Context No. 2677 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 35:6-11: in context

6But they said, “We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, neither you nor your children, forever. 7You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, or have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you live as nomads.’ 8We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters; 9and not to build houses for ourselves to dwell in. We have no vineyard, field, or seed; 10but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 11But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, ‘Come! Let’s go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we will dwell at Jerusalem.’”

The Rechabites explain to Jeremiah why they will not drink the wine he sets before them. Generations ago, our ancestor Jonadab commanded us to drink no wine, to build no houses, to plant no vineyards, but to live in tents as nomads. And we have obeyed, they say, we and our wives and our sons and our daughters, all our days. A command given long ago by a father they never met has shaped the whole family for generations.

What stands out is the completeness of it. The obedience was not one person's private discipline; it ran through the whole household, wives and children included, and down through generations, held by descendants who never knew the man who gave the command. A single father's charge shaped a family line for a century or more. It raises a question about what we are handing down. The commitments and disciplines I hold are not only mine; they are being watched, absorbed, and either passed on or dropped by those who come after me. The Rechabites kept a command across generations. What am I transmitting to those who will outlive me?

What commitments and disciplines am I handing down to those who come after me, and are they ones my children and successors will actually keep?

Sources

Jeremiah 35:8: We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father... to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters.
Jeremiah 35:10: but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
Deuteronomy 6:7: and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house.