The Rechabites Are Held Up As An Example Of Obedience To Their Father (Jeremiah 35:1-19).
Commencing with the words, ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH in the days of Jehoiakim,' the passage demonstrates that YHWH was using the example of the Rechabites as an illustration of the obedience which was the very opposite of Judah's disobedience, a disobedience which would result in judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem. The fact that the Rechabites had continually from generation to generation, for over two hundred and fifty years, faithfully followed the requirements of their father concerning their way of life, is contrasted with the way in which God's supposed people had treated their Father and His requirements for their way of life (see Jeremiah 31:9; Jeremiah 31:20). As in the last passage the idea is once again to bring out their overall disobedience.
The Rechabites were related to the Kenites (1 Chronicles 2:55), a wilderness tribe who had joined up with Israel while they were making their journey from Egypt to Canaan (Judges 1:16; Judges 4:11; Numbers 10:29-32), and in obedience to their tribal father's requirements they had refused to settle in cities, but had lived in tents and had abstained from all forms of wine and strong liqueur. Nor had they engaged in settled agriculture. Their aim had been to maintain their wilderness traditions and not to become contaminated by ‘civilisation' and idolatry. Indeed the only reason that they were in Jerusalem at all was because they were seeking refuge there from the invading Babylonians and Aramaeans (Syrians).
As the invasion described here was in the days of Jehoiakim, it could not have been the one occurring during the final days of Judah. It was thus referring to a previous invasion by Nebuchadnezzar when he had specifically called on Aramaean forces. It could have been the invasion of 606/605 BC after Nebuchadnezzar had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hamath, but more likely it is the one later in the days of Jehoiakim when Jehoiakim had withheld tribute (2 Kings 24:1-2).
The ancestor of the Rechabites, Jonadab, had in the past demonstrated their fierce loyalty to YHWH when he had supported Jehu in destroying all the worshippers of Baal (2 Kings 10:15-27).
As previously in Chapter s 21-24 events which took place in the reign of Jehoiakim and other kings are here sandwiched between two passages referring to the reign of Zedekiah, the aim being to bring out that the final invasion was the result of, a long period of disobedience which preceded it. Here it brings out that their disobedience, previously reflected, was of a long standing nature.