The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah: 2Go
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. 3So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah son of
Habazziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the
Rechabites. 4I brought them to the house of the Lord
into the chamber of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which
was near the chamber of the officials, above the chamber of Maaseiah son of
Shallum, keeper of the threshold. 5Then I set before the Rechabites
pitchers full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Have some wine.” 6But
they answered, “We will drink no wine, for our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab
commanded us, ‘You shall never drink wine, neither you nor your children; 7nor
shall you ever build a house, or sow seed; nor shall you plant a vineyard, or
even own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many
days in the land where you reside.’ 8We have obeyed the charge of
our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab in all that he commanded us, to drink no
wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, 9and
not to build houses to live in. We have no vineyard or field or seed; 10but
we have lived in tents, and have obeyed and done all that our ancestor Jonadab
commanded us. 11But when King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon came up
against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the
army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Arameans.’ That is why we are living
in Jerusalem.”
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他們禁戒喝酒、蓋房、務農而只住帳棚，代表的可能是要保存游牧民族的精神。務農與定居是迦南民族的生活型態，種葡萄也代表了可以釀酒，而大量的酒也是迦南的淫亂宗教中不可或缺的產品。因此，維持游牧民族的傳統使利甲人避免了與迦南人的宗教混合與物質貪婪帶來的生活腐化。
這也讓我們想到基督徒也應該有這樣的精神，寧可貧窮而不要貪愛世界，因為我們要追求的是永遠的土地，不是短暫的土地。我們若是渴慕永遠的地土，就會像亞伯拉罕一樣或是利甲族一般，只有帳篷和祭壇，因為我們盼望永遠的家鄉！
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