HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1070
J EREMIA H 3 5
from their slavery in Egypt. 14 I told them that
every Hebrew slave must be freed after serving six years. But your ancestors paid no attention to me. 15 Recently you repented and
did what was right, following my command.
You freed your slaves and made a solemn covenant with me in the Temple that bears my
name. 16 But now you have shrugged off your
oath and defiled my name by taking back the
men and women you had freed, forcing them
to be slaves once again.
17 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
Since you have not obeyed me by setting your
countrymen free, I will set you free to be destroyed by war, disease, and famine. You will
be an object of horror to all the nations of the
earth. 18 Because you have broken the terms of
our covenant, I will cut you apart just as you
cut apart the calf when you walked between its
halves to solemnize your vows. 19 Yes, I will cut
you apart, whether you are officials of Judah or
Jerusalem, court officials, priests, or common
people—for you have broken your oath. 20 I will
give you to your enemies, and they will kill you.
Your bodies will be food for the vultures and
wild animals.
21 “I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah
and his officials to the army of the king of Babylon. And although they have left Jerusalem for
a while, 22 I will call the Babylonian armies back
again. They will fight against this city and will
capture it and burn it down. I will see to it that
all the towns of Judah are destroyed, with no
one living there.”
• Priorities
JE R E MIA H 3 5 :1 5
How well life goes for us has a lot to do
with where we focus our attention. God
had sent prophet after prophet to his
people, trying to pull them away from
other gods and destructive ways. Their
focus needed to be on the God who had
made them and loved them. We should
make a practice of reflecting on where
our focus is. Do we find—or make—time
for the people who are important to us?
for the tasks that have lasting value? for
the God who sustains and blesses us?
According to this verse, the means of
maintaining good priorities lies in listening to and obeying God. As we face each
new day, week, or decade, we can help
and protect ourselves only by evaluating
what God has told us and by working
out ways of putting that wisdom into
practice.
page 700
The Faithful Recabites
This is the message the Lord gave Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was
king of Judah: 2 “Go to the settlement where the
families of the Recabites live, and invite them
to the Lord’s Temple. Take them into one of the
inner rooms, and offer them some wine.”
3 So I went to see Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah
and grandson of Habazziniah and all his brothers and sons—representing all the Recabite families. 4 I took them to the Temple, and we went
into the room assigned to the sons of Hanan
son of Igdaliah, a man of God. This room was
located next to the one used by the Temple officials, directly above the room of Maaseiah son
of Shallum, the Temple gatekeeper.
5 I set cups and jugs of wine before them and
invited them to have a drink, 6 but they refused.
“No,” they said, “we don’t drink wine, because
our ancestor Jehonadab* son of Recab gave us
this command: ‘You and your descendants must
never drink wine. 7 And do not build houses or
plant crops or vineyards, but always live in tents.
If you follow these commands, you will live long,
good lives in the land.’ 8 So we have obeyed him
in all these things. We have never had a drink of
wine to this day, nor have our wives, our sons,
or our daughters. 9 We haven’t built houses or
owned vineyards or farms or planted crops.
10 We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed
all the commands of Jehonadab, our ancestor.
11 But when King Nebuchadnezzar* of Babylon
attacked this country, we were afraid of the
Babylonian and Syrian* armies. So we decided
to move to Jerusalem. That is why we are here.”
12 Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: 13 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies, the God of Israel, says: Go and say to
the people in Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Come and
learn a lesson about how to obey me. 14 The
Recabites do not drink wine to this day because
their ancestor Jehonadab told them not to. But
I have spoken to you again and again, and
you refuse to obey me. 15 Time after time I sent
you prophets, who told you, “Turn from your
wicked ways, and start doing things right. Stop
worshiping other gods so that you might live in
peace here in the land I have given to you and
your ancestors.” But you would not listen to me
or obey me. 16 The descendants of Jehonadab
son of Recab have obeyed their ancestor completely, but you have refused to listen to me.’
17 “Therefore, this is what the Lord God of
Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you refuse to listen or answer when I call,
I will send upon Judah and Jerusalem all the disasters I have threatened.’”
35
35:6 Hebrew Jonadab, a variant spelling of Jehonadab; also in
35:10, 19. See 2 Kgs 10:15. 35:11a Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar,
a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar. 35:11b Or Chaldean
and Aramean.