Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | 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, and you will find rest for your souls.”  But you said, “We will not walk in it.” Jeremiah 6:16

Jeremiah the prophet was a man who needs to be rediscovered today.  The circumstances surrounding his life and world have so many parallels to life today.  And how so?  Well, for one thing, instability had gripped the world.  Jeremiah’s beloved nation was about to be chewed up by the powerful tiger of Babylon.  Social structures were failing.  Families were being torn apart, and truth and morality had been sacrificed in the process.  The priesthood had become politicized and suffered a bad case of moral laryngitis.  No wonder Jeremiah seemed out of sync with his day, an old prophet who castigated the moral and spiritual decline.  No wonder he was publicly scorned and privately castigated.

There is a text in the book which bears his name which needs to be emblazoned on the conscience of every parent who fears the future and finds it difficult to convince his child that God expects something different, something more of His children, than that which satisfies the world.

God spoke to Jeremiah and said, “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the old paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it” (Jeremiah 6:16).  There were three parts to this directive: First, go back to the crossroads, back to the place where you took the wrong path, and look.  God is saying, “You’ve been down the wrong road.  You’ve learned that it didn’t bring you the peace or contentment you thought it would give you.  Now stand there—mentally speaking—and take a look down the narrow road, the one that seemed to be less exciting, and realize it was here you went wrong.

Let’s stop for a moment.  Is it ever too late in life to acknowledge that you went wrong?  You may think so, but in reality, it isn’t.  A thief on the cross, seeing his life ebb way minute by minute, came to that place and cried out, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  He went back to the crossroads and took the right path.  Before you go back to the crossroads—that fork in the road where you went wrong—you’ve got to stop what you are doing and mentally look back.  Often, we think, “It’s too late for me.”  Not so, friend.  Coming to the end of the year is a time for reflection and to go back if you missed the right path.

Step number two in the process is this: “Ask for the old paths where the good way is.”  In reality, prayer is asking.  It is saying, “God, I went wrong.  You know that, and now I admit it.  I don’t want the future to be a rerun of the past.  Forgive me and show me the right way to go.”   Israel had missed God, and in spite of their waywardness, God promised to help them if they would but come back to Him.  He said, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do no know” (Jeremiah 33:3).   God will do the same for you as well.

Step number three in this process of finding new direction is this: When you have found the good way, “walk in it.”  This is a matter of simple obedience, of putting your feet in a straight line in the direction you know God would have you to travel.  And with that simple step of obedience comes a great promise.  God says, “And you will find rest for your souls.”

“More than anything else,” said a famous entertainer, “I would like to find peace for my soul before I die.”  The good news is that you can find it, God’s way.

But God did not force them to return.  He invited them.  Sadly, Israel rejected God’s invitation and did not return and never found the peace for their soul they could have had.  Going back to the fork in the road requires courage and humility, but it is the only way to life.  It was then; it still is.

Resource reading: Jeremiah 6:1-30