the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Jeremiah 35:19—Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before Me for ever.
The point here is the contrast between the strict obedience of the Rechabites to the directions of their ancestors, and the disobedience of Israel to Jehovah. How often is this contrast repeated still! We find men so eager and devoted to the customs and traditions of their families, and so regardless of the yet higher claims of God. It is very wonderful! We should have thought that the temper of mind which bound men to their family traditions would have secured their allegiance to the Almighty. But it is not so, as daily experience proves.
Let us also notice the obvious inference from this chapter. If, because of their obedience to the regulations of Jonadab, the Rechabites should never want a man to stand before God, how much more will obedience to the promptings of God’s Spirit secure, through his mercy, a perpetual standing before his face; not only of ourselves, but of our children. Christian parents, you have a perfect right to go to God with this fair deduction from his own words, and say: Give us grace to obey thy commandments, and keep all thy precepts; and do according to all that Thou commandest; and then grant to us to stand before Thee for evermore in thy presence-chamber; and not us only, but our children and children’s children. Let them be a godly seed on earth, ever maintaining sweet recollections of our character and life; and let us be a united family in the presence of thy glory with exceeding joy. How blessed that man is who, like Elijah, stands before God!
"Jesus protects: my fears, be gone!
What can the Rock of Ages move?
Safe in thy arms I lay me down,
Thy everlasting arms of love."
