The Old Paths

by John Comer

Jeremiah the prophet had his work cut out for him. God had already allowed Assyria to conquer the unfaithful Jewish people in the northern kingdom of Israel. Their leading citizens were taken away as captives.

And now the southern kingdom, Judah, was deep in sin. Allowing for some over-simplification, in two Bible verses we can get the picture. God told them, “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land,” in that the prophets speak lies, the priests act on their own authority, “and my people love it this way” (Jeremiah 5:30-31). The Lord assigned the prophet Jeremiah the challenging job of trying to turn the people around.

The prophet put it to the people like this: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it’” (Jeremiah 6:16).

This was a crossroads issue for these people. They had not retained the faith of their illustrious ancestor Abraham. They had ignored the great prophet Moses. They had trashed the virtues of their religious heritage, and tragically, did not choose to travel the “good way.” We know how the sad story works out. We know about Nebuchadnezzar’s army. Defeat. Fire. Captivity in Babylon. And even if we didn’t know these details, the fact that Jeremiah wrote a book named “Lamentations” would give us a hint as to the outcome.

The part of this narrative about finding the ancient paths holds a powerful lesson: God’s way is the only way, and we abandon our relationship with him at our own peril. Unfortunately, though, this passage has been subjected to some highly inappropriate uses.

In the long history of the church, how many refreshing, wholesome ideas have been squelched with some pious comment about seeking the old paths? Sometimes these “old” paths are nothing more than traditions which are not more than a couple of generations old themselves.

This prophet teaches us a    valuable lesson about following God’s path. But we’d be headed the wrong direction for sure if we thought he was telling us our grandpa’s generation was the   only one which knew how to read the map. Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet. Let’s not add to his lamentations by misapplying what he taught us.