SERMON VII. JEREMIAH XXXV. 13-19. THUS SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF ISRAEL; GO AND TELL THE MEN OF JUDAH AND THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM, WILL YE NOT RECEIVE INSTRUCTION HEARKEN TO MY WORDS? SAITH THE LORD. ΤΟ THE WORDS OF JONADAB THE SON OF RECHAB, THAT HE COMMANDED HIS SONS NOT TO DRINK WINE, ARE PERFORMED; FOR UNTO THIS DAY THEY DRINK NONE, BUT OBEY THEIR FATHER'S COMMANDMENT: NOTWITHSTANDING I HAVE SPOKEN UNTO YOU, RISING EARLY AND SPEAKING; BUT YE HEARKENED NOT UNTO ME. I HAVE SENT ALSO UNTO YOU ALL MY SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, RISING UP EARLY AND SENDING THEM, SAYING; RETURN YE NOW EVERY MAN FROM HIS EVIL WAY, AND AMEND YOUR DOINGS, AND GO NOT AFTER OTHER GODS TO SERVE THEM, AND YE SHALL DWELL IN THE LAND WHICH I HAVE GIVEN TO YOU AND TO YOUR FATHERS: BUT YE HAVE NOT INCLINED YOUR EAR, NOR HEARKENED UNTO ME. BECAUSE THE SONS OF JONADAB THE SON OF RECHAB HAVE PERFORMED THE COMMANDMENT OF THEIR FATHER, WHICH HE COMMANDED THEM; BUT THIS PEOPLE HATH NOT HEARKENED UNTO ME: THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF ISRAEL; BEHOLD, 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. AND JEREMIAH SAID UNTO THE HOUSE OF THE RECHABITES, THUS SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF ISRAEL; BECAUSE YE HAVE OBEYED THE COMMANDMENT OF JONADAB YOUR FATHER, AND KEPT ALL HIS PRECEPTS, AND DONE ACCORDING UNTO ALL THAT HE HATH COMMANDED YOU 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. WE learn from the preceding part of this chapter the ground of the appeal made by the Lord to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. There was at that time sojourning at Jerusalem a remarkable family, who did not usually reside there. They were called Rechabites, after their ancestor Rechab. They were not Israelites, but Kenites; and are supposed to have descended from Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Their ancestors were spared by Saul, when he went on his expedition against the Amalekites, amongst whom they were then living. "Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart; get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites*." Jonadab, the son of Rechab, was a person of eminence at the time when Jehu was raised to the throne of Israel. It was he * 1 Samuel xv. 6. whom that ambitious king invited to ride with him in his chariot, that he might see his zeal for the Lord. Jonadab, as we learn from the history of that period, did countenance and support Jehu in his efforts to destroy the worship of Baal. But he would soon find, that intimate connexion with a king who took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart (2 Kings x. 31), was full of danger to his own soul, and the souls of his family and dependants; and he would doubtless soon deem it expedient, for his own sake and for theirs, to quit the slippery ground. Whether it was specially with a view to the withdrawing of his household from the temptations of a court, or for what other particular reason, we know not; but he enjoined upon his family, and doubtless himself practised, a more than ordinary abstemiousness of diet, and a separation in their habits of life from the inhabitants of the land. He charged them to abstain altogether from wine, and to live a pastoral life in tents; by which means they would avoid familiar intercourse with a people now generally become very corrupt. In the rules which he laid down for them, he probably acted from prudential as well as religious consideration. This seems to be intimated, in the reason by which he recommended their compliance with his injunctions—“that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers." He might think, that so long as they continued to follow his directions they would be the less likely to provoke the jealousy of the Israelites; who being occupied chiefly in agriculture and vine-dressing, would be most tolerant of a people whose pursuits, being pastoral, did not interfere with their own. Be this as it may, his descendants did for many generations scrupulously adhere to his directions. It was now 300 years since he lived; and the Rechabites were still known as the men who dwelt in tents and abstained from wine. But these peculiarities, which had kept them separate, and served to distinguish them from the people of the land; were, it is presumed, only the appendages of a stricter adherence to the worship of Jehovah than was commonly found, after the time of Jonadab, in the kingdom of Israel. The Rechabites were at this time brought particularly under the notice of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from their having taken refuge in that city, to avoid the ravages of |