Jehonadab’s Eternal Promise

By Bill Valine

Parents, do you ever wonder how your decisions and actions today will affect your children in the future? It would be wonderful if we could be assured by God up front that, in the end, the fruits of our parenting career would prove it a success.

While we find plenty of advice about child rearing in the Bible, God has not given us a step-by-step manual that guarantees success if we simply follow the instructions.

Each family is different and each child is different. In the end, each child makes his or her own decision to live for Jesus. Parenting is inherently fraught with uncertainty.

As parents we do our best to model a Christian life, to raise our children with the goal of their salvation in mind, and to pray that God’s grace and power transcends our limitations and mistakes.

When our children choose to live for Jesus, it should be because of our example, not in spite of it. And if, God forbid, they choose to ignore Jesus, it should be in spite of our example not because of it.

Jehonadab (a.k.a. Jonadab) was the son of Rechab who lived during the reigns of Joram and Jehu. He was a successful parent; however, his success was not made clear until 250 years later.

So, if you’re in that time lag between parenting teenagers and enjoying them as godly adults, take heart.

The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar were poised to invade the land of Judah. God sent Jeremiah to urge the people to turn away from their sins but they refused to repent (Jeremiah 25:1-7).

While Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem, God used the Rechabites as an illustrated sermon in Jeremiah 35:1-19. He had the prophet bring them to the Temple and offer them wine to drink.

They refused, as God knew they would, giving as their reason the command of their ancestor Jehonadab that prohibited them from drinking wine or having permanent dwelling places.

For 250 years, they had faithfully obeyed that command.

Through Jeremiah, God told the men of Judah, “Surely the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed Me” (v. 15).

God pronounced doom on Jerusalem for their disobedience. Then He had Jeremiah give the Rechabites a message. As a reward for their faithfulness, God promised that Jehonadab would never lack for a man to stand before Him.

God’s promise to the Rechabites is astounding. He said that promise would last forever. This should make us curious about their father, Jehonadab.

Jehonadab is referred to directly only once, in 2 Kings 10:15-28. Otherwise he is simply referred to as the son of Rechab. To examine Jehonadab’s life, then, the place to start is with Rechab. 

In 1 Chronicles 2:55 it states that “the families of the scribes who dwelt at Jabez were the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Suchathites. These were the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.”

The Kenites were descendants of Moses' father-in-law who attached themselves to the tribe of Judah and lived among them (Judges 1:16). These were the Midianites, who were enemies of Israel (Numbers 25:16-18).

But the Kenites who were descended from the house of Rechab chose to turn away from the paganism of Midian and be joined instead to the people of Israel. Jehonadab son of Rechab made that choice.

It is clear from 2 Kings 10:23-28 that he joined forces with Jehu to eradicate Baal worship, choosing instead to worship the God of Israel.

The Kenites of the house of Rechab were scribes. Scribes were a combination of experts in the Scriptures and accountants/secretaries.

Today we think of the Scriptures as fixed text, but to the Rechabites at Jabez, including Jehonadab, the Scriptures were still being born; they were being written before their eyes.

Elijah had recently been taken up to heaven, and Jehonadab was well aware of Elijah’s victory on Mount Carmel detailed in 1 Kings 18:20-39. He saw the fulfillment of the prophecy against the house of Ahab detailed in chapters 19-21 of 1 Kings.

Jehu knew Jehonadab was a worshiper of the God of Israel, since he invited him along to help him eliminate all the Baal worshipers, in full confidence that he would agree.

Jehonadab knew Jehu, as well, and sought him out. Jehu was the commander of the army at Ramoth Gilead. By the time he and Jehonadab met, he had been a high officer for more than 14 years – since Ahab’s time, when God declared that Jehu would be king of Israel (1 Kings 19:15-18).

Jehu knew the prophecy against Ahab in 2 Kings 9:26, as well, and knew of the Mt Carmel victory.

But apparently he was not widely known as a follower of God, since the Baal worshipers were not surprised when he declared in 2 Kings 10:18 that he would serve Baal even more than Ahab.

Some nine generations had passed between the reign of Jehu king of Israel and God’s promise to the Rechabites through Jeremiah under Jehoiakim king of Judah.

What was it that the descendents of Jehonadab saw in him that encouraged them to keep his commands through all those years?

Since Jehonadab was known as a follower of God under the reign of Ahab (whom God said was more wicked than any king before him) we may safely conclude that Jehonadab’s children saw their father was a man who lived faithfully and openly for God in difficult times.

Since Jehonadab took the initiative to go meet the man whom God had said would be His instrument to judge the house of Ahab, we may conclude that Jehoanadab’s children saw their father as a man who had studied the Scriptures, a man who was eager for the will of God to be fulfilled, and a man who acted accordingly.

His children also saw a man who lived up to his name. Smith’s Bible Dictionary tells us that the name Jehonadab means he whom God impels (to impel is to persuade someone to take action on moral or ethical grounds).

What made Jehonadab so committed to taking these actions with his family?

God’s power was all too real to Jehonadab. Elijah had just defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and he had just been taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire.

Jehonadab saw a God who transcended this world; he saw a God who was worthy of his life.

Jehonadab ordered his descendents not to drink wine. Those who were prohibited from drinking alcohol included the priests and those who had taken a Nazarite vow. Both of these were groups of people consecrated to God.

Jehonadab also prohibited his descendants from having permanent dwelling places, but instead commanded them to live as sojourners in the land. This practice encouraged them to not fix their minds on this world, but rather to fix them on God.

Like Abraham, they were to wait for “the city whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

Jehonadab gave these commands to his descendants, and they saw him therefore as a man who desired that his dedication to God be transmitted to those who would come after him.

Jehonadab performed no miracles. He spoke no prophecies. Yet God gave him a tremendous promise. Parenting is a most difficult of tasks, yet if we will live as Jehonadab did, with our hearts, our thoughts, and our deeds fixed on God, we can be sure that He will be pleased with us, as well.