I asked &He answered

In Jeremiah 35, God tells Jeremiah to gather all the Rechabites and bring them to the house of the Lord. So he does. 

In fact, he brings their whole family, setting before them pitchers of wine and offers them all a drink.

Now somehow, this story was not familiar to me immediately. And so I read on,only to find that God had something to show me.

Now these Rechabites when offered this drink, were quick to inform Jeremiah that their fathers commanded them not to drink wine and they haven't up til this day and they won't now either. Cool, right? They also told him about all the other rules their fathers gave them and their very intentional and specific obedience to those commands.

Then the Word of The Lord came to Jeremiah (verse 15-16):

"I have sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying 'turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers.' But you did not incline  your ear or listen to me. The sons of jonadab the son of Rechab have kept the command that their Father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me."

Wow! didnt see that one coming! this people group adamantly and zealously obeyed the commands given to them. I don't know about you- but if you're a rule-follower like me, then there is this same grand potential to think you're something when you're not... just because you follow all the commands of your fathers. 

Obedience is good, don't get me wrong, but the danger is that we can obey all these extra-biblical commands and totally miss the gracious commands of our God Himself.

We can quickly find ourselves humbled at the Word of The Lord and I was/am.

This morning I found myself asking The Lord what He would have me to do with a specific incidence and the strange reactions I felt brewing in my heart. And when I went to the word, He answered clearly--"obey Me."

That alone is to be my first priority.

Now we are in a different boat than those Rechabites because Jesus has come and He's definitely better than Jeremiah. He Himself has both made a way for us to obey God's commands and offered a motivation of love as we see His abundant love for us.

 3 applications that I desperately needed to be reminded of this morning from this passage:

1. There is freedom in making the command of the Lord a priority.

 It frees us from the opinions or manipulations of others. It frees us from the clouded directives of our own heart. It frees us to remain unmoved by the demands of people around us in a way that would cause us to sin. But, it makes us accountable to The Lord for our actions in a way that we must own up to! So, "listen to his voice" and then "amend your deeds"! 

It often helps when I just ask myself and the Lord "what is the one thing He wants me to obey right now?"

2.God is gracious AND just.

His character hasn't changed and we see something mind-blowing about Him.  He sent this people group prophets persistently and offered a great promise to those who would hear (but they did not.) Even in the coming judgement, their faithfulness to their father's commands counted for something!

God's scales are just AND so gracious in a beautiful balance that only our sovereign Sustainer could manage and this is worthy of our (of my) moment to moment trust in Him.

3. Jesus is so much better

And He's mine.

He is mine in my weakness, in my confusion, in my lack of vision, self control or diligence.

He is mine forever and ever

And there is NOTHING that can separate me from His love.

I am thankful for a God who hears and answers my cry, who frees me and loves me til the end!

Ps. Hope everyone had a happy and safe day celebrating our country and our freedom!