Play the Long Game

Righteousness defines not just your personal life and witness but also affects your children's children and beyond. Case in point: The Rechabites in Jeremiah 35. This noble family stood apart from their godless contemporaries in Israel and walked closely with the Lord as the nation drew further apart from Him. 

In Jeremiah 35, the Lord asks His prophet to make a spectacle of their devotion as an illustration to the nation.

Jeremiah 35:1–3 (ESV) The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: 2 “Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink.” 3 So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites.

This seems like a weird challenge from God to the family serving Him, but a larger point must be made. The nation needed to know some were not in lockstep with the godless nature of their nation. 

Jeremiah brings them into God's house and offers them wine to drink. 

Jeremiah 35:5 (ESV) Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.” 

Jeremiah 35:6–10 (ESV) But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. 7 You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ 8 We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, 9 and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, 10 but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

The Rechabites decided that as their nation deteriorated, they would not settle in it. They would be nomads living in tents. Why? Because they needed to identify that this was not their home. God would bring judgment, and the final days lie ahead. There was no point in settling into what was passing away. 

I wonder how many Christians must learn to do the same. We need to identify that our culture is bound for judgment; the end is coming, and Jesus will judge the nations, the living, and the dead. What gain do we have in eternity if we make this world our home? What part of this life can we take with us? Only those who belong to the family of God. The greatest asset that we can bring from here to heaven is people. Therefore, investing in those beyond us and teaching them to obey the Lord Jesus, as Rechab taught his children, is our only everlasting investment in this life. 

In the end of the chapter, the Lord questions why the people have not listened to Him as Rechab's descendants listened to their father. In the final tally, the Rechabites would outlive all others in leaving a legacy we are still talking and writing about 2600 years later. 

Jeremiah 35:17–18 (ESV) Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.” 18 But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you,

Play the long game. Don't settle for the short wins or celebrations of this world. A legacy of righteousness passes to your children and their children and their children. But it starts with you—or it may continue with you. Either way, know this: the best way to make a name for yourself is to live for the Name of the one who made you.