That's One Tough Family Line

I have one of those Chronological Bibles where you read a little each day and by the end of the year you have read the whole Bible. It is the end of December and... I am reading the September selections. Three months behind. How did that happen? Some years I just read the selection for whatever day it is. This year I decided to just keep reading along until I finished. So, lo and behold, I found a part of the Bible I do not ever remember reading; Jeremiah 35.

Jeremiah is told by God to bring in this family, the Rechabites, and offer them wine.

But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ We 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, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us." (Jer. 35:6-10)

What is the point? God slams the Israelites for not listening to Him and He commends the Rechabites for listening and obeying their granddaddy. Obedience is important.... I need to be better about teaching my children to obey.

If you go far enough back in the Rechabite line you arrive at two interesting characters: Jethro, Moses' Father-in-Law and Jael, the lady who drove a stake through Sisera's head. The Rechabites come from good stock and they obviously knew how to pass on a legacy.