The Lesson of the Rechabites
At this time, wickedness was rife in Jerusalem, and Jehoiakim showed no disposition to check it. “He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.” And when the Lord sent him a message direct by the hand of Jeremiah, when Jehudi had read to him “three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.” Jer. 36 : 23. Then the Lord said to him, “He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.” It was to this man, and to a people who were scarcely better than he, to whom the Lord sent the lesson that forms the subject of our lesson to-day. When Nebuchadnezzar had come over the Euphrates against Pharaoh-Necho, the Rechabites had bundled up their tents and equipage, and had gone into Jerusalem for fear of the Chaldean army. The Lord told Jeremiah to go to the house of the Rechabites, and bring them into the house of the Lord, and set wine before them to drink. Jeremiah did so.