Jeremiah 35:1-19

The Rechabites, Who Were Faithful to Their Convictions

35:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah: 2 Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak with them, and bring them to the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink. 3 So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah son of Habazziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites. 4 I brought them to the house of the LORD into the chamber of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold. 5 Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, "Have some wine." 6 But they answered, "We will drink no wine, for our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us, 'You shall never drink wine, neither you nor your children; 7 nor shall you ever build a house, or sow seed; nor shall you plant a vineyard, or even own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you reside.' 8 We have obeyed the charge of our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, 9 and not to build houses to live in. We have no vineyard or field or seed; 10 but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed and done all that our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. 11 But when King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon came up against the land, we said, 'Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Arameans.' That is why we are living in Jerusalem."

12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Can you not learn a lesson and obey my words? says the LORD. 14 The command has been carried out that Jonadab son of Rechab gave to his descendants to drink no wine; and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their ancestor's command. But I myself have spoken to you persistently, and you have not obeyed me. 15 I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, "Turn now everyone of you from your evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall live in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors." But you did not incline your ear or obey me. 16 The descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab have carried out the command that their ancestor gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. 17 Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem every disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.

18 But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of your ancestor Jonadab, and kept all his precepts, and done all that he commanded you, 19 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab son of Rechab shall not lack a descendant to stand before me for all time. (Jeremiah 35:1-19, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here from October 8, 2005 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 5, Year One):

Would it be fair to call the Rechabites “teetotalers”? I grew up in a “dry” state, one that continued the law prohibiting the use of alcoholic beverages longer than did the nation as a whole. My church warned its children against the evils of alcohol and tobacco. My home was about fifty miles from Medicine Lodge, where the “saloon buster,” Carrie Nation, lived. And my next-door neighbor was on the ballot for the presidential election as an “elector” for the Prohibition Party, which actually succeeded in electing candidates from time to time in the state of Kansas. So it was of interest to me to find in the Bible a group of people who followed the command of their ancestor, “You shall never drink wine, neither you nor your children; nor shall you ever build a house, or sow seed; nor shall you plant a vineyard or even own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you reside” (Jer. 35:6b-7).

Drinking, especially excessive drinking, can cause serious problems. Mary Killen speaks lightly of some of the problems, but the serious undertone is unmistakable.

Giving up alcohol can be addictive. It starts in the most innocuous way. You merely want to lose some weight, or perhaps to gain some health, and you decide to stop drinking, just for a week or so. Before you know it, you are hooked on the regular rushes of well-being brought on by abstinence. You are seduced by your improved appearance, or you crave yet another full night's sleep, uninterrupted by the nonspecific anxiety that used to wake you at four in the morning. Above all, there is the novelty of having mental clarity by day. You cannot imagine life without it.

The only trouble is that you remember all too well how irritating you used to find it during your own drinking days when some killjoy said, "Not for me, thanks—I'm on mineral water." Drinkers mind if one among them is not drinking. Like death, drink is a great leveler. Sobriety immediately introduces a hierarchy. (Mary Killen, “Beyond the Tippling Point; A teetotalers' guide to social drinking,” The Atlantic Monthly, June 2002, at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200206/killen accessed again October 11, 2007).

But the point in Jeremiah’s story about the Rechabites, who show up in Jerusalem because of the advancing Babylonian army (v. 11), is not so much the evils or dangers of drinking, but rather, the example of their obedience to their ancestor Jonadab’s command (vv. 6-10, 14), which stands in sharp contrast to the Israelite’s failure to obey the LORD’s words (v. 13) in spite of the LORD’s persistence. “I myself have spoken to you persistently, and you have not obeyed me. I have I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now everyone of you from your evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall live in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors." But you did not incline your ear or obey me’” (vv. 14b-15). Jeremiah emphasizes this contrast (v. 16) and threatens Israel with punishment for this disregard and disobedience (v. 17). On the other hand, the Rechabites are to be rewarded for their obedience. “Jonadab son of Rechab shall not lack a descendant to stand before me for all time” (v. 19).

1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3

Greater Gifts, and a More Excellent Way

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 12:27-13:3, NRSV)

On March 31, 2006 (Friday in the week of the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year Two), comments were combined from the Friday portion (March 26) of an email sent March 22 for the balance of the week of March 23, 2004 with comments from October 8, 2005 (Saturday of the week of the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Year One, using Proper 22). The combined comments are repeated again here:

Paul will emphasize the relative importance of the gift of prophecy as compared to the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. Here (12:27-13:3), the transition begins to prepare for that, but first directs our attention to the supreme importance of love, the “still more excellent way” (12:31 and chapter 13). Without love (agape), the best speaking in tongues is “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (13:1) and the best of prophetic powers is “nothing” (13:2).

