nazareth the most certain guarantee of his authority and veracity. Surely, every reader of these words must desire that the spirit and attitude of all coming days may be designated thus. Oh to stand always before Him, on whose face the glory of God shines as the sun in his strength! But if this is to be something more than a vague wish, an idle dream, three things should be remembered, suggested by the words of the Rechabites.
(1) There must be close adhesion to great principles.—Many superficial reasons might have suggested to the Rechabites compliance with the prophet's tempting suggestion. The wine was before them; there was no sin against God in taking it; the people around had no scruples about it; and the prophet himself invited them. But against all, they stood on the principles which Jonadab had laid down to guide them; and they did not hesitate to avow them, let those ridicule who would.
In contrast to this, it is the general tendency amongst men to ask what is the practice of the majority; what is done by those in their rank and station; and what will be expected of them. We drift with the current. We allow our lives to be settled by our companions or our whims, our fancies or our tastes; and if ever we have a momentary qualm, in contrasting our lives with the standards of primitive simplicity, of which Scripture and old biographies are full, we excuse ourselves by saying that so long as the main purpose is right the details are unimportant. This reasoning is wrong. We make a grave mistake in supposing that the main purpose of our life is something different from that which reveals itself in details. What we are in the details of our life, that we are really and essentially. The truest photographs are taken when we are unprepared for the operation. The true man, therefore, is always settling his life in its details, as well as in its main direction, according to great principles. Before we go another step, let me entreat my readers not to allow themselves to do or permit things simply because custom, or taste, or public opinion advocates them; but to bring their entire life to the touchstone of some elementary law of the Kingdom of Heaven which shall do in the moral what gravitation does in the physical sphere, ordaining the course of worlds and of molecules of dust.
And if it be asked, What principle is far-reaching enough in its scope, and powerful enough in its force, for so great a work? let us ponder what William Law so perpetually insists upon in his Serious Call: "The first and most fundamental principle of Christianity is an intention to please God in all our actions. It is because the generality of Christians have no such intention that they so fall short of true devotion." And, indeed, when we consider the characters of the early disciples of Jesus, or those of saints, martyrs, and confessors, must we not admit that they were as scrupulous in seeking the will of God about the trifles of their life, as the Rechabites were in consulting the will and pleasure of the dead Jonadab? The thought of God was as present with the one, as of Jonadab with the other. And was not this the secret of their strong and noble lives?
What a revolution would come to us all if it became the one fixed aim and ambition of our lives to do always those things that are pleasing in his sight! It would not make us less tender in our friendships, or less active in our service. It would not take the sparkle from the eye; the nerve from the grasp; or the warm glow from the heart. But it would check many a vain word, arrest many a silly jest, stop much selfish and vainglorious expenditure, and bring us back to whatsoever things are true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.
(2) Abstinence from the spirit of the age.—It was an immense gain in every way for the Rechabites to abstain from wine. Wine was closely associated with the luxury, corruption, and abominable revelries of the time (Isa. 28:1-8). Their abstinence was not only a protest against the evils which were honeycombing their age, but was a sure safeguard against participation in them.
In these days, the same principles apply. Whatever may be said about the use of alcohol in certain forms of sickness and debilitated health, it is incontrovertible that it is unnecessary as an article of ordinary diet. It is very closely identified with the vilest practices of impure passion, the obscenities of the music-hall, the licence of the stage, and the coarse revelry of the racecourse. Its fumes fill the card-room, the billiard-room, and the scene of abandoned vice. The votaries of sin confess that they could not do as they do, apart from its excitement. Add to all this the incontestable direct results of the drink traffic in crime, poverty, misery, suicide, and death; results which an eminent statesman once declared to be more deplorable than those that flow from famine, pestilence, and war combined. Surely, then, we shall do well to say with the Rechabites, whoever may ask us to drink, "We will drink no wine."
But wine may stand for the spirit of the age, its restlessness, its constant thirst for novelty, for amusement, for fascination: its feverish demand for the fresh play, the exciting novel, the rush of the season, the magnificent pageant. It is easier to abstain from alcohol than from this insidious spirit of our time, which is poured so freely into the air, as from the vial of some demon sorceress. We might well refer to this the wise words of the apostle: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." You cannot exorcise Satan by a negation. You must be preoccupied, prepossessed. And it is only they that are filled by the Holy Spirit, in his blessed energy, who are proof against the intoxicating cup of this Circe world.
(3) We must hold lightly to the things around.—The Rechabites dwelt in tents. They drove their vast flocks from place to place, and were content with the simple life of the wandering shepherd. It was thus that the great patriarchs had lived before them (Heb. 11:9, 13). And ever since their days the tent-life has been the chosen emblem of the life that is so strongly attracted to the other world as to be lightly attached to this.
It is difficult to say what worldliness consists in. What would be worldly to some people is an ordinary part of life's circumstances to others. But all of us are sensible of ties that hold us to the earth. We may discover what they are by considering what we cling to; what we find it hard to let go, even into the hands of Christ; what we are always striving to augment; what we pride ourselves in. It may be name, fame, notoriety, pride of fashion, rank, money. But whatever it is, if it hinders us from living on the highest level; if it is a weight that impedes our speed heavenward; it should be laid deliberately on God's altar, that He may do with it as He will, and that we may be able, without let or hindrance, to be wholly for God.