Listen AND Obey! They Always Go Together!

 Click Here to LIsten to or Read the One Year Bible Daily Lessons

12 Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: 13 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Go and say to the people in Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Come and learn a lesson about how to obey me. 14 The Recabites do not drink wine to this day because their ancestor Jehonadab told them not to. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you refuse to obey me. 15 Time after time I sent you prophets, who told you, “Turn from your wicked ways, and start doing things right. Stop worshiping other gods so that you might live in peace here in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you would not listen to me or obey me. 16  Jeremiah 35:12-16

I had never heard much about the Recabites, so this passage is interesting. They came from the Kenites and through Jethro, the father in law of Moses. Here are a few notes about them. 

“The Rechabites, these Spartan characters, saw themselves as living witnesses to the pilgrim origins of Israel, shunning the settled life of farms and vineyards for the simplicities of tents and flocks.” (Kidner)

The point was not strictly the drinking or not drinking of wine; it was obedience to the teaching of their spiritual father Jonadab. Jeremiah didn’t use this to make a point about drinking wine, but about obedience. Nevertheless, God honored the Rechabites for their steadfast refusal to drink alcohol, and they were not mocked or criticized for this obedience. Guzik

The verse that hit me the most was this one. 

The descendants of Jehonadab son of Recab have obeyed their ancestor completely, but you have refused to listen to me.’

The Lord told Jeremiah in a message about the irony of the fact that the Recabites were faithful obey their spiritual father Jonadab, but the people of Judah would not listen or obey God. 

Now it is not wrong to obey others in authority, and in fact Paul commands it in the passage in Titus for today. I.e. Younger people treating their elders with respect, and those in the family should take care of their widows. Though obeying the earthly authorities is important may it never take the place of obeying God! 

Therefore, to obey your parents is something God has commanded us to do. We see the Recabites were rewarded for their obedience to their spiritual parents by God. Yet, those in Judah didn't obey their God, nor did they listen to them. 

Notice listening and obeying should always go together. If we are not even willing to listen, we will surely not obey. Even when we listen sometimes we disobey. But the greatest combination, which God blesses, is when we listen to Him AND obey.

Where is God calling you to listen and obey? Where are you hearing from God? 

This can be directly from God through the Bible, or the Holy Spirit. Or, God can speak through your other brothers and sisters in Christ. In prayer we talk to God. When we read the Word and listen to the Spirit of Christ, who lives within us, He talks to us! 

Let's be like the Recabites, who honored their spiritual father and were rewarded by God! 


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