During the month of March, we’ll look to the beaten paths of the Old Testament. Such paths are literally described in this month’s passage: Jeremiah 6:16. In context of this passage, The nation was then filled with false prophecy and a deliberate rejection of God and His laws. The Babylonians were soon to be sent by a wrathful Lord as a device of his anger. Thus, the chapter is addressed to the inhabitants of Israel (particularly the tribe of Benjamin), urging them to flee the city before the city was destroyed in the midst of God’s wrath, giving them also firm words of wisdom to guide God’s select at the time. The people of God needed wisdom to be guided away not just from Israel, but the evil ways that had recently prevailed in their nation.
“Thus says the Lord:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
When God refers to the “ancient paths”, he is referring to the times in which the law was followed more closely and regarded with more reverence. He is guiding them toward his will by asking them to ask for wisdom in where to go, and urging them to find his will. In the Old Testament, God willed for his people to return to the law that he established for the people to follow as closely as they could. It is stated that paths should not merely be found, they should be walked. In following what God has established for them to do and imploring him for his will, the people of these perilous times will find rest that God wills the select to have.
At the time, God established that the Torah was to be adhered to. In the modern day however, Paul urges us instead to follow the new covenant, but to not forget the old. The reason we now submit to a newer covenant is because one was created by Jesus’ death on the cross so that we might have eternal life in his blood. He signified that the old one was no longer in effect when he tore the curtains of the temple upon his death. We ourselves might find our situation very similar to that which might have existed in the time of passage. In America, the gospel is widely known, but widely rejected as well; and the original intent of the country had and has been twisted to run against that which it built from. In the past, God would have asked the select to stand, but we now have the additions of the new covenant to account for. We have the spirit to account for the very wisdom we’re asking for. By no other means can we today seek the older, less trodden paths of the Lord. Look to the road you now stand on and ask whom you have been given. Perhaps you’ve gotten lost on the modern path? So look to the days of old and ask where you’ve strayed from the path, and where the good way is, always following the wisdom of the Lord.
