God blesses those who obey Him. Jeremiah 35.1-19
The Indestructible Word (2)
Pray Psalm 1.6.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Sing Psalm 1.6.
(St. Thomas: I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord)
In Jesus’ righteousness, though sinners fail and fall,
His flock He will preserve and bless, who on His favor call.
Read and meditate on Jeremiah 35.1-19.
Prepare.
1. For what things did Jeremiah praise the Lord?
2. What was troubling him in his prayer?
Meditate.
God’s people did not have to disobey Him. They chose to do so. Their reasons were not hard to identify: They wanted to do what they wanted to do, and not what God had prepared for them. They wanted an easier route to blessing and happiness than obedience to God’s Law, so they turned to pagan deities and practices. Just to be safe, they kept God in their hip pockets and continued to worship Him. But their worship was empty, self-centered, and merely cultural. It had no transforming power, and the people left it conveniently behind when they left the temple (cf. Ps. 50).
But it was possible to obey God, and God brought out the example of the Rechabites to demonstrate this was so. They had lived in tents and drunk no wine as their father had instructed them. Not even the prophet Jeremiah could persuade them to betray their heritage. They understood that God’s Law required them to honor their fathers, and they were determined to do nothing other or less.
If these sons and daughters of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, could obey their forefather, shunning the securities of place and wealth and resisting the lusts of the flesh, should not the people of God have obeyed Him as well?
The judgment of God would fall upon every household in Judah and Jerusalem because of their disobedience. Families would be destroyed, divided, and dispersed. Most people would never again see their loved ones or their children’s children. But for Jonadab, the faithful son of Rechab, he would “not lack a man to stand” before the Lord forever (v. 19).
God honors those who look to Him in faith and obedience and walk the path marked out by His Word. When Jesus commands us to follow Him, it is in the path of God’s Law, doing good works in His Spirit, and glorifying God in all we do. Anything less than this is less than true Christian faith.
Reflect.
1. Why was God bringing His judgment against His people? Had He warned them? Has He warned us?
2. Why do people think the way to greatest happiness is in doing things their way rather than God’s?
3. How can believers help one another to walk God’s path of righteousness faithfully?
God promises generally a reward to all who keep the Law, for every command has in general connected with it the hope of reward; but this is in a special manner added to the Fifth Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest prolong thy life,” etc. It is, then, nothing strange that God promised a reward to the Rechabites, because they followed the command of their father, for he had promised that in the Law. John Calvin (1509-1564),Commentary on Jeremiah 35.19
Guard me today, O Lord, against all disobedience, so that I…
Pray Psalm 1.1-5.
Thank God for the righteous men and women you know, and pray that He might transform you increasingly into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Sing Psalm 1.1-5.
Psalm 1.1-5 (St. Thomas: I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord)
How blessed are they that shun sin’s vain and wicked ways.
For them has Christ salvation won; He loves them all their days.
God’s Word is their delight; they prosper in its truth.
In it they dwell both day and night to flourish and bear fruit.
Firm planted on the banks of God’s great stream of grace,
They raise unending praise and thanks to His great glorious face.
The wicked are not so, but, driven by the winds,
they fall and perish, weighed with woe, when once God’s wrath begins.
T. M. Moore
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).
