FWD: Morning Manna (Oct. 9); BP: Jer. 35; RBTTY: Colossians 1; Is. 32-33

 
Samuel D. High
sdhigh@aristotle.net

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Apostle Tom <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 16:59:01 -0500
To: <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Subject: Morning Manna (Oct. 9); BP: Jer. 35; RBTTY: Colossians 1; Is. 32-33
 

October 9                                                                                                                                                                                         “Faithful Followers”

 

“And Jeremiah said unto 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 unto all that he has 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 forever’.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                               Jeremiah 35:18-19

     Clinging to what is right may not seem fashionable or feasible to the world, but it’s always pleasing in God’s sight.

     Faithfulness.

     In this day-and-age of shallow commitments and “lacking loyalty,” today’s Manna is a “precious portion” that calls us back to the “strait-and-narrow” (Mt. 7:13-14).  And, even though the primary ones mentioned in it—Jonadab and the Rechabites—seldom come up in Bible trivia quizzes, their “works do follow them even though they have rested from their labors” (Rev. 14:13).

 

     The Rechabites were a Kenite tribe formed by Jonadab, the son of Rechab (II Kings 10:15, 23).  The Kenites can likely be traced all the way back to Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, who was called “the priest of Midian” (Ex. 3:1; 18:1; Judg. 1:16).  The land of Midian lay on the east side of Jordan and the Dead Sea and stretched southward toward the Arabian desert.  And, those who dwelt there were descendants of Midian, one of the sons of Abraham by his concubine, Keturah (Gen. 25:1-6).

 

     Thus, it’s clear their “righteous roots” grew quite deep (Gen. 15:19).  The most notable member of this tribe was Jonadab, whose name means “The Lord makes freely willing” or “The Lord is bounteous.”  He was a zealous worshipper of the God of Abraham and led his family to become nomadic, moving around from place-to-place. . . living in tents. . .always abstaining from alcoholic beverages, idolatry and immorality. . . and wholly devoting themselves in faith and fidelity to a life of service to God.

 

     By the world’s estimation, they were “weird” and “out-of-touch with reality;” yet, today’s Manna shows the Lord God viewed them differently.  They’d sought refuge in Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar’s army attacked Judah; thus, it’s clear they were out of their “comfort zone,” which always makes us more susceptible to temptation and covenant-breaking decisions.

 

     But, their forced change-of-location did not result in a faithless change-of-heart.

     Even within the city, they still were faithful.  In fact, they were so “righteously resistant” to compromising their convictions that Jeremiah’s placing pots full of wine in front of them did not tempt them to sin (v.5); instead, these Godly descendants of Jonadab—whose lifestyle resembled that of the Nazarites—said “We will not give in, but we will go on in our holy history, faithful in what we’ve been taught” (vv.6-10).

 

     Jeremiah used them as an indicting object lesson to Judah (and us) about the importance of being true to Godly convictions.  That’s why their descendants still live in Iraq and Yemen today.  They were faithful.  God’s been faithful.  And we should too.