“Thus saith the Lord, ‘Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ But they said. ‘We will not walk therein.’”
The text comes in the middle of a denunciation of Judah and is a direct quote from the Lord. Judah refused to walk in the “old paths,” as mentioned in the text. They are called upon to "take the old paths." There are some lessons in this text for us. We notice, first, that the Lord calls out to His people. “Thus said the Lord” means “listen.” This obviously doesn’t mean that His people will listen. Well, they might hear, but they do not always heed. The Lord is constantly calling to us. The question is are we listening? Are we listening with our hearts? This is where God really speaks to us through His Spirit. Are we listening through the circumstances of our lives? God speaks to us through circumstances, we just need to pay attention. If you are a Christian there is never a day that the Lord is not speaking to you in one way or another. Some of the greatest experiences of my life have arisen out of the Lord’s speaking to me in unusual circumstances. We notice, second, that the Lord challenges His people. He challenges us as to what we should do. He said, “Stand in the crossroads and look.” (NIV) He challenges us as to what we should do: “stand…” He wants us to take our stand for Him. He wants us to stand for something. You know the old saying, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” If you know anything about the history of Israel, you know that they fell for a lot of things. It wasn’t that they weren’t warned. They just did not listen to the Lord’s words through His prophets as they warned them time after time and for many years. He challenges us as to where to stand: “at the crossroads.” The crossroads are places of decision. When you come to a crossroad, you have to make a decision as to which road to take. Judah took the wrong road at the crossroads and ended up in captivity in Babylon. We are called upon to make all kinds of decisions. In fact, the decisions that we make at the “crossroads” decides the quality of our commitment to the Lord. He challenges us why to stand: “and see…” This means that we should open our eyes as to what is going on and rededicate our lives to live for Jesus in these trying times. We notice, third, that the Lord counsels His people: “…and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.” Just because a way is old does not mean that it is good, nor does it mean that it is the right way. However, in this case, the “old way” was the good way and the right way. The “old paths” were not always perfect, but they were better days that those days preceding the Babylonian Captivity. In Judah, and Israel’s, history, there were such people as Abraham and Moses. They were not perfect men, but they obeyed the Lord. The old paths are the paths of obedience. They are the paths of righteousness and commitment to the Lord. The Lord counsels us to look into our histories, find the good things and follow them instead of just going along with the crowd. It would do us good to find the biblical paths and follow them. There are men in the Bible, like Paul, who can show us how to walk in God’s paths in spite of what the world says about our faith. We need to be sure that we are taking the way that will lead us to good and not to bad. We notice, fourth, that the Lord comforts His people: “rest…” Taking the right paths in life will lead us to the Lord’s rest. The Lord’s rest is the rest of the heart, mind and soul. It does not mean that God makes us lazy, but that He gives us peace of heart and mind. Remember that Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Listening to the Lord’s voice, accepting His challenges and listening to His counsel leads to rest and peace that we seek in this life. If you haven’t tried it – give it a try. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|