Who were the Rechabites in the Bible?

Descendants of Rechab, the father of Jonadab. The account of these people is given by themselves: they abstained from wine, and they did not build houses, nor sow seed. Being nomads they did not plant vineyards, nor had any; but all their days they dwelt in tents. Though called Rechabites, they trace their mode of life to what their ancestor Jonadab had commanded. When compelled to dwell in Jerusalem for fear of the Chaldeans and Syrians, Jeremiah called them together and offered them wine; but they refused to drink any, and gave the above explanation.

God instructed Jeremiah to hold up the obedience of the Rechabites as an example to the men of Judah. These men faithfully obeyed their father, whereas Judah had not obeyed their God. It was said of them that because of their faithfulness to their father's commands Jonadab should not want a man to stand before God for ever. The Rabbis interpret this to signify that they should minister in the sanctuary, and say they became united to the Levites; but we find nothing of this in scripture. Jer. 35:1-19. Travellers in the East have met with people who trace their origin to Rechab, and who appeal to the scripture as a proof of God having preserved them. There are still about 60,000 of them, dwelling in tents in the oases of the desert.

In Jeremiah 35, the obedience of the Rechabites is set before the men of Judah to make them feel that some men, at least, showed more reverence for an earthly father than Israel showed for God Himself. The Rechabites were a certain class of Arabs — Bedouins of the desert, as we say — who were true to the requisition of their father. He had bound them neither to build houses nor to drink wine, and these men had carried out the will of their father for a long time.

Now when the Rechabites sought refuge in Jerusalem because of Nebuchadnezzar, their fidelity to their father's request is used as a solemn condemnation of the disobedience of the children of Judah. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were bidden to accept instruction from the sight of these Rechabites who even in the time of the impending siege would not depart from the regulations of their father. They might have pleaded the circumstances as an excuse for disobeying at that time, but they remained faithful to their fathers. "And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel; because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he has commanded you: therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me for ever" (verses 18, 19). And I have no doubt that the Lord is preserving a portion of this very race to this day.

It is striking the pains God takes with His people and the way in which He condescends to employ the example of men (before of birds and beasts) for a parable for instructing His people, if they are but willing to listen. We learn that there was in the holy land at this time a tribe of the sons of Rechab. They were Kenites as to their race — the same people of whom Moses' wife came: there was, as we know, a friendly feeling between Israel and them in consequence.

The manner too in which the Lord presses home the lesson is much to be observed: "Go," says He to Jeremiah, "to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink." This was calculated to impress the Rechabites strongly. A prophet of Jehovah sets before them cups of wine, and this too in the temple. "Then I took Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; and I brought them into the house of the Lord." It was not into some obscure place either in the temple, but to one of the priests — "into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door." It was by the chamber even of the heads of the priesthood and of the princes. And there it is added, "I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink ye wine." But the Rechabites were faithful; they had pledged themselves to their father a long while before. It was no new feeling; it had governed their conduct ever since his time who gave the tribe its name; and now even, under circumstances such as pressed Judea, when there was no lack of dangers and sorrow, though a prophet of the Lord bid them drink, though the wine was set before them in the temple of the Lord, they still refuse. "They said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons for ever."

It would be too much to assume that there was any direct purpose of pleasing God, or anything morally good in simply taking wine or not. It is plain God does not tempt anyone to evil: the very fact therefore that Jehovah bade the prophet bring them into the temple and set wine before them and bade them drink, shows that it is no question of moral evil. But it would have been unbecoming in those who had pledged themselves not to take it, had they done so. They were obedient to their father — this was what was right. Their father was entitled to test their obedience if he liked, and he did so; and they were true to their father and to their own filial obligation. This was what pleased the lord, and what He uses for the correction of Israel. What is a convincing proof that the point is not one of moral evil is this: — besides the charge to drink no wine, it had also been commanded them "Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents." It is evident there is nothing at all wrong in itself in a man's having a house or sowing seed in a field: no one thinks so at least none but a madman. Yet these being tests of their obedience, they were as much bound to abstain from sowing seed and planting vineyards as from drinking wine. But the particular test here employed was drinking wine, because I suppose the others could not have been applied so readily. Jonadab put all this before them as a motive of obedience on the earth — "that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers. Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he has charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: but we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed, and have done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us." There is no moral excellence in dwelling in a tent, any more than in a house; but there are circumstances where it would be more congruous and becoming. It was a beautiful sign of pilgrimage in the fathers to dwell in tents.

