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, That Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall never lack a man to stand before me.”
– Jeremiah 35:18–19
This is a fascinating conclusion to this chapter in the book of Jeremiah. God tells Jeremiah to go get some people from this nomadic tribe outside of the people of Israel, the Rechabites, and bring them in and offer them wine, and so Jeremiah does this. When he offers them wine, they say, “No, we have a commitment to our forefathers that goes back a long way that we don’t drink wine, and we will stay steadfast in that commitment.”
And God takes this nomadic tribe and he says, “Look at these people who are faithful, steadfast in their obedience.” Then God says, “But my people, I have sent prophets to repeatedly with my Word over and over and over again, and they refuse to listen and obey me.” So at the end of this chapter, God commends the Rechabites… This nomadic tribe because of the way they obeyed the commands of their forefathers… Kept their precepts and did what was commanded to them. The whole picture is if these people are that obedient to their forefathers, then why are God’s people disobedient to God himself? And I just want to encourage you to examine your heart today.
Jeremiah 35:18–19 encourages us to stay firm in our commitment to God’s Word.
Is there any area of your life where you are not listening to and obeying God’s voice? I’m not talking about struggles with sin when you are repenting and turning from that sin… Doing everything you can by the power of God’s Spirit in you… With the help of other brothers and sisters in Christ to be holy. I’m talking about areas where we can oftentimes grow content with compromise in our lives.
And the whole picture of the Rechabites is they were not content with compromise. They were not going to compromise one drop of alcohol for them. They had made a commitment not to drink wine. Are there any areas of your life or my life where we have grown content with compromise? God, we pray that you would open our eyes to see any areas of our lives like this.
Jeremiah 35:18–19 is a calling to repentance and obedience.
For some of us, we may already be thinking of things, others. God we know we have blind spots… Areas where you have spoken over and over again to us… And we don’t see our need for repentance, we pray. God, please open our eyes to see sin in our lives as you see it, to see areas where we are compromising in our lives. And God, we pray that you would help us to turn from sin and obey you and to be steadfast and our obedience to you.
Please keep us from becoming complacent and compromising in our faith in any way, especially lowering our standards according to the standards of this world, instead of the standards of your Word. God, we want to be faithful, steadfast, obedient to you, our God, our Creator, our Lord, our Savior, our King, the Ruler of all creation. God, help us to obey you today with all of our hearts, even as we praise you, oh God, for your grace in our lives where we fall short.
Prayer for the Mahra People
We praise you for your grace toward us. We pray that you would help us to share your grace with others. God, we pray for your forgiveness, for our lack of sharing the gospel in many of our lives. God, please help us to boldly obey you… To be witnesses to people around us today who don’t know you, Jesus. And God, we pray specifically today for the Mahra people of Yemen and Oman and Somalia and Kuwait, 250,000 of them, hardly any of them having heard the good news of your love in Jesus. God, we pray. Please help us as your church to not compromise in getting the gospel to people groups like the Mahra of Oman, Kuwait, and Yemen. We pray this. In Jesus’ name, according to your Word in Jeremiah 35. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
