_THE RECHABITES_
xxxv.
"Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me
for ever."--JER. xxxv. 19.
This incident is dated "in the days of Jehoiakim." We learn from verse
11 that it happened at a time when the open country of Judah was
threatened by the advance of Nebuchadnezzar with a Chaldean and Syrian
army. If Nebuchadnezzar marched into the south of Palestine
immediately after the battle of Carchemish, the incident may have
happened, as some suggest, in the eventful fourth year of Jehoiakim;
or if he did not appear in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem till after
he had taken over the royal authority at Babylon, Jeremiah's interview
with the Rechabites may have followed pretty closely upon the
destruction of Baruch's roll. But we need not press the words
"Nebuchadnezzar ... came up into the land"; they may only mean that
Judah was invaded by an army acting under his orders. The mention of
Chaldeans and Assyrians suggests that this invasion is the same as
that mentioned in 2 Kings xxiv. 1, 2, where we are told that Jehoiakim
served Nebuchadnezzar three years and then rebelled against him,
whereupon Jehovah sent against him bands of Chaldeans, Syrians,
Moabites, and Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it.
If this is the invasion referred to in our chapter it falls towards
the end of Jehoiakim's reign, and sufficient time had elapsed to allow
the king's anger against Jeremiah to cool, so that the prophet could
venture out of his hiding-place.
The marauding bands of Chaldeans and their allies had driven the
country people in crowds into Jerusalem, and among them the nomad clan
of the Rechabites. According to 1 Chron. ii. 55, the Rechabites traced
their descent to a certain Hemath, and were a branch of the Kenites,
an Edomite tribe dwelling for the most part in the south of Palestine.
These Kenites had maintained an ancient and intimate alliance with
Judah, and in time the allies virtually became a single people, so
that after the Return from the Captivity all distinction of race
between Kenites and Jews was forgotten, and the Kenites were reckoned
among the families of Israel. In this fusion of their tribe with
Judah, the Rechabite clan would be included. It is clear from all the
references both to Kenites and to Rechabites that they had adopted the
religion of Israel and worshipped Jehovah. We know nothing else of the
early history of the Rechabites. The statement in Chronicles that the
father of the house of Rechab was Hemath perhaps points to their
having been at one time settled at some place called Hemath near Jabez
in Judah. Possibly too Rechab, which means "rider," is not a personal
name, but a designation of the clan as horsemen of the desert.
These Rechabites were conspicuous among the Jewish farmers and
townsfolk by their rigid adherence to the habits of nomad life; and it
was this peculiarity that attracted the notice of Jeremiah, and made
them a suitable object-lesson to the recreant Jews. The traditional
customs of the clan had been formulated into positive commands by
Jonadab, the son of Rechab, _i.e._ the Rechabite. This must be the
same Jonadab who co-operated with Jehu in overthrowing the house of
Omri and suppressing the worship of Baal. Jehu's reforms concluded the
long struggle of Elijah and Elisha against the house of Omri and its
half-heathen religion. Hence we may infer that Jonadab and his
Rechabites had come under the influence of these great prophets, and
that their social and religious condition was one result of Elijah's
work. Jeremiah stood in the true line of succession from the northern
prophets in his attitude towards religion and politics; so that there
would be bonds of sympathy between him and these nomad refugees.
The laws or customs of Jonadab, like the Ten Commandments, were
chiefly negative: "Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons
for ever: neither shall ye build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant
vineyards, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents;
that ye may live many days in the land wherein ye are strangers."
Various parallels have been found to the customs of the Rechabites. The
Hebrew Nazarites abstained from wine and strong drink, from grapes and
grape juice and everything made of the vine, "from the kernels even to
the husk."[48] Mohammed forbade his followers to drink any sort of wine
or strong drink. But the closest parallel is one often quoted from
Diodorus Siculus,[49] who, writing about B.C. 8, tells us that the
Nabatean Arabs were prohibited under the penalty of death from sowing
corn or planting fruit trees, using wine or building houses. Such
abstinence is not primarily ascetic; it expresses the universal contempt
of the wandering hunter and herdsman for tillers of the ground, who are
tied to one small spot of earth, and for burghers, who further imprison
themselves in narrow houses and behind city walls. The nomad has a not
altogether unfounded instinct that such acceptance of material
restraints emasculates both soul and body. A remarkable parallel to the
laws of Jonadab ben Rechab is found in the injunctions of the dying
highlander, Ranald of the Mist, to his heir: "Son of the Mist! be free
as thy forefathers. Own no lord--receive no law--take no hire--give no
stipend--build no hut--enclose no pasture--sow no grain."[50] The
Rechabite faith in the higher moral value of their primitive habits had
survived their alliance with Israel, and Jonadab did his best to protect
his clan from the taint of city life and settled civilisation.
