It may be proper here to make some inquiries relative to these Rechabites—to the person whose charge they conceived so binding; and the nature and design of the charge.
The Rechabites are said to have been a branch of the Kenites, and to have descended from Hobab, the son of Jethro, Moses' father in law. [81]
While Israel were encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai, that Midianitish priest, or prince, visited Moses, bringing with him, Zipporah, the wife of Moses and her children, who had been sent to her father's as a place of safety, during the troubles in Egypt. Not long after, Hobab, the son of Jethro, appears to have been with Israel in the wilderness; and he was invited to go with them to the land of promise, and take his lot among them, and was promised an equal share of blessings with the seed of Jacob—"If thou wilt go with us, it shall be, that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee." At first Hobab declined, but he eventually complied; as his descendants were among the Hebrews after their settlement in Canaan, and they continued among them, and remained a distinct family, down to the captivity.
One branch of these Kenites was denominated from Rechab, an illustrious chief of the house of Hobab; who had a son, or descendant, named Jonadab, or Jehonadab, as his name is sometimes written. Jonadab was renowned for wisdom and piety. He flourished in the days of Jehu, almost three centuries before the Babylonish captivity; and was so famed for sanctity and attachment to true religion, that only being seen in his company was a recommendation to the regard of its friends. Therefore was he treated with respect by Jehu, while he pretended a regard for the true God—therefore was he taken up by that prince into his chariot, and made his partner in the destruction of idolatry. Such was the man who left this charge to his descendants, which was so sacredly regarded by them, for so long a term.
This was a remarkable family. Another who have paid equal attention to the orders of a departed progenitor, and in which none of the members appear to have degenerated from his virtue, is not perhaps to be found in the annals of mankind! But our surprise will increase if we attend to the nature of the charge.
The prophet was directed to gather the whole family of the Rechabites —bring them into the house of the Lord—set wine before them and invite them to drink. He obeyed; offering them a treat, as a family known and respected in Israel.
This was not done to tempt them, but to reprove the Jews, who resorted in great numbers to the temple; though they had cast off the fear of the God there worshipped. God knew, and had probably informed the prophet, that the wine would be refused. It was refused, and the reason, assigned—"We will drink no wine; for Jonadab,—the son of Rechab, our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, ye, nor your sons forever, Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor have any: But all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days, in the land where ye be strangers."
Some of these may seem to be strange restrictions; but they speak the piety of him who laid them, and his regard to the eternal, if not to the temporal interests, of his posterity. The prohibition seems to have been the same with the law of the Nazerites. Wine is doubtless here used in a large sense, for every kind of strong drink. "Wine was given to make glad the heart of man." He is allowed to use it with temperance and sobriety: But so many abuse it to their own hurt, and to the injury of society, that it is rather a curse, than a blessing, to the world. Seeing the evils which resulted from the abuse—the devastation of men and morals, which it occasioned, this good man, from love to his offspring, warned them wholly to abstain from it. And what evils would many others have avoided, had they considered the counsel as given to them, and like this family, religiously regarded it? The ravages of intemperance, exceed those of the sword; and the moral evils it hath occasioned surpass description!
But why the other restrictions included in the charge? Why must the descendants of Jonadab be denied the comfort of warm and convenient dwellings, and reside in tents through every season of the year, to all generations? Why must they possess neither fields nor vineyards, which were allowed to others, and promised to Israel, as part of the blessing, when they should settle in Canaan?
Peculiarities unknown to us, might render it proper for them to submit to self denials to which others are not called. What they were we presume not to determine. [82]