COMMITMENT AND LOYALTY
Jeremiah 35:19 Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says, “Jonadab son of Recab will never fail to have a man to serve me.”
In the past I have taught some on biblical interpretation regarding how things can be temporal, universal, for one person or for all people. In today's text we see a bit of addition to this from the standpoint that God is making a special recognition for a special blessing for a specific family and their descendants. Understanding these type of things are important in that we can not claim things just because they are in the Bible and expect God to give the to us. We can not hold God to promises that he didn’t make at least for us. But we can certainly appreciate and learn from them, and this is one of those cases today with the Recabites.
The Lord told Jeremiah to go to the Recabite family and invite them to a side room off of the temple. There God would test them in hopes of using them as an example of what he desired from all Jews - all people. The Lord would invite them to drink some wine, when the Lord knew that they normally would not. The question was, “Would they do it out of respect for Jeremiah or even fear?” The Lord got his answer when they would not drink the wine offered to them. The reason they did not drink wine or build houses was to honor the command of their forefather Jonadab the son of Recab that gave the a command not do drink wine or build houses. I don’t know if this was part of a Nazarite vow or not, but Jonadab’s descendants honored his command. Because of their commitment and loyalty to the command of Jonadab the Lord blessed them with the promise that they would never fail to have a man to serve the Lord.
As I said this was also done with the Jewish nation in mind. The Lord told Israel that he had sent servants and prophets time and again to warn them to stop their sacrificing to idols, but they would not. Then God pointed to the Recabites and made the comparison to Israel. The Recabites obeyed there forefather over a small matter and Israel would not obey the Lord over the most important of matters. With the Recabites commitment and loyalty would come eternal blessing, but for Israel punishment with death, destruction and exile. Any relationship has to be built on commitment and loyalty if it is to be successful and a blessing. It really doesn’t matter if it is one of a work environment, casual friendship, an intimate family type relationship or that with Jesus, commitment and loyalty has to be an unwavering foundation. Anything less and the relationship will never be all that it could be. Without them and there will never be trust.
God wants us to trust him, but he also wants to be able to trust us. It is easy to see why he wants us to know we can trust him, but why knowing he can trust us? Sometimes we say one thing, but we do something entirely different. We and the Lord need to know the true intentions of our heart towards the Lord. This is why God tested Abraham in Genesis 22:1-19. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, the same place where later God would sacrifice his only begotten Son Jesus Christ. There would be no one there to stop or inncourage Abraham. The test would show God and Abraham just how committed, loyal and how much Abraham loved the Lord. God had to do this because of a person's free will. No one not God or even Abraham even knew for sure what Abraham would do until he was ready to drive the knife into Isaac. If God knew he would have never responded by saying, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Now both God and Abraham knew the level of commitment that Abraham had with God. Because of this, now their relationship could take on a new level of trust that would lead to temporal and eternal blessings.
Where are you at in your commitment and loyalty to the Lord, the church, your pastor, your brothers and sisters in Christ, your wife, children, family, friends, even your country? I have met Cub’s baseball fans more loyal and committed to their baseball team than they were to even their own family let alone to Jesus who died for them on Calvary's cruel cross. While some may say that there is nothing more pitiful than a cub fan that at the end of a sad season will say, “But next year will be better.” I have only respect and appreciation for them, but I have even more for my brothers and sisters in Christ that have a loyal and committed relationship with Jesus and his church.
Have you undergone some testing by the Lord to check your loyalty and commitment to Jesus. I am sure you have. We all do many times in our lifetime, and infact sometimes several times a day. It may not always be the Lord that is testing us. It could be Satan, the powers of darkness, family, friends, co-workers or the person that we pay for our gas. It comes in many ways and sometimes at the worst of times. The thing is we must be ready and that means we must do those things that will help us to be strong in our commitment and loyalty. This is no little matter. It has implications for ourself, and everyone we influence. How committed and loyal are you to Jesus?
Prayer: Holy Spirit, please make us strong in our commitment and loyalty to Jesus, to you and to the Heavenly Father. Please make us single minded and focused on Jesus, so we will only be a blessing to him and never a curse.
