Loyalty to a Group or to God?

Jeremiah 35:12–19
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While the Rechabites obeyed and followed the teachings of Jonadab their father, Israel had neither obeyed the Lord nor followed His instructions. The Rechabites were more loyal to their earthly father and his human judgments than the people of Israel were to their Creator God. (v. 12).

It would be very easy to misread this passage – as though God were simply commending these Rechabites for their loyalty to their father’s wishes (vv. 13-19). He does do that. Later on in the passage he promises them that they “shall never lack a man to stand before” him. I wonder if this does not suggest that it is possible to trace the origin of Gypsies back to these Rechabites, because they live exactly this way today. At any rate, the real point of the passage is not so much that the Rechabites were commended for keeping their father’s command, but rather that Judah is reproved because the nation would not obey God. In other words, the power of tradition has greater force with men than the revelation of the living God. The Rechabites were under the grip of their father’s whim, and were obedient to his request three hundred years after he had made it. “But,” God says, “I who am among you as a living God, speaking to you through the prophets persistently, trying to correct the evils in the life of this nation, am paid no attention whatsoever” (vv. 16-17).

The church is often gripped by the power of tradition as well. As I have traveled about the country I have seen hundreds of churches which are so held in the iron grip of the past that they feel unable to obey God in what he is saying to them in the present hour.

Application

It is so easy to get locked into doing things like we have always done it that we refuse to do what God wants us to do for Him now. Lord help me to loyal but flexible for You!