Paul’s initial list of gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8-10), first stated in terms of functions, is now repeated by reference to the persons with the gifts (vv. 28-30). The fact that the two lists correspond approximately, but not exactly, suggests that they are not comprehensive and definitive. We might compare the references to “prophets” and “teachers” (vv. 28, 29) to the gifts of “utterance of wisdom” and “utterance of knowledge” (v. 8). Note especially “prophets” (vv. 28, 29) and “prophecy” (v. 10), “deeds of power” (v. 28) or “miracles” (v. 29) and “working of miracles” (v. 10), “gifts of healing” (vv. 28 and 9), speaking “in tongues” (v. 30) and “various kinds of tongues” (v. 10), and interpretation (v. 30, ‘Do all interpret’) and “the interpretation of tongues” (v. 10). Two items from the later list, “forms of assistance” and “forms of leadership” (v. 28) have no direct correlate in the earlier list, nor does “faith” (v. 9) in the later list. One might suppose that faith would be a factor in the exercise of all the gifts.

Although Paul says to “strive for the greater gifts” (v. 31), nothing from these lists is singled out as “greater.” (Later he will emphasize the value of “prophecy” for “upbuilding and encouragement and consolation,” 14:3, in a way that suggests “preaching.”) The “more excellent way” is “love” (chapter 13), which is not one of the gifts, but should characterize the exercise of all of the gifts, whether “prophetic powers” or “faith, so as to remove mountains” (13:2), or, presumably, any of the other gifts. Whether we discuss the character of God or of Christian holy living, love is fundamental.

Matthew 9:35-10:4

The Harvest Is Great, the Laborers Few (cf. Lk 10.2-3)

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." (Matthew 9:35-38, NRSV)

The Twelve Apostles (cf. Mk 3.13-19a; Lk 6.12-16)

10:1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. (Matthew 10:1-4, NRSV)

The following comments are based on comments from October 8, 2005 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 5, Year One), and further comments from Mark’s perspective as noted here: On July 20, 2007 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 13, Year One), comments were repeated from January 15, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), when comments were combined with revision and adaptation from January 17, 2005, two years ago (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), from July 15, 2005 (Friday of the week of the Sunday closest to July 13, using Proper 10), from January 15, 2006 (the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), from March 13, 2006 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), and, with reference to the naming of the Twelve, comments from October 6, 2006 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 28, Year Two), when the Gospel reading was Luke 6:12-26).

For comparison of the parallel accounts here, see the separate files, Healing Multitudes and Choosing the Twelve.

Matthew sees the story of Jesus sending out the disciples (Mt. 10:1-16; cf. Mk. 6:7-11; Lk. 9:1-5; 10:3) as the appropriate place for his list of the names of the Twelve (Mt. 10:2-4; cf. Mk. 3:13-19a; Lk. 6:12-16), again bringing related things together for his narrative. And the list serves as a beginning of a solution to the need for laborers. We believe, of course, that there is still a need for laborers, and some of us are responding to God’s call upon our lives to help meet that need.

The scene which pictures Jesus healing multitudes by the sea has crucial, but different, roles in each of the Synoptic Gospels. Earlier in Mark, Jesus toured Galilee, “proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons” (Mk. 1:39). But after the confrontation over the man with the withered hand and the conspiracy of the Pharisees with the Herodians to destroy him (Mk. 3:1-6), Jesus stays for a while in open country, “the sea” (3:7), on “the mountain (v. 13), and when going “home” (v. 19; cf. 19-34) doesn’t work so well, he returns to the sea (4:1) for teaching in parables (4:2-34). The contrast stands out in bold relief between the Pharisees and Herodians who “conspired . . . to destroy him [Jesus]” (Mk. 3:6), and “a great multitude” who “followed him.” Jesus’ fame is growing, and “a great multitude from Galilee followed him” (v. 7). As his fame spread, they came “in great numbers” from further away, “from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan and the region around Tyre and Sidon” (v. 8). It seems as if they came from “all over,” especially for healing (v. 10). The unclean spirits, in spite of their recognizing him as “the Son of God” (v. 11, cf. 1:24), were surely on the side of the conspirators, not the multitude. Was the opposition the reason for Jesus’ next move, the appointing of the Twelve (Mk. 3:13-19)? Their mission was “to proclaim the message, and . . . to cast out demons” (vv. 14-15). But their number, twelve, the number of Israel’s tribes, perhaps represented a restoration of Israel. To borrow a little late twentieth century jargon, Jesus’ appointing of the Twelve was a proactive, not reactive, move. His kingdom of God program would not be stopped by opposition from men or from demons. Students of the life of Christ have called this period the “year of popularity.” It seems that a major attraction was his fame as a healer and exorcist (vv. 10-11).

