Faith of Our Fathers
Father's Day 2007, has come and gone. I had been thinking about what to write in honor of fathers. I had a pretty good start on the article, and thought I had taken the precautions to preserve it, but evidently, I had not remembered to save the work. Some time later, the electric clicked for a second and I lost it all. The very same thing happened once before this past March...but I will remember...eventually!
I had been watching Christian TV on the morning of June 17th, as I was getting ready for church. Of course, since it was Father's Day, the preachers were talking about the various Biblical examples of godly fathers. Most were the usual selection, but one pastor spoke about one father that I had not heard of before. Therefore, the following article must be partially credited to Pastor Franklin.
When the pastor mentioned a man named Jehonadab as the greatest dad in the Bible, I had to jot down the scriptures he listed so I could read the story...2 Kings 10:23-27 and Jeremiah 35. I later looked up these scriptures, and sure enough, these are the only two places Jehonadab the Rechabite, is mentioned. ( In Jeremiah, his name is spelled Jonadab, but definitely the same man).
We are first introduced to this dad in the second book of Kings. There isn't any fanfare, nor does there seem to be anything much about him, other than a very few references to the Rechabite clan in the Old Testament.
The backdrop of our meeting is at the time of Elisha the Prophet, with wars, the taking down of kings, the setting up of kingdoms, idolatry, miracles of God and the destruction of Jezebel.
During a transfer of power, the next-to-reign king is on his way to pull off a great coup, when he meets up with Jehonadab son of Rechab, and helps him into his chariot. Jehu shares his plan with his friend, and they hang out together all day as the "sting" progresses. That is all that is mentioned of Jehonadab the Rechabite, in chapter 10 of the second book of Kings.
We next read of this man's decendants, 274 years later in the book of Jeremiah chapter 35. God speaks to Jeremiah to go to the homes of the Rechabites and bring all the men of the clan to the house of the Lord into a chamber and offer them wine to drink.
He obeys the Lord and brings them into the chamber, and sets pitchers full of wine and cups before them and told them to drink. They flat refuse! They tell Jeremiah that their forefather, Jonadab (new spelling), had commanded them and all their decendants that they drink no wine forever! They said they had obeyed their father Jonadab all their lives, and neither did their wives or daughters drink wine.
They also said Jonadab had said they were never to build houses, but live in tents, because they were only temporary residents in the land. They also were forbidden to plant vineyards, or fields or even have seed. They added, "We have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab commanded us".
God then spoke to the Rechabites through Jeremiah, "Because you have obeyed the commandments of Jonadab, your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he commanded you;
Therefore Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man (descendant) to stand before Me".
What a promise! God said, there will always be a witness of and to the Lord in that family... forever.
Six generations before, a family standard had been set. It was a family heritage. It didn't matter what the other kids did, "in this family we don't DO that"! It was out of RESPECT for the family patriarch, that obedience came. They learned to hang with their own siblings rather than with sinful friends.
There was Bible study in the home...a commitment to God for all time. Their lives were different from the other families.
They lived in tents, as a testimony to the world that there was an afterlife in Heaven with God the Father.
There was prayer in the home...we are upset over no prayer in the schools, but how many have prayer in the HOME!?
Jonadab was rewarded by having his descendents stand before God and serve Him forever. Somewhere today, his family serves God!
Happy Father's Day!
Pastor Moser
June, 2007
W. O. W.
Our lives are the result of our choices.
In : 2007.06 "Faith of Our Fathers"
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