Jeremiah 35-37

I am a law abiding citizen. I set my cruise control when I travel so I don’t speed. I pay my taxes. I don’t steal from or cheat people.

I learned obedience from my father who, we’d often say, had the fastest belt in the west. Consequences for disobedience were swift and painful. I learned that obeying the rules was better for all of us. Especially for the seat of my pants.

The Rechabites were obedient children, too. Their dad had given them a standard, and not even the prophet Jeremiah could get them to disobey. So I’m reading this today and had a Gibb’s slap on the back of my head moment when I read 35:14-17. God said:

The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink wine are observed. So they do not drink wine to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not listened to Me… you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me… but this people has not listened to Me… and I have called them but they did not answer.

I have to ask myself why it is I follow the laws of this land, yet find it so easy to disobey the God of the Universe.

There’s something wrong with that picture.