Ver. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.] The eighteenth sermon, ordine tamen arbitario non naturali, delivered various years before the former, and here placed, not in its proper order, but as it pleased him that collected them into this book.
Ver. 2. Go unto the house of the Rechabites.] So called of one Rechab, the father of, Jonadab, who was famous for his piety in Jehu’s days, (2 Kings 10:15) three hundred years at least before this prophecy of Jeremiah. They were of the posterity of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, and lived up and down in the land upon their employments, weaned from the world, and exercising themselves in the law of God. See 1 Chronicles 2:55, where they are called the “families of the scribes that dwelt at Jabez,” as being men learned in the laws of God. Of them came the Essenes, a studious and abstemious sect among the Jews; and they might better than those Donatists have taken to themselves the title of Apotactici, so called from their renouncing the world. And give them wine to drink.] Heb., Make them drink wine— i.e., set it before them, and then leave them to their own liberty.
Ver. 3. Then I took Jaazaniah.] Whether actually or in vision only it skilleth not; but the former way probably.
Ver. 4. And I brought them into the house of the Lord.] That it might be made a public business, and so the better work upon all that should hear of it. The son of Igdaliah, a man of God.] A priest and prophet or teacher of the people. So in the New Testament others are called God’s children, his servants, and his people, but ministers only are called God’s men. (1 Timothy 6:11 2 Timothy 3:17) Which was by the chamber of the princes.] Or, Of the prefects of the temple, that were next under the high priests.
Ver. 5. Drink ye wine.] It was a double temptation unto them: 1. To have pots and cups of wine set before them; 2. To be bid drink it by a prophet, and at prophet’s chamber. But they were resolved, in obedience to their father Jonadab, to forbear. Yet if Jeremiah had said, Thus saith the Lord, Drink wine, they ought to have done it; but this he did not.
Ver. 6. We will not drink wine.] This they were resolved on, not because they were persuaded, as Mohammed’s followers are, that in every grape there dwelt a devil, but because Jonadab, the son of Rechab, their progenitor, (2 Kings 10:15) had two or three hundred years before charged them to forbear; not thereby to establish any new arbitrary service, or any rule of greater perfection of life (as the Papists misallege it in favour of monkery and other will worships and superstitious observances), but only as a civil ordinance about things external, the foundation whereof is laid in the Word, which commandeth modesty, humility, sobriety, heavenly mindedness, &c. Haec leges vitae potius eram honestatis quam salutis animae.
Ver. 7. Neither shall ye build house.] But be content and dwell in tents, as the ancient patriarchs were, and as your ancestors in Midian, removing from place to place, after the manner of the old nomades; so shall ye be the better prepared for a change in the state, which this good old man might foresee and foresignify to his nephews, enjoining them therefore to follow their shepherdy only, as men less addicted to the world, and bent for heaven. That ye may live many days in the land.] While ye obey my charge. Long life is promised to children that obey their parents. Where ye be strangers] The Rechabites were originally Midianites; but Jethro, of whom they came, was a famous proselyte in the Church; his son Hobab a guide to God’s people in the wilderness; and his posterity imped and incorporated into the body of God’s people. (Judges 1:16) Nevertheless they counted and called themselves “strangers,” alienigenae, as those that looked for a better country above. See Hebrews 11:9.
Ver. 8. Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab.] Obedience to parents, in things not unlawful, is very commendable. Aristotle saith, It is not good for a man to dissent from the gods, from his father, and from his teacher. We read of a king of Poland who carried the picture of his father in a plate of gold about his neck, and when he was going about any great business, he would kiss that picture and say, God grant I may observe my father’s charge, and do nothing unworthy of him, &c. We, our wives, our sons, and our daughters.] As themselves were obedient to their father, so had they their children obedient to them, whereas ill children are punished in their posterity. One complained that never father had so undutiful a child as he had. Yes, said his son, with less grace than truth, my grandfather had. Μη καλον κρινειν εναντια τοις θεοις, πατρι και διδασκαλω.— Ar. Rhet. Fuller’s Holy State.
