Jeremiah Chapter 35 "God's Test and Promise to the Sons of Jonadab, the Kenites." This Bible
Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org God has inserted this chapter to identify who we are to be on guard against in these end times. We are not to bother them or even hate them, but to be on guard against what they teach and stand for. It is the negative side of the key of David. Jeremiah 35:1 "The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying," Jeremiah 35:2 "Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink." It is important for us to know who the "Rechabites" are, and it is also important to know why God would have Jeremiah do this. The Rechabites are the Kenites. To identify them accurately, lets go to I Chronicles 2:55. These Rechabites are the offspring of Cain, but why would God say to bring them into His house? I Chronicles 2:55: "And the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." This is tagged on to the lineage of Judah, and are not children of Judah, but were mixed with them when they came out of captivity. "Jabez" is the name of Jerusalem in it's fallen, unclean state. These Kenites were the scribes for the tribe of Judah. So we see that Rechabites are Kenites. Lets go to te Strong's Hebrew dictionary and look up the word "Kenites". The number is # 7014, "Qayin, kah'-yin, Kajin, the name of the first child, and of an Oriental tribe:-Cain, Kenite (s)" It refers us to # 7017 which reads; "Qiyniy (I Chronicles 2:55), kee-nee, from 7014, a Kenite, or member of the Kajin tribe:- Kenite." "Kajin" is another way of saying the name of Cain. Remember from Genesis 4:16 where Cain went to get his wife? He went to the Orient, to the land of Nod on the east of Eden. "And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden." These people lived through the flood of Noah's day, because I Chronicles 2:55 took place a great deal of time after the flood. So we see that God told Jeremiah to go and get some of these offspring of Cain, these Kenites and bring them into the Temple and offer them a drink of wine. Jeremiah 35:3 "Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazinah, and his brethren, and all the sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;" What are we talking about here? Jeremiah, the son of Habazinah, and his brethren the Kenites, who is this Jeremiah? Is He a Kenite or of Judah? We know this Jeremiah is not Jeremiah the prophet from the beginning of this book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:1 "The words of Jeremiah the son of Helkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:" This is God's way of waking you up when you are reading over names, and taking what they are saying. Jeremiah the prophet's father was not Habazinah the Kenite, but Helkiah the priest of God. That was why Jeremiah had the kinsman redeemer right to buy the land in Anathoth, the land of the priests. Another misunderstanding of who the Kenites are, comes from the statement that Moses' father in law was a Kenite. How could Jethro be a Midian priest and a Kenite at the same time? It just isn't possible. It is two completely separate religions, and families. The Kenites are from Cain, while the Midianites were the offspring of Abraham through his second wife Keturah. Genesis 25:1, 2 "Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah." [1] "And she bare him Zimran, and Kokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah." [2] Jethro could not be a Kenite. The reason that Jethro's daughters were driven away from the well, was that they were in the land of the Kenites, and they were not of the Kenites. So what was Moses' father-in-law's real name, if Jethro was just a title? We find this in Numbers 10:29; "And Moses said unto Hobab, the on of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, ..." His name was Reguel, the Midianite priest. Jethro was called a Kenite because he lived in the country of the Kenites, just like the Kenites that lived in the land of Judah became known as "Jews", when they had not one drop of Israelite blood. Jeremiah 35:4 "And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:" This large tribe of Kenites were brought straight into the temple, into the inner part of its chambers. Jeremiah 35:5 "And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, "Drink ye wine." God knew beforehand what would happen, and that these Kenites would not touch the wine. Jeremiah 35:6 "But they said, "We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, `Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:" We see that the Kenites are obedient to their father. This is why God had these Kenites into His temple, even though they are the negative part of our Fathers Plan. Remember that God even put a seal on Cain, saying don't anybody kill him. This is recorded in Genesis 4:15 "And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." and the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." God had a purpose for the Kenites from the very beginning, and we see that they are becoming part of that purpose here in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 35:7 "Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land were ye be strangers.' " God is telling the Kenites that they would never take root anywhere, but they will live as strangers among others. They are the hidden ones, even today as their identity is covered over under the name of Judah. They call them Jews. Their own ways have made them unpopular amongst strangers, so they keep to themselves. God's curse against Cain is given in Genesis 4:12; "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." This has nothing to do with our brother Judah, but only with the Kenites. To this day you still will not find a farmer of that tribe. They may own land, but others will work the soil. God brings this point out in this thirty fifth chapter whereby we have absolute proof that the Kenite survived the flood. We know as we follow the genealogy it is completely different from Adam's Genealogy, given in Genesis 5. We see in Adam's genealogy that Cain is missing. Cain is missing because Cain was not Adam's son. Cain was the offspring from the sexual union between Satan, in the role of deceiver [the serpent], having wholly seduced Eve in the garden of Eden. From that sexual union came Cain. This is important in the understanding of prophecies as they come to pass. God is also going to make a covenant with the Kenites, whereby He allows them to leave this place, and it is important for us to know that covenant to be able to identify and understand then when they come in our midst. That is why Revelation 2:9, and 3:9 are important, those churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia. They knew who those were that claimed to be of our brother Judah, but were not. They were of the house of Rechab, not the house of Judah, and today most pastors simply don't know the difference. That is the key of David, the ability to tell the difference, and that Key of David is written in Deuteronomy 32:1-44. It is the victory song that the believers that overcame will sing in the Millennium age, because they were not deceived. Jeremiah 35:8 "Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters;" "Jonadab the son of Rechab" is the father of the Kenites, an offspring of