Why must Jeremiah bring the Rechabites to the house of the Lord and offer them wine?

The Lord instructs Jeremiah to go to the Rechabites and bring them to the temple where he is to offer them wine to drink, which Jeremiah does. This narrative is describing a prophetic act, much like other prophetic acts in the book (Jeremiah 18:1–4;Jeremiah 19:10–13; Jeremiah 27:1–6).

There is not a great deal of information in Scripture regarding the Rechabites other than this encounter with Jeremiah. It is possible that the Rechabites were part of the Kenite clan which came from the Midianite tribe (1 Chronicles 2:55). The Midianites descended from Midian, one of the sons that Abraham had with Keturah after the death of Sarah (Genesis 25:2). Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro (also known as Reuel) is described as the priest of Midian (Exodus 2:16), and is also said to be a Kenite (Judges 1:16). The Midianites were never part of the people of Israel, but they had a long and mostly hostile relationship with the Lord’s people. The Kenites, however, seemed to have associated themselves with Israel more closely and travelled into the land with them (Judges 4:11,Judges 4:17; Judges 5:24; 1 Samuel 15:6; 1 Samuel 27:10; 1 Samuel 30:29).¹ The Rechabites were descendants of Rechab who was a Kenite. Rechab’s son, Jonadab (also known as Jehonadab) established a set of strict rules that his descendants continued to live by in Jeremiah’s day. These rules committed Rechabites to a strict nomadic life prohibiting them from ever building permanent homes and settling down. They were also prohibited from drinking wine, probably because it represented cultivating grapes and fermenting them in one place for a long period of time.² In 2 Kings 10:15–17, Jehonadab meets up with Jehu king of the northern tribes of Israel and joins him in purging Baal worshippers from Samaria. Through their links with Israel, the Rechabites therefore seem to have some knowledge of the Lord as the one true God and a firm hostility to pagan gods. The rules that Jehonadab established for his descendants were possibly aimed at protecting his people from settling down in cities where pagan worship was rampant.

Jeremiah brings the Rechabites to the house of the Lord into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold. The description of the place Jeremiah brings them to makes it clear that this incident is taking place in a very public place. It also takes place in the presence of very important officials who must have understood what Jeremiah was doing. The prophet has therefore chosen a very significant setting for this prophetic act which was meant for all the people of Jerusalem.³ He does not just invite them to drink wine, but places large bowls of wine in front of them. This was clearly a very strong test of their obedience to the regulations set down by their founding father.⁴