May 9

May 9, 2008

REMEMBER THE RECABITES!

Jeremiah 34-35

Esther Ruth and I will be leaving Sunday night for 3 months of home leave in the U.S. We do this every two years. It gives us a chance to re-connect with family and friends. It also gives us a chance to visit and report on the ministry here in Abu Dhabi to the churches and individuals in the U.S. who pray for and support our ministry here.

The uncomfortable reality, though, is that this means saying good-bye to all of you who will be leaving over the next few months and do not plan to return. It is one of the distressing facets of life in an international church. We are always saying good-bye to people we have come to love and care about.

I would like to ask all of you who are going to be leaving during the next 3 months and do not expect to return to please stand up.

In this last message I will ever have the chance to preach to you, I want to offer you something to take away. I want to offer you a motto to take with you as you leave Abu Dhabi and ECC and go, either back home or off to college or to another assignment. Are you ready? Here it is. “Remember the Recabites!” Isn’t that a great motto? Let me say it again. “Remember the Recabites!” Say it with me. “Remember the Recabites!” Does it challenge your heart?

Well, maybe if it doesn’t now, it will by the end of the sermon.

Open your Bibles to Jeremiah 34-35.

The basic issue I want to consider in the message today is that of obedience. As you go out from ECC and from this place, what kind of obedience will you offer to God in the next phase of your life? Maybe you are graduating from high school and going off to university. Maybe you are ending your contract here, and returning home. Maybe you are taking a job in another country. What kind of obedience will you offer to God there?

The prophet Jeremiah ministered to the nation of Judah during some the darkest days in its history. He prophesied and then lived through the terrible days of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC.

It was his task, given to him by God, to announce the terrible events that would take place, and to relate the disaster to the people’s disobedience to God. “Here’s is what is going to happen,” he would pronounce, “And this is why it is going to happen. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed because of your sins and the sins of your forefathers.”

In chapter Jeremiah 34 and 35 we can pick out 3 classic responses to God as well as a description of the consequences of those choices.

The first response is Complete Disobedience.

This option is describe in Jeremiah 35:15: Again and again I sent all my servants the prophets to you. They said, “Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions; do not follow other gods to serve them Then you will live in the land I have given to you and your fathers.” But you have not paid attention or listened to me.

This is one option you have as you leave ECC and Abu Dhabi. You can live your own life. Do your own thing. Leave God out. Maybe you are a young person, launching out on your next great adventure. A new school, a new country, away from home and the people who know you. It is a chance to make new friends. To carve out a new identity for yourself. Try some new experiences. Forget about God for a while. After all, you’re only young once. Life is for living.

This option is not only there for young people. It is there for all of us, no matter what our age. It’s there if we’re moving permanently or only going away for the summer. Just ignore God. Leave him out. Chart your own course.

Before you make that choice, however, you might want to consider the consequences.

This is Jeremiah’s warning to the people of Judah in Jeremiah 35:17: Therefore, this is what the Lord God Almighty the God of Israel says: “Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.”

The consequences of disobedience may not be immediate, or in the short term. But don’t be fooled. In the long term, disobedience brings disaster and regret. It is one of the laws of the spiritual universe. We will reap what we sow. During your time here at ECC, you have heard God’s Word proclaimed. You have heard the Gospel preached. You have heard the words of God’s prophets and the Son of God himself calling to you from the Scripture. Will you obey or disobey what you have heard?

We have considered the response of complete disobedience. There is another response portrayed in these chapters. We might call it Crisis Obedience

I am calling it that because this is the kind of response we sometimes make to God in a crisis.

One example of crisis obedience is what is sometimes called “foxhole religion”. The expression comes from the experience of a soldier in battle who is hiding in a bunker or foxhole, with enemy bullets flying all around him, and he prays: “God if you get me out of here, I’ll obey you and do whatever you want.” But then when the battle is over, and he emerges unscathed, and life returns to normal, he forgets his promise and goes back to his old way of life.

