Worship or Tradition?

Jeremiah 35:1–11
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As background for this passage the “Rechabites” were a tribe of people who lived during the reign of Ahab, were staunch resisters to the worship of fertility gods and were somewhat related to Israel by marriage. They were descendants of the Kenites, the tribe of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Some three hundred years before Jeremiah’s time, one of their number, Rechab, was an associate of Jehu, king of Israel, at the time of Elisha. Rechab’s son was Jonadab, and this account tells us that Jonadab grew tired of life in the city and longed for a simpler way of life (vv. 1-9). Jonadab evidently felt so strongly about it that he commanded his sons to drink no wine, to build no houses, and to have no vineyard or field or seed. They were to live in tents as nomads all their lives. When Nebuchadnezzar came up against Judah, the Rechabites took refuge in the city of Jerusalem, and Jeremiah now is sent to them by God (vv. 10-11).

The chapter opens with God’s command to Jeremiah to go to the Rechabites, bring them into the temple, and offer them wine to drink. I do not believe this has anything to do with the question of whether or not one should drink wine. These Rechabites were commended not necessarily because they did not drink wine, but because they were faithful to the command of their father. When Jeremiah offered them wine they refused to drink it, as God knew they would. God requires of a nation, or of a church, a continual review of the methods of the past in the flashing light of the revelation of God today. If we are not going back over and over, reviewing what has been done in the past, and asking ourselves, “Is this in line with what we understand now to be the truth?” we are certain to sink more and more into the ooze and mire of tradition, to be lost in its swamps.

Application

I never want to be hung up on just following tradition but always open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life.