security and repose in Canaan, and remaining with Israel in all their wanderings, of such importance is this man and his posterity, that, forty years afterwards, from the top of the rock, they are espied by Balaam among the tents of Jacob and tabernacles of Israel! "He looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable and said-Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock." Moses dies, but when Joshua crossed over to Jericho, they were there, and the land being once subdued, in the expressive language of Balaam, whether it referred to their past or proposed situation, assuredly now they put their nest in a rock; for "the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees, with the children of Judah, into the wilderness of Judah, in the south of Arad; and they went, and dwelt among the people." In choosing this retreat, they had not, like Lot, chosen a fruitful plain and well watered, but a wilderness; yet even here, in process of time, one inconvenience remained, which must be removed; for they must be taken care of and preserved. They were surrounded by the Amalekites, a people still infesting the tribe of Judah, and who, for their murderous conduct and intentions to Israel in the wilderness, had been appointed to utter destruction. Here, in short, their situation seemed analogous to that of Lot in Sodom. But God knoweth with Abraham, the Almighty smiled, and discovered to posterity how much that mother gained who came to put her trust under the shadow of his wings. The wife of Joseph was an Egyptian, and of Moses a Kenite or Midianite: the grandmother of David was a Moabitess, and other instances might perhaps be found, * Judges i. 16. well how to extricate: so he interposed on their behalf, and that even through the instrumentality of Saul. This deliverance, by such a man, was more evidently an interposition of Divine Providence in their favour, inasmuch as we seldom or ever read of his paying any regard to what had been recorded for the guidance of posterity. On this occasion, however, he did. The lands or mountain-ground, including several cities, on which this people resided, had been awarded to them "as a gratuity for having abandoned their native country and joined the Israelites, sharing the hazard of the war and the troubles they encountered in the desert:"* and their singular escape was ascribed by Saul himself to their having "shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites."+ Such a movement might have accounted for this people being found again at a considerable distance, were we not informed that, so early as the time of the Judges, the northern parts of Canaan being cleared of all oppression from the Moabites, by the conquest and death of their king, who had established his capital at the Kenites' old abode, Jericho, the city of palm-trees-and the land having rest for eighty years-one of "the children of the Father-in-law of Moses," named Heber, "had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh"-that is Kedesh-naphtali, one of the Cities of Refuge, north of *Josephus, lib. v. cap. 2. Judges iv. 6. +1 Samuel xv. 6. the Sea of Galilee, in the tribe of Naphtali.* But wherever they went, to the enemies of Israel this people were ever enemies, and ready to assist in delivering them from their oppressors. Even a female branch of this, the second family to which I alluded, Jael, the wife of Heber, just mentioned, was therefore by Deborah the prophetess pronounced to be "blessed above women," and especially among her own people, or "women in the tent," because she had been the death of Sisera, the general of the enemy's army. The last household to which I have referred now comes into view, and is, if possible, more conspicuous than the first. If the first resembled Abraham, in leaving their father's house, and travelling into Canaan, the second more closely resembled that patriarch's self-denied residence in the land of promise. To them it never could wear such an aspect as it did to him, and yet we shall see with what high-toned self-denial they dwelt in it. The children of Israel, it is well known, were so sadly and frequently given to idolatry, that nothing cured them till they were carried away into Babylon. But here since the kingdom of Christ was not yet set up, which in its purity, when properly administered, is invulnerable-here was one family found strong enough to resist what I believe nothing else, save the invincible power of the family constitution, could have resisted. The name of the Father or Head had been Hemath,† that of his Son or descendant, Rechab, and that of his Son, Jonadab,‡ now become the Father. +1 Chron. ii. 55. * Judges iv. 11., and Josh. xx. 7. Though not by natural descent a child of promise, yet jealous for the honour of the only true God, and foreseeing that the degeneracy, now rapidly increasing, would grow into more ungodliness, Jonadab takes his measures accordingly, and lays his commands upon his children. His advice to them he leaves with all the authority of a law. Abraham, it will be remembered, though the land was promised to his posterity, carefully abstained from laying any claim to it; and, purchasing nothing more than a grave there, he sojourned as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. And now, that the whole land is given to his posterity for a possession, here was one man who, though he had no such promise to animate his hopes or those of his posterity, seemed as though he had caught the mantle of the patriarch; at least, like him, revering the purpose of the God of Abraham, he "commanded his children, and his household after him," in a most peculiar strain. Setting the example himself, and succeeding with his family, they rose to such a degree of self-denied morality, even among the Israelites, in their “ land of corn and wine,” as to abstain from comforts which Abraham himself had been permitted to enjoy. What is very remarkable, these Children not only venerated their Father's authority as long as they lived, but from one generation to another, after several centuries had passed away, their descendants are held up by God himself, as rigidly adhering to their first Father's advice, and even "keeping all his commandments." Rejecting all interference with the holy land, they continued to say that they only "sojourned" in it. Tending their cattle on the plains of Naphtali, and never once sowing any seed, they built no house, they planted no vineyard, nor had any, but all their days, like Abraham, they dwelt in tents ! What a contrast to every Israelitish family, now so indulged, when, if a Father had built a new house and not dedicated it, or planted a vineyard and not yet eaten of the fruit of it, he was exempted from war, and sent home to enjoy the fruit of all his labour ! But besides all this, in obedience also to their Father's request and injunction, this family had not only no vineyard, but they had entirely abstained from even the use of wine; and driven into Jerusalem by an invading army, when requested by a prophet of God, in the chambers of the Temple, to deviate from their usual habit, they pointedly declined in the following terms:-" 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. 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, wherein ye be Strangers. Thus * * To the Mosaic economy there cannot be a greater injustice done than to represent it as having been unfriendly to the rest of the world. Peculiar in a high degree, and, in most of its observances, exclusive, it certainly was as it required to be, since it was meant to preserve Divine light and love from being entirely extinguished among men. Still, like a city set on a hill, it was intended by its Founder to be seen at a distance; or, as an elevated light, it was expected to convey information far beyond the bounds of Palestine. Foreigners from every quarter would see or hear, and draw near; and all such were to be welcomed. The friendly benevolence of the Jewish theocracy was indeed very conspicuous in the laws respecting the Stranger. Dwelling in Canaan, he found himself in |