Sometimes our relationship with God can resemble that soldier. When life is difficult and we face problems we can’t cope with, we come running to God. And in our crisis we make him all kinds of promises. But then when the problem recedes and life goes back to normal, we forget and go back to our self-sufficient and independent life style. I bring that up, because in Abu Dhabi, you may have had a “foxhole” experience. Life may have been hard for you here. You were lonely, job conditions were tough, life was full of trials. It may be that in your difficulties you turned to God for the first time, or you trusted him in new ways. That is a good thing. It happens to a lot of people. But the real test of your obedience lies ahead, when you go home or on to the next place, and the difficulties recede and life goes back to normal. What will happen to your obedience and walk with God then?

There is a classic example of Crisis Obedience in Jeremiah 34:8-10. (Read)

This took place in the times of Zedekiah. Zedekiah was the very last king to sit on the throne in Jerusalem before the city was destroyed. What is described in these verses is a kind of mini-revival and renewal of the covenant with God which occurred under his rule. We are not sure what precipitated it. Maybe it was in response to danger or a threatened or actual invasion. Or it may be an example of a different kind of crisis obedience, and that is the response to the enthusiasm of the moment. The people became swept up in a wave of popular revival. Revivals are wonderful things, but sometimes there are false revivals. Some revivals have more to do with peer pressure and the emotion of the moment than they have to do with God.

The identifying feature of this kind of crisis obedience is that it is temporary. (Read Jeremiah 34:11 and 15-16).

The passage goes on to spell out the consequences of this kind of temporary, crisis obedience. (Read 34:17) Again the message is clear. Disobedience brings disaster and regret.

So it is with some relief that we turn to chapter 35 and see an example of Constant Obedience. It is here that we are introduced to the Recabites.

(Read Jeremiah 35:1-15)

In this passage, God deliberately instructs Jeremiah to use the Recabites as a living object lesson of the kind of obedience he was looking for.

Recab was descended from the Kenites, the tribe of Moses’ father-in-law. This pastoral tribe had been absorbed into Israel during the Exodus and the entry into Canaan. The outstanding member of the family was Jonadab, Recab’s son, who was allied with King Jehu, an earlier king of Israel, in a struggle to wipe out idol worship in Israel.

At that time he called his family to an oath of extra fidelity to God. The outward symbols of this fidelity were 3-fold.

- They were not to drink any wine

- They were not to engage in settled agriculture

- They were to establish no permanent homes, but to pursue a nomadic lifestyle, living in tents.

Now I want to be quick to point out here that these were not standards that God set up or that he required from all the Israelites. The details of this family covenant are not the point here. Rather what God is holding them up for is their outstanding loyalty to their family covenant and their obedience across the generations to their ancestor’s instructions. This is set in stark contrast to the Jews infidelity to their covenant with God and their response to God’s instructions.

Over 250 years have passed since the day of Jonadab. Yet when Jeremiah invites the Recabites to a special hall in the temple, and offers them wine to drink, to a man they refuse it. Why? “Because our ancestor Jonadab told us not to drink wine.”

“That’s what I’m looking for!” God says. “That’s the kind of loyalty and obedience that I want from my people. And they obeyed over all those years with no divinely sent reminders. I, on the other hand, have sent you my prophets generation after generation to remind you of my covenant. And yet you persist in your disobedience.”

The Recabites constant obedience was marked by 3 remarkable qualities.

1. It was an obedience that was constant despite the passing of time.

As I mentioned, over 250 years had passed. Yet there was no deviation from their obedience and their loyalty. Generation after generation, father to son and mother to daughter the message was passed on. “This is our calling. This is our commitment as a family. These are the standards we live by.”

How will our obedience match up to that standard? So often, what we commit to today, we have forgotten by tomorrow. Will commitments we made while living in Abu Dhabi be kept when we return home, or when we go on to our next assignment? Let us ask God to give us the kind of commitment that will withstand the test of time. The kind of commitment we can pass on to our children and our children’s children.