And so here: whatever may have been the motive in Jonadab for laying this precept upon his children, we do not know; but still they were right in dutiful obedience to him. "We have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us." It is true there was now an exception. "But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem." It may be questioned whether they were called upon to make this an exception, and whether it was any better for them to be in Jerusalem than in the land as before. It is good always to hold fast the principle on which we are called to act; it is dangerous to allow ourselves to change. God of course is entitled to bring in new principles for new circumstances, but we must take care that it is God who does so.

The Rechabites were Kenites and were numbered with the children of Israel (1 Chron. 2:55). During the reign of Jehoiakim the incident of this chapter happened. The critics may rave against the "unchronological" construction of Jeremiah jumping from one period into another, but there we see the guiding hand of the Spirit in the arrangement of these events. It is perfectly in order that this should come next to the chapter which relates the broken covenant. A careful reading and study of this chapter will bring out the lesson of their faithfulness to their father's command, and the unfaithfulness of the Jews to God's command.

The sixteenth verse, which closes this first division of the book, tells us of "the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law." The history of this family, come out of Midian and allied to Moses, is full of interest. When Jethro returned to his own land, after having visited Israel in the desert (Ex. 18:27), Moses asked his son Hobab to be to the children of Israel instead of eyes, to lead them in their encampments in the wilderness (Numbers 10:29-32); and in spite of his refusal, his sons, like Caleb, faithfully followed in the steps of the people of God. (Judges 4:11, 1 Sam. 15:6) Like Rahab, these children of a stranger amongst the nations, went up out of Jericho, the city of palm trees (Judges 1:16, cf., Deut. 34:3), to cast in their lot with Israel. In cleaving permanently to Judah, they resembled Ruth. And like Othniel, they allied themselves with the family of Caleb, and out of it they had more especially for their chief, the faithful Jabez, the son of sorrow, who made his requests with understanding to the God of Israel, and to whom God granted that which he asked (1 Chr. 2:50-55, 1 Chr. 4:9-10). The Rechabites were descended from the Kenites (1 Chr. 2:55, 2 Kings 10:15, Jer. 35), and when their history closes in the Bible, they are praised as true Nazarites in the midst of the ruin of Israel. But alas! this faithful remnant come out from amongst the nations, plays its part also in the book of declension. We have an instance of it in Heber, the Kenite, in Judges 4. I cannot refrain from applying this history of the Kenites to the church called out from amidst the nations. Her testimony, too, is gone, but like the sons of Rechab amongst the Israelites, a faithful remnant in the midst of the ruin, can go on to the end in holy separation from evil, obeying the Word committed to them by their Leader.

Thus, among the patriarchs, and successively in the times of Moses, of Joshua, of the judges, of David, and of the kings, the stranger, is occasionally presented to us, and always in distinction. But beside this occasional testimony, there was the abiding presence and testimony of the Gentile in Israel: I mean in that family to which this Jehonadab belonged: the family of the Rechabites, who continued in Israel from the earliest times down to the latest, from Moses to Jeremiah. Judges 1:16; 1 Chr. 3:55; Jer. 35:8. And all through these many centuries they dwelt as strangers in the land. At the very first they went up from the city to dwell in the wilderness, and at the very end they are seen maintaining the same character. They neither built houses, nor bought fields, nor sowed seed, nor planted vineyards; all the days they dwelt in tents, and did not eat of the fruit of the vine. They were a standing order of Nazarites, more separated to God than even Israel; and so faithful were they to their consecration vows, that at the end, when the Lord was pronouncing judgment upon His own people, He pledged to them that they should not want a man to stand before Him for ever. Throughout the long period of their tabernacling in Israel, wherever we hear of them, it is always to their praise, always taking such a place of honour, and sustaining such a character of holiness, as distinguishes them, like the other strangers, quite above the level of the nation.*

