John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 35:18-19

"And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he commanded you; therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." — Jeremiah 35:18-19 (ASV)

Here the Prophet, to affect the Jews more deeply, promises a reward to the sons of Jonadab because they obeyed their father; and he promises them a blessing from God. And it is not surprising, for this commandment, as Paul says, is the first to which a promise is attached (Ephesians 6:2). God generally promises a reward to all who keep the Law, for every command generally has the hope of reward connected with it; but this is specially added to the Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother, that you may prolong your life, etc. Therefore, it is not strange that God promised a reward to the Rechabites because they followed the command of their father, for He had promised that in the Law.

But what the Papists allege, that the obedience rendered to the Church is for the same reason pleasing to God, can, as we have said, be easily refuted. For if the Rechabites had followed the command of their father in an unlawful thing, they would have been worthy of punishment; but as this precept, as we have shown, was not inconsistent with God’s Law, God approved of their obedience.

But the laws which are made for the purpose of setting up fictitious modes of worship are altogether impious, for they introduce idolatry. God has prescribed how He would have us worship Him; therefore, whatever men introduce of themselves is wholly impious, for it adulterates the pure worship of God. And further, when necessity is imposed on consciences, it is, as we have said, a tyrannical bondage.

This was not Jonadab's objective, for what he commanded his posterity was useful and related only to things of this life; and it did not bind their consciences. For when it was necessary, they moved to Jerusalem and dwelt in houses like others; for they did not erect tents at Jerusalem but lived in hired dwellings. And yet they obeyed their father’s command, for his purpose in ordering them to dwell in tents was that they might remain unencumbered, so that they might always be ready to move. Thus we see how foolishly the Papists pervert this passage to support their tyrannical laws.

And so this truth holds: that the obedience of the Rechabites pleased God, because nature itself requires that children should obey their parents. We also know that God often rewards the shadows of virtues to show that virtues themselves are pleasing to Him. But there is no doubt that this promise, as I have said before, was intentionally given to stimulate the Jews, according to what is said in the Song of Moses: I will provoke them by a foolish nation, because they have provoked me by those who are no gods; and I will take vengeance on them, for I will bring forth nations which were not before (Deuteronomy 32:21).

So then God now, to excite and rouse the Jews, promises to bless the Rechabites because they had been obedient to their father: There shall not be cut off a man from Jonadab, that is, from the offspring of Jonadab, standing (literally) before my face; but as the conciseness of the verse renders it obscure and ambiguous, I have introduced an addition—that he may stand before my face.

And He says that they would stand before His face, not that they were to be priests or Levites, as some of the Rabbis have said, who have applied this passage to the priesthood because it is often said in Scripture both of the Levites and the priests that they stood before the face of God. Therefore, they think that the same thing is meant here when spoken of the Rechabites. But this is a strained meaning. God simply intimates that some of Jonadab’s offspring would always be living, and that through His special favor, so that their obedience might not appear to be without its just reward. This is the meaning.