2. It was an obedience that was constant despite extreme demands.

A nomadic life style may have its attractions, but it is not an easy life. It is a life of constant labor and uncertainty and often extreme hardship. This was no easy load that Jonadab laid on his descendants. Yet they carried it faithfully.

The life that Christ calls his followers to live is not an easy life. Repeatedly we are warned that we will suffer hardships on the path of obedience. And what we are called to do is often extremely unnatural. “Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies. Forgive those who sin against you. Be humble. Take the role of a servant. Abstain from sexual immorality.” I can go on and on. Some extreme demands. Will our obedience remain constant in spite of those demands?

3. It was an obedience that was constant despite the pressures of society.

Have you noticed how it is easier to do what everyone else is doing? Have you noticed how difficult it is to stand alone, to be the only one pursuing a particular path? There was a time in Israel’s history when all the people lived in tents. But during the time of Jonadab and onwards, the people of Israel were increasingly leading a settled life in towns and on farms.

The Recabites stood out. They were different. I’m sure there was plenty of peer pressure to settle down and build houses and plant crops and choose an easier life. Yet for hundreds of years they resisted in order to honor the instructions of their ancestor.

As Christians, society will always be pressuring us to conform to its standards; to be like everyone else. This pressure to conform seems to peak in the teen years, but it doesn’t go away in our adult years. “Everyone is doing it,” is a pull that is always difficult to resist. Yet God calls his children to a higher standard. Will we offer him constant obedience, in spite of the pressure of society around us?

Take a quick look at the consequence of that kind of obedience. (Read 35:18-19) God blesses the life of consistent obedience.

I don’t know about you, but that is what I want on my life. That is what we want on our church here at ECC. And that is what I desire for all of you who will be leaving; the blessing of God. Don’t you? It is a blessing which comes as a result of consistent obedience.

When I was growing up at Kijabe, a large mission station in Kenya, we used to go to the large church there on the station. There was an old Kikuyu couple who were always there. They were there early, greeting people as they arrived. They were there when we left, still smiling, visiting, making everyone feel welcome. They must have been in their 80’s. They were both short, neither of them were over 5 feet tall. But what a story they had to tell.

Pastor Yohana ‘s parents were among the very first to come to Christ when the first missionaries arrived at Kijabe. Pastor Yohana and his wife were the very first couple to be married in the church in a Christian ceremony. He went to Bible School, and later became the pastor of the church. He was pastor during the turbulent years of the Mau Mau rebellion. Kijabe was near the center of the unrest. The Mau Mau movement was a rebellion against colonial rule. But as it spread, the movement identified all Christians as being traitors for following the white man’s religion and therefore being pro-colonial. Tremendous pressure was brought on Christians to renounce their Christian faith and take oaths that bound them back to the false superstitions and evil practices of the old ways. Pastor Yohana never wavered in his commitment to Christ. His name appeared on the top of the Mau Mau list of enemies they wanted to eliminate. Still he got up in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday to proclaim the Gospel of the freedom that could be found only in Christ. God protected him. He lived to see and celebrate when Kenya become an independent nation. He rejoiced to see that day, but he still never failed to proclaim that his one true loyalty was to the Kingdom of God. And now, when I knew him, he was retired; an old man wearing a suit that was a little too large for him. He was too old to preach, but he never missed church. He and his wife were always there, always smiling, always gracious, always taking time to greet even us as children and young teens, and make us welcome. When he died the whole community turned out to honor him.

Pastor Johana was a Recabite. The church of Jesus Christ today needs more Recabites. So here it is. A final gift from ECC to those of you who are leaving; a rallying call for you as you leave Abu Dhabi. Wherever you go, wherever life’s path takes you; when you’re under pressure and tempted to give up the struggle and take the easy way out. When you are tempted to abandon your commitment, compromise and turn away from the true path, may your mind come back to this message and this ringing motto. Will you say it with me? Remember the Recabites!