Quotes About Tradition

Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ëWhere is the good way?í Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ëWe will not walk in it!í

The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.

Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”

For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.

They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, ëAs surely as the LORD livesí—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among My people.

Therefore you are to tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ëEvery wineskin shall be filled with wine.í And when they reply, ëDonít we surely know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?í

Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles by the green trees and on the high hills.

You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

And people will come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, and from the foothills, the hill country, and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.

Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway.

They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal.

Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;

So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the entire house of the Rechabites—

Then I set pitchers full of wine and some cups before the men of the house of the Rechabites, and I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

“We do not drink wine,” they replied, “for our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us, ëNeither you nor your descendants are ever to drink wine.

And we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab in all he commanded us. So we have not drunk wine all our lives—neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters.

But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done exactly as our forefather Jonadab commanded us.

The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out. He commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk it to this very day because they have obeyed the command of their forefather. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you have not obeyed Me!

To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed My instruction or the statutes that I set before you and your fathers.

Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.

“Moreover,” said the women, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbandsí knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”