Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 33-35.

There are two stories told in today’s passage.  The first is the account of how the wealthy of Jerusalem, at the command of King Zedekiah, agreed to free their Hebrew slaves and to not enslave any of the Hebrew people going forward, only to go back on that agreement after a short time.  They re-enslaved those they had freed as soon as the public attention went on to something else.  The other story is the story of the Rekabites.  The Rekabites had been ordered by their ancestor, Jehonadab, to never drink wine and to remain nomadic.  Jehonadab had allied with Jehu, the king of Israel who overthrew the House of Ahab, in eliminating Baal worship in the Northern Kingdom.  The Rekabites remained faithful to their ancestors command for generations, but the elites of Jerusalem were not able to remain faithful to their own oath to God for more than a short time.  The context implies that in addition to being faithful to the commands of Jehonadab, the Rekabites were faithful to God.  So, whose example will we follow?  That of the Rekabites, or the wealthy rulers of Jerusalem?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.