Abstinence from wine was not enjoined chiefly, if at all, to guard
against intoxication, but because the fascinations of the grape might
tempt the clan to plant vineyards, or, at any rate, would make them
dangerously dependent upon vine-dressers and wine-merchants.
Till this recent invasion, the Rechabites had faithfully observed
their ancestral laws, but the stress of circumstances had now driven
them into a fortified city, possibly even into houses, though it is
more probable that they were encamped in some open space within the
walls.[51] Jeremiah was commanded to go and bring them into the
Temple, that is, into one of the rooms in the Temple buildings, and
offer them wine. The narrative proceeds in the first person, "I took
Jaazaniah," so that the chapter will have been composed by the prophet
himself. In somewhat legal fashion he tells us how he took "Jaazaniah
ben Jeremiah, ben Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and
all the clan of the Rechabites." All three names are compounded of the
Divine name Iah, Jehovah, and serve to emphasise the devotion of the
clan to the God of Israel. It is a curious coincidence that the
somewhat rare name Jeremiah[52] should occur twice in this connection.
The room to which the prophet took his friends is described as the
chamber of the disciples of the man of God[53] Hanan ben Igdaliah,
which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber
of the keeper of the threshold, Maaseiah ben Shallum. Such minute
details probably indicate that this chapter was committed to writing
while these buildings were still standing and still had the same
occupants as at the time of this incident, but to us the topography is
unintelligible. The "man of God" or prophet Hanan was evidently in
sympathy with Jeremiah, and had a following of disciples who formed a
sort of school of the prophets, and were a sufficiently permanent body
to have a chamber assigned to them in the Temple buildings. The
keepers of the threshold were Temple officials of high standing. The
"princes" may have been the princes of Judah, who might very well have
a chamber in the Temple courts; but the term is general, and may
simply refer to other Temple officials. Hanan's disciples seem to have
been in good company.
These exact specifications of person and place are probably designed
to give a certain legal solemnity and importance to the incident, and
seem to warrant us in rejecting Reuss' suggestion that our narrative
is simply an elaborate prophetic figure.[54]
After these details Jeremiah next tells us how he set before his
guests bowls of wine and cups, and invited them to drink. Probably
Jaazaniah and his clansmen were aware that the scene was intended to
have symbolic religious significance. They would not suppose that the
prophet had invited them all, in this solemn fashion, merely to take a
cup of wine; and they would welcome an opportunity of showing their
loyalty to their own peculiar customs. They said: "We will drink no
wine: for our father Jonadab the son of Rechab commanded us, saying,
Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons for ever." They
further recounted Jonadab's other commands and their own scrupulous
obedience in every point, except that now they had been compelled to
seek refuge in a walled city.
Then the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah; he was commanded to make
yet another appeal to the Jews, by contrasting their disobedience with
the fidelity of the Rechabites. The Divine King and Father of Israel had
been untiring in His instruction and admonitions: "I have spoken unto
you, rising up early and speaking." He had addressed them in familiar
fashion through their fellow-countrymen: "I have sent also unto you all
My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them." Yet they
had not hearkened unto the God of Israel or His prophets. The Rechabites
had received no special revelation; they had not been appealed to by
numerous prophets. Their Torah had been simply given them by their
father Jonadab; nevertheless the commands of Jonadab had been regarded
and those of Jehovah had been treated with contempt.
Obedience and disobedience would bring forth their natural fruit. "I
will bring upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all
the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken
unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but
they have not answered." But because the Rechabites obeyed the
commandment of their father Jonadab, "Therefore thus saith Jehovah
Sabaoth, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand
before Me for ever."
Jehovah's approval of the obedience of the Rechabites is quite
independent of the specific commands which they obeyed. It does not
bind us to abstain from wine any more than from building houses and
sowing seed. Jeremiah himself, for instance, would have had no more
hesitation in drinking wine than in sowing his field at Anathoth. The
tribal customs of the Rechabites had no authority whatever over him.