In Matthew, a brief version of this scene of Jesus healing the multitudes is placed at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry (Mt. 4:23-25) following his calling of four fishermen (vv. 18-22), and setting the stage for the Sermon on the Mount with a ready-made audience of “great crowds [who] followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (v. 25). It’s not that Matthew was unaware of the episodes of healing and encounters with opposition that are clustered at the beginning of Mark. Compare, for example, the Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-Law (Mt. 8:14-15; Mk. 1:29-31; Lk. 4:38-39), Healing the Sick at Evening (Mt. 8:16-17; Mk. 1:32-34; Lk. 4:40-41), the Cleansing of the Leper (Mt. 8:1-4; Mk. 1:40-45; Lk. 5:12-16), the Healing of the Paralytic (Mt. 9:1-8; Mk. 2:1-12; Lk. 5:17-26), and so forth. It’s just that Matthew postponed the use of much of this material until after the Sermon on the Mount, which, for him, inaugurates Jesus’ public ministry as the Teacher of Israel (Richard A. Burridge, Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading, 2^nd ed., chap. 2, “The Teacher of Israel–Matthew’s Jesus; cf. his discussion of the “four living creatures,” and their symbolism within the Christian tradition, pp. 25-28).

It’s also worth noting that, for Luke, the healing of the multitudes sets the scene for the Sermon on the Plain (or “level place,” still on the mountain, though he “came down and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples,” Lk. 6:17, cf. vv. 20-49), which is the structural parallel to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (chaps. 5-7). But this sermon does not inaugurate Jesus’ public ministry for Luke; rather, Luke begins with Jesus’ sermon at Nazareth (Lk. 4:16-30), with its emphasis on the role of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, / because he has anointed me / to bring good news to the poor” (Lk. 4:18, quoting Isa. 61:1). And we are reminded that Luke begin’s his account of the ministry of the Apostles with the giving of the Holy Spirit to them on the day of Pentecost (Acts, chap. 2).

Matthew later returns to this scene of healing the multitudes (Mt. 12:15-16) in a kind of summary after a block of healing and encounter episodes (chaps. 8-11) which includes his sending out the Twelve to “proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Mt. 10:7-8). With another of his fulfillment quotations (Mt. 12:17-21, citing Isa. 42:1-4; cf. the table in the separate file Healing Multitudes, noted above), Matthew underscores the healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry. The decision of the Pharisees “to destroy him” has just been reported (Mt. 12:14; cf. Mk. 3:6; Lk. 6:11). Opposition and conflict intensify as Matthew’s story continues from here.

Mark and Luke are together in moving from the Healing of the Multitudes to the Choosing of the Twelve (Mk. 3:13-19a; Lk. 6:12:16), but Matthew presents this earlier (in his order, later in Mark’s) as a part of the Commissioning of the Twelve (Mt. 10:1-16; cf. Mk. 6:7; 3:13-19a; 6:8-11; Lk. 91; 6:12-16; 9:2-5; 10:3; cf. Aland, Synopsis, sec. 99, pp. 90-92). Within the lists of the names of the Twelve, apart from differences in order, the significant difference here is that Luke has “Simon, who was called the Zealot” for “Simon the Cananaean in the other two Gospels, and “Judas son of James” for “Thaddaeus” in the other two Gospels. The name “Levi” does not appear in these lists, but a person named Levi, who is called (Mk. 2:14) in a manner similar to the calling of Simon, Andrew, James and John (Mk. 1:16-20), “is identified as ‘Matthew’ in Mt. 9:9,” and is called “a customs officer at Capernaum, a border village, working under an officer of Herod Antipas” (Richard A. Horsley, NOAB, 3^rd ed. on Mk. 2:14). According to Marion Lloyd Soards, “Zealots were a distinct faction of revolutionaries in the Jewish war with Rome of 66-70 CE, but whether this designation indicates that this Simon was zealous in a political fashion is debatable since it is unlikely that a Zealot party existed during Jesus’ life” (NOAB, 3^rd ed. on Lk. 6:15). It is clear, however, that persons with views similar to the Zealots were present much earlier in Israel. So, today’s reading closes with a list of the Twelve, “whom he also named apostles” (v. 13), though we know that Judas Iscariot didn’t earn that title, but others did, for example, Paul of Tarsus, Andronicus and Junia (Rom. 16:7), and Barnabas (Acts 14:1, 4).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net