Cain. Jeremiah 35:9 "Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:" God knew that the Wine would come to symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ, and he wanted them to have nothing to do with salvation and the partaking of the blood of Christ in communion. They are the ones that God set aside and told all others to leave them alone. When Cain came to God, and told God that everyone wants to kill me. God response to Cain was to "just keep moving on boy". Jeremiah 35:10 "But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us." God respects obedience, and these people were obedient to their father, Jonadab. Jeremiah 35:11 "But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians:' so we dwell at Jerusalem." Friend, this is where the key to understanding comes in. In the Greek, you call someone that dwells in Judah, "Ioudaios", #2453 in the Strong's Greek dictionary. "A person living in the land of Judaea." It doesn't matter what family they belong to, only their point of residence. Today in Israel there are citizens of other Arab tribes, as well as Palestinians that call themselves citizens of Israel. They are Israelites, they are Muslim, Arabic or what ever. When the Kenites ran to Jerusalem for safety from the Babylonians, they became Ioudaios, or Jews, and when Nebuchadnezzar took the city captive, they also were taken right along with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as part of the tribe of Levite. In time after the Kenites came, they were accepted as being of Judah. This idea is very common in America today, for Mexicans that flow over the border after a time consider themselves Americas, just as the descendants of all the other nations that flowed into our nation do. This thing that happen in Jerusalem when the Kenites came, has been a terrible thorn in the side of our brother Judah. It is for this reason that Jesus would say; "... I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." Revelation 2:9 The Kenites are the tares of the parable of the tares in Matthew 13:24:32, and Christ told His disciples to leave them alone. The time of Judgment for them is by the angels of God at the time of the harvest, which is at the end of this earth age. However, it is important for us to have the knowledge about them in our generation. Jeremiah 35:12 "Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah saying," Jeremiah 35:13 "Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; `Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, `Will ye not recieve instruction to hearken to My words: saith the LORD." God is real jealous here, because these Kenites had followed the exact letter of their law, given by Jonadab their father, to the last person. However when God sent Jeremiah to warn Zedekiah and the others of the trouble coming, they all turn their backs on Jeremiah. Jeremiah 35:14 "The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto Me." God is telling His children that when He speaks to them, they won't listen to a thing that He says. This is the same as it is today in our nation, whereby most of the people are biblically illiterate, and can't even understand the most simple conversation about the Word of God. God created your very soul, and placed your soul within the embryo of your physical body to grow and worship Him. And then when you treat God like He doesn't even exist is the height of arrogance toward our heavenly Father. Satan's own children know their father Jonadab's word, and obey him to the letter, and we see Christians that claim the name of Jesus Christ, and yet refuse to open His Word and read that letter to them. Jeremiah 35:15 "I have sent also unto you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, `Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers:' but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto Me." God's children still will not listen to the words that He gave His prophets, from Jeremiah to Moses. Jeremiah 35:16 "Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this People hath not hearkened unto Me:" Are you starting to see why God sent for the Kenites to come to the Temple? God wanted to show His own children that Satan's children obey him, to the letter. God is hurt by this, and we see that most of our Father's children don't even tell Him that they love Him, nor do they care what He has to say. In fact they relate talking to God as some form of pagan ritual, and not the close relationship that God desires to have with us. Our heavenly Father is our nearest of kin, yet on the whole our people treat him like He doesn't exist. Jeremiah 35:17 "Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not answered." God is now placing a sentence on the people of the house of Israel. Over and over we see that God has sent Prophets to both the House of Israel and the house of Judah, and yet they act like God does not exist. How many times has God spoken to you, and you have treated God the same way? Many times God talks to you, and even protects you for danger in your life, and yet you are not aware of it. God is saying that because of their indifference to His words, and turning their backs on the laws and commandments that He has given to them, every last threat that God has ever pronounced on them will come to pass. God has every right to allow His children that have desired to be ignorant, to go right on being ignorant. The whole contest is over whether you desire to love our Heavenly Father, or go chasing after the prince of the power of the air, who is Satan, the father of the Kenites. The only life that theirs is, is the life that we receive through the blood of Christ, eternal life. When you turn your back on Him, it becomes spiritual destruction. God created man for His pleasure, and the only way you can give Him that pleasure is to tell Him that you love Him. It doesn't take much to please our Father, and we will fall short. That is why God built in the emergency clause for when we do fall short, and that clause is the blood of Christ for when we do repent, God considers that debt for that sin, paid in full. Jeremiah 35:18 "And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, "Thus saith the Lord 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 hath commanded you:" God is making this pledge through Jeremiah to the Kenites. Jeremiah 35:19 "Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." This is an expression in a promise from God that the Kenites will always have a leader that will hold them together as a people. Though this is the negative part of God's plan, it is also positive. God blessed the Kenites for their faithfulness in obedience to their father Satan, through Jonadab. He blessed them to the point that they are the most successful people on the face of the earth, even today. However, when we stay in His Word, and become Biblically literate He will also bless you. God will bless anyone that is faithful and obedient to their Father. Our Father is our Heavenly Father. Friend, it is not the matter of just how deep you are in the scriptures, but how obedient you are to that part of the Word that you do know. God did not make His Word hard for us, but he expects us to love Him and show that love in our obedience to the instructions he has given us.
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