epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Jeremiah 35

Why do God’s people have such a hard time following His law? Is it simply too big a burden? On one hand we would have to say that it is, since neither we nor our fathers could bear the yoke of the law. On the other hand it is abundantly clear that the problem is not the law itself, which is more than good. The problem is in us. Could it be that people everywhere would have the same difficulty in any attempt to follow any set of customs or traditions? Apparently not, as this chapter in Jeremiah shows us. The venom of our sin-nature seems to be specific. It is directed against the Lord and against His good law. Our problem is not merely weakness, but sin and rebellion directed against God.

In the days of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, God told the prophet Jeremiah to go to the people then staying in Jerusalem who were called Rechabites. One of their ancesters, Jonadab, had commanded them to follow certain practices. They had to live in tents, they could not plant crops, and they could not drink wine. These are not small matters. The life that they were told to follow was a separate nomadic existence. This was not only for one or two generations. The Rechabites were told to follow these laws, to pass them on to their children, and to keep on living in this separate way forever.

In the days of Jeremiah they were still following these rules. They had only come within the protection of the city walls of Jerusalem because of the danger of the Babylonians at this time. The way that their obedience was tested involved their visit to the temple at the invitation of Jeremiah, who then instructed them to drink wine. They explained that they would drink no wine, and spoke of the heritage of their customs, and the other rules that they followed.

We know almost nothing else about this group of people except what we learn from this chapter in the Bible. Apparently as late as the nineteenth century travelers encountered a Bedouin tribe claiming to be descendants of the ancestor Jonadab mentioned here, and therefore Rechabites, still living the nomadic life. God honors them here for at least being true to the law that they have been given, and gives them an amazing promise that one of their descendants will always stand before Him.

Why do the Rechabites make it into the Bible in this way? They prove the point that it is not physically impossible for people to keep laws that have been handed down to them from earlier generations. They are a contrast to the people of Judah.

God has spoken to Judah persistently. He has performed great acts of deliverance for His people over many centuries. He has given them a beautiful system of moral, civil, and ceremonial laws that could have defined the society as set apart from the world in the most wonderful ways. These laws were not mindless or random rules, but they fit into the larger purpose of redemption. They were excellent in the pursuit of justice, but they also commanded the people in the way of mercy. They gave them festivals and offerings that powerfully told the most important stories that the people of God needed to know and experience. They were of great aid to the poor, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the slave, and any one else in need. They addressed issues of war and peace, property distribution, taxation, civil justice, restitution, and so many, many things for a well-ordered nation, without requiring the creation of a burdensome enforcement bureaucracy. How can it make sense that the Rechabites seemed to have no problem with their law of a nomadic existence, and yet the children of Jacob simply refused to follow God’s wonderfully full and robust Law for them?

At the most basic level, the people of God abandoned Yahweh. They worshiped other gods instead of Him. If they would not even worship God, of course they would not incline their ears to hear and obey His Law. This is a powerful testimony to the deep problem that we have. Our sin nature rebels against almighty God. God will bring upon Judah great disaster, because the nation simply will not listen to Him. If they had Him in their hands, they would kill Him.

The people of God have two massive problems. First, they do not have the righteousness that they need in order to be in God’s presence, for they simply have no record of perfect obedience to His commandments. Second, they have a tremendous debt that they cannot pay, since they have brought upon themselves the disaster of God’s judgment, and they cannot deal with His just sanctions for their disobedience in even the slightest way. These two problems are simply insurmountable.

Nevertheless, what is impossible with man is possible for God. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken care of these two problems, first obeying the Law more fully than any Rechabite every kept the commands of Jonadab, and then paying the debt that we had built up through His death on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice to His Father. In this way He was the fulfillment of every moral, civil, and ceremonial law ever given by God. Everything that the Law pointed forward to has come in person in the person and work of Jesus Christ. His death on the cross has removed from us our blood-guilt. Our record could never yield for us a happy verdict, but the Son of God has obeyed the Law for us, and has died for our sins.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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