Jeremiah 6:16, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls’.
MSG, ‘God’s Message yet again: “Go stand at the crossroads and look around. Ask for directions to the old road, The tried-and-true road. Then take it. Discover the right route for your souls But they said, ‘Nothing doing. We aren’t going that way.’
Imagine that we are standing at the intersection of four roads. We are not able to take a call, which road to go. Some people just try one road to reach their destination. Some people wait at the junction. Some people ask help. The above verse says, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it;’ We need to ask; ‘where is the ancient path?’ and ‘Where is the tried-and-true road. Then take it’. There are three things we need to do at the crossroads of our lives. Stand by the ways, see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is? And walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.
Jeremiah is saying to the people who have gone astray from God and lost their way, to repent and come back to God and take the tried-and-true road. God is keeping a watchman over them.
V17, ‘And I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’’
God wants His people to come and experience His best for them. When we are at this intersection, where we do not know the right path, when we do not know the right choices, or when we do not know if the choices we make, bring approval from God – God encourages us to come to Him and ask for this ancient, tried-and-true road.
When it comes to the food, we want to try new flavors; we want to go see new places but when we go through different circumstances in our lives, suddenly we get confused which way to go. Holy Spirit is encouraging us to try the usual ancient path, which is already tried road. See and ask for the ancient path. We need to have a clarity where we are going. When we are going through difficult situations, how is our intention? It needs to be clear and right. It will give us rest for our souls.
Philippians 1:6, ‘For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.’
We know that Apostle Paul was given a farewell by the Ephesus Church,
Acts 20:36, ‘When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, 38 grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying him to the ship’.
Before Apostle Paul departs from Ephesus, he says how he served the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials and says his conscience is clear. Paul was an example of how he depended on the Holy Spirit.
V22, ‘And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.’
Apostle Paul, as we know was a wise man, planning ahead in persecuting Christians, before he met with Jesus. Now, he has no plan, do not know what lies ahead but he was bound by the Holy Spirit and is planning to go to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen there. He is confidently depending upon the Holy Spirit. He was saying to them to be on the alert, to work hard and to remember what the Lord Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Few years later, Apostle John says in Revelation,
Revelation 2:1-7, ‘“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: 2 ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. 6 Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’’
Holy Spirit is giving us warnings to take heed of; through many mediums, Ephesus Church also had a warning, to take heed of certain things; When the Apostle Paul was with them, they had so much respect and love for Paul. When he was leaving them, he was sure this would be the last time, they were grieving and gave a tearful farewell to him. This same Church fall short of losing their first love. They did not take the ancient path, here it is the ‘first love’. We need to be set apart for our Lord. Christ was our everything, in the beginning, knowing we were the worst sinners, we were humble, in good times and in bad times, we would kneel down and worship Him, what is our attitude today? Let us examine ourselves and come back to our God and repent. When we face many crossroads in our daily lives, are we seeing and asking for the ancient path? With our own ability and understanding, let us not follow new paths; when we come to the intersection of roads. This is not the way our God wants us to take. Holy Spirit is our watchman, to watch over us, counsel us, warning us through different medium by saying, ‘listen to the sound of trumpet’, ‘this is the way you should go – the old and ancient path, this is the good way, walk in it and you will find rest for your souls’.
Like Samuel said, our ears and eyes need to be open, to be able to see this tried-and-true road. This narrow road might not look good to us, it is not easy to die to our ‘self’, but we need to fall on the ground and die to bear much fruit. This death of ‘self’ needs to happen at each crossroads of our lives. Let us have clear conscience and keep our intentions right and die to our ‘self’, when we come to God – This is the narrow way, we need to walk. See and ask for the ancient path.
We can see a good example that Apostle Paul is giving on Timothy,
2 Timothy 1:3, ‘I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.’
We can see Apostle Paul’s confidence on Timothy. Timothy was committed to Christ and was serving Paul in his ministry. Paul has a good testimony on Timothy. Paul gave so many advices to Timothy, just as he gave to the Ephesus Church.
Philippians 2:19, ‘But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition 20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.’
Timothy took heed of all the advices that Apostle Paul had given him and to all that he received from Christ and took the ancient path, whenever he faced a crossroad in his life. Let us not forget the value of our redemption, our baptism, the Holy Spirit. Let us love Him with all our hearts. Do not neglect the Holy Spirit, who is the watchman over our souls. Let us repent and take heed to God.
Hebrews 3:12, ‘Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.’
Let us not depend on our own strength, having unbelief in our hearts but let us follow the ancient path. There is hope, for us, if we understand and acknowledge our shortcomings. Let us encourage one another, every day, it is not late, as long as it is still called, ‘Today’, encourage each other, so that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Jeremiah 32:36-39, ‘Now therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine and by pestilence.’ 37 Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. 38 They shall be My people, and I will be their God; 39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.’
These are the promises that God will give us and to our children if we yield to Him. He does not want us to take the wrong path. Through t the counsel of the Holy Spirit, we need to understand the calling of God in our lives. Take the narrow way; the ancient path, walk in it and find rest for our souls. Set right the areas which are hindering us from following this narrow way.
Praise God.