In contrast, we find a striking example of separation from evil in Jehonadab the son of Rechab (Jer. 35), who comes to meet Jehu (v. 15). Jehonadab was of the race of the Kenites, who had entered into Canaan with Israel. They were divided into several branches: the least of these in the extreme north at Kedesh in Naphtali (Judges 4:11), the strongest in the desert of Judah to the south of Arad (Judges 1:16), and lastly, a third branch, subdivided into several families in the vicinity of Jabez, which belonged to Judah (1 Chr. 2:55). We do not know what led Jehonadab from the kingdom of Judah to that of Israel. Was he part of those following Ahaziah's brethren, as Jehu's abrupt question might suggest? Whatever the case may have been, he had no link with the evil which surrounded him. His principles were those of absolute separation to God as a true Nazarite and, being unable to teach these principles here in this corrupt sphere that surrounded him, he had at least taught them in his family and in his house. The circle of his testimony was a limited one in the presence of the infidelity flowing like a rising tide over the two houses of Israel, but it was nonetheless a testimony, and God approved it. We know these details from Jeremiah 35. Jehonadab's principles were those of every true Nazarite. Firstly, to abstain from wine, which represents the intoxicating coveteousness of the world. Secondly, to refrain from building a house, that is, to refrain from establishing oneself upon the earth in a permanent way. Thirdly, to refrain from sowing grain, as if one were expecting something, even if it were only a year of harvest. Fourthly, to refrain from planting a vineyard, that is to say, to refrain from cultivating that which would sooner or later lead to the abandoning of one's Nazariteship — and how many believers have lost their Nazariteship through failure to watch over this point! Fifthly, to dwell in tents, as true sons of Abraham, as pilgrims and sojourners in the land of promise. Jehonadab understood that this land given to God's people was in no wise a present possession, as long as the moral ruin of the people existed along with the material disorder which was its consequence. His faith was still waiting for a rest for the people of God. He and his sons testified to this by their attitude.

The Rechabites (Jeremiah 35)

We encounter the Rechabites in Jeremiah 35. God had instructed Jeremiah to offer the Rechabites wine in a chamber of the temple (where no-one could see them). The Rechabites refused on the ground of their father Jonadab’s order not to drink wine: ‘Ye shall drink no wine, ye nor your sons for ever’ (Jer. 35:6). This leads some expositors to regard the Rechabites as Nazarites. Whether they had the other characteristics of a Nazarite we can hardly tell. However, their obedience is noteworthy.

What is especially impressive here is the dimension of time: Jonadab had lived during Ahab’s reign (2 Ki. 10:15, 23), approximately 850 years before Christ’s birth. The incident in Jeremiah 35 occurred much later during the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah (Jer. 35:1), about 600 years before Christ’s birth. The intervening period between Jonadab’s command and the Rechabites’ obedience, therefore, amounted to some 250 years, which corresponding to 8–10 generations. They had understood that the time factor played no part for God in this respect. God took note of the Rechabites’ faithfulness, which stood in stark contrast to the disobedience of Judah. So God proclaimed: ‘Yea, 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’ (Jer. 35:16). The Rechabites, on the other hand, are presented as a model: ‘The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his son not to drink wine, are performed; and to this day they have drunk none, for they have obeyed their father’s commandment. But I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, and ye have not hearkened unto me’ (Jer. 35:14).

God made sure that the Rechabites were received a rich reward: ‘Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, There shall not fail to Jonadab the son of Rechab, a man to stand before me, for ever’ (Jer. 35:19).

Jeremiah 35. The obedience of the Rechabites is set forth in order to shew out more clearly the sin of Judah — disobedient in spite of the remonstrances and the patience of God. God does not forget the obedience that glorifies His name. The family of the Rechabites shall never fail.

Father of Jehonadab, or Jonadab, founder of the RECHABITES. 2 Kings 10:15, 23; Jer. 35:6-19.