Ver. 9. Nor to build houses, &c.] Jonadab, being a prudent and withal a mortified man, might foresee that the Israelites, being so wicked a people, could not long continue. He knew also that wine was oft an occasion of drunkenness, trading in the world, of earthly mindedness; fair houses, of loathness to leave the world. Haec sunt quae nos invitos faciunt mori, as that emperor once said of stately buildings. He, therefore, for a quiet life, and for their souls’ health, forbade them the use of these lawful things, and they accordingly forbare them.
Ver. 10. But we have dwelt in tents.] And fed much upon dairy produce, as did Heber the Kenite, who was one of them, (Judges 4:19) living in abstinence and bodily labour, that we might be free to divine contemplations.
Ver. 11. Come, and let us go to Jerusalem.] So then it was lawful for them to dispense with those their observances, in that inevitable necessity; like as also they might have drunk wine rather than have perished. But what can be reasonably pleaded for that man of sin, who taketh upon him to dispense with God’s holy law, and de iniustitia facere iustitiam, ex nihilo aliquid, ex virtute vitium, to make righteousness of unrighteousness, vice of virtue, something of nothing? So we dwell at Jerusalem.] But better they had kept out, and held to their old course; for so they might have escaped some way. Bellarm., De Pontif. Rom, lib. iv.
Ver. 12. Then came the word of the Lord.] Then, after this famous example of obedience thus proposed, an excellent way of teaching surely. Reason should rule, and therefore lodgeth in the brain; but when reason cannot persuade, example will.
Ver. 13. Will ye not receive instruction, to hearken to my words?] Quae est illa portentosa pertinacia? What a strange stiffness and obstinace in you is this! Am not I to be better esteemed and obeyed by you than Jonadab is by the Rechabites?
Ver. 14. The words of Jonadab, … not to drink wine, are performed.] So are the words of Mohammed to like purpose, to this day, by the Turks; so are the commands of the Popish padres to their young novices, though it be to make a voyage to China or Peru, “ Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum. ” For unto this day they drink none.] Neither dwell in houses, as you do and may do, eating of the fat and drinking of the sweet without restraint, so that you keep within the bounds of sobriety. I command you nothing but what in reason should be done for a worldly good, as well as for a spiritual. Rising early and speaking.] I began early with you, my law I gave you in Horeb, eight or nine hundred years since, and from that time to this I have constantly and instantly called upon you by my messengers for obedience, whereas it is not yet full three hundred years since Jonadab left this charge with his Rechabites, and, dying, left none to see it fulfilled, or to reprove them for their neglects.
Ver. 15. I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets.] But all to no purpose. See on Jeremiah 35:14. Saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way.] And was this so great a matter, to part with that which profiteth you nothing, yea, which undoubtedly will undo you? And go not after other gods.] For wherein can they bestead you? And ye shall dwell in the land.] This was more thau ever Jonadab could promise, or promising perform, to his nephews. But ye have not inclined your ear.] See Jeremiah 7:24,26,11:8,17:23 34:14.
Ver. 16. Because the sons of Jonadab.] This was a lively way of confuting their contumacy, far more convincing than that of the heathens not changing their gods, or the beasts knowing their owners, the birds their seasons. But this people have not hearkened unto me.] Whereas, “if I be a father, where is mine honour? and if a master, where is mine obedience?” (Malachi 1:6) [See Trapp on “Mal 1:6”]
Ver. 17. Behold, I will bring upon Judah.] Aut poenitendum aut pereundum. Men must either repent, or perish; obey God’s law, or bear the penalty; no remedy. (Hebrews 2:2 2 Thessalonians 1:8)
Ver. 18. Because ye have obeyed the commandment.] Obedience to parents hath an ample recompense of reward, as that which is good and acceptable before God and men. (1 Timothy 5:4)
Ver. 19. Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever,] i.e., To be beloved by me, and to be in special favour with me, lifting up pure hands in all places of their abode. Captive they were carried among the Jews; but they returned also again with them (as appears 1 Chronicles 2:55), erantque Deo cordi et curae and they were dear to God.