God told Jeremiah to invite the descendants of Rekab, the Rekabites, to drink wine. The Rekabites socially entertain Jeremiah but refuse to drink wine because their forefather Rekab made a decree that all his descendants must never drink alcohol, but they also must live as nomads in tents.
Thus, they refuse the wine, but in contrast they explain why they are in violation of the other decree of Rekab. They no longer live in tents because they moved to Jerusalem for protection after the Babylonians started invading.
God uses the Rekabites as an example for Jeremiah because they still hold on to the "no-wine" decree of their ancestor Rekab whereas Judah no longer follows what God decreed.
So, a few things:
1. God, through Jeremiah, ordered/ invited people to drink alcohol. This does not happen very often in the Bible.
2. I sure hope I'm not a descendant of Rekab. Otherwise, I have not honored my forefather's decree.
3. We get a time stamp of the events going on. The Babylonian invasion and exile seems to have to been a process and not a single event.
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