Nor is it exactly his object to set forth the merit of obedience and
its certain and great reward. These truths are rather touched upon
incidentally. What Jeremiah seeks to emphasise is the gross, extreme,
unique wickedness of Israel's disobedience. Jehovah had not looked for
any special virtue in His people. His Torah was not made up of
counsels of perfection. He had only expected the loyalty that Moab
paid to Chemosh, and Tyre and Sidon to Baal. He would have been
satisfied if Israel had observed His laws as faithfully as the nomads
of the desert kept up their ancestral habits. Jehovah had spoken
through Jeremiah long ago and said: "Pass over the isles of Chittim,
and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if
there be any such thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are
yet no gods? but My people have changed their glory for that which
doth not profit."[55] Centuries later Christ found Himself constrained
to upbraid the cities of Israel, "wherein most of His mighty works
were done": "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if
the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.... It
shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than
for you."[56] And again and again in the history of the Church the
Holy Spirit has been grieved because those who profess and call
themselves Christians, and claim to prophesy and do many mighty works
in the name of Christ, are less loyal to the gospel than the heathen
to their own superstitions.
Buddhists and Mohammedans have been held up as modern examples to
rebuke the Church, though as a rule with scant justification. Perhaps
material for a more relevant contrast may be found nearer home.
Christian societies have been charged with conducting their affairs by
methods to which a respectable business firm would not stoop; they are
said to be less scrupulous in their dealings and less chivalrous in
their honour than the devotees of pleasure; at their gatherings they
are sometimes supposed to lack the mutual courtesy of members of a
Legislature or a Chamber of Commerce. The history of councils and
synods and Church meetings gives colour to such charges, which could
never have been made if Christians had been as jealous for the Name of
Christ as a merchant is for his credit or a soldier for his honour.
And yet these contrasts do not argue any real moral and religious
superiority of the Rechabites over the Jews or of unbelievers over
professing Christians. It was comparatively easy to abstain from wine
and to wander over wide pasture lands instead of living cooped up in
cities--far easier than to attain to the great ideals of Deuteronomy
and the prophets. It is always easier to conform to the code of
business and society than to live according to the Spirit of Christ.
The fatal sin of Judah was not that it fell so far short of its
ideals, but that it repudiated them. So long as we lament our own
failures and still cling to the Name and Faith of Christ, we are not
shut out from mercy; our supreme sin is to crucify Christ afresh, by
denying the power of His gospel, while we retain its empty form.
The reward promised to the Rechabites for their obedience was that
"Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me for
ever"; to stand before Jehovah is often used to describe the exercise
of priestly or prophetic ministry. It has been suggested that the
Rechabites were hereby promoted to the status of the true Israel, "a
kingdom of priests"; but this phrase may merely mean that their clan
should continue in existence. Loyal observance of national law, the
subordination of individual caprice and selfishness to the interests
of the community, make up a large part of that righteousness that
establisheth a nation.
Here, as elsewhere, students of prophecy have been anxious to discover
some literal fulfilment; and have searched curiously for any trace of
the continued existence of the Rechabites. The notice in Chronicles
implies that they formed part of the Jewish community of the
Restoration. Apparently Alexandrian Jews were acquainted with
Rechabites at a still later date. Psalm lxxi. is ascribed by the
Septuagint to "the sons of Jonadab." Eusebius[57] mentions "priests of
the sons of Rechab," and Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller of the
twelfth century, states that he met with them in Arabia. More recent
travellers have thought that they discovered the descendants of Rechab
amongst the nomads in Arabia or the Peninsula of Sinai that still
practised the old ancestral customs.
But the fidelity of Jehovah to His promises does not depend upon our
unearthing obscure tribes in distant deserts. The gifts of God are
without repentance, but they have their inexorable conditions; no
nation can flourish for centuries on the virtues of its ancestors. The
Rechabites may have vanished in the ordinary stream of history, and
yet we can hold that Jeremiah's prediction has been fulfilled and is
still being fulfilled. No scriptural prophecy is limited in its
application to an individual or a race, and every nation possessed by
the spirit of true patriotism shall "stand before Jehovah for ever."
FOOTNOTES:
[48] Num. vi. 2.
[49] xix. 94.
[50] Scott, _Legend of Montrose_, chap. xxii.
[51] The term "house of the Rechabites" in verse 2 means "family" or
"clan," and does not refer to a building.
[52] Eight Jeremiahs occur in O.T.
[53] Literally "sons of Hanan."
[54] Jeremiah, according to this view, had no interview with the
Rechabites, but made an imaginary incident a text for his discourse.
[55] ii. 10, 11.
[56] Matt. xi. 21, 22.
[57] _Ch. Hist._, ii. 23.