Jeremiah 35:18-19
18 And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you:
19 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadabb the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.
The Rechabites are introduced into the Word of God to reprove bad men in the Church, by contrasting them with good men out of the Church.
I. The popular criticism upon the Church is true: "Better men are out of it than some men in it."
II. The contrast between apostates in the Church and good men out of it is an exception to the general fact.
III. The concessions which Christians make to cynical critics of the Church need often to be qualified by loyalty to the brotherhood.
IV. The virtues of good men, who are not Churchmen, are due largely to the salutary influence of the Church upon them.
V. While God blesses goodness and the truth wherever He finds them, He still depends for them chiefly from the Church which He has created for all time.
VI. These principles suggest that heaven is full of surprises for those who reach it.
A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book,p. 201.
References: Jeremiah 35:18; Jeremiah 35:19. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xi., p. 84.