Standing at the Crossroads- Jeremiah 6:16

 

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 (NIV)

Think about people you know who are backslidden or have fallen away.  And any of us here are capable of backsliding or falling away. We might lose hope and think they are not redeemable, but through Jeremiah, God kept speaking to a people who would not listen.  

Jeremiah 6:16

‘This is what the LORD says’.  The Lord which is usually Yahweh in Hebrew occurs over 620 times in Jeremiah.  And Yahweh is the covenant name for God.

The core idea in Jeremiah is that God’s people have broken the covenant with God and are committing spiritual adultery through idolatry.

The constant use of Yahweh or the Lord in Jeremiah is again and again reminding the people that the covenant making God was reaching out to them.

Jeremiah’s ministry spanned over 40 years and that whole time was a  period of crisis.  The book of Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible, having over 33,000 Hebrew words.

Much of Jeremiah is repetitive, saying the same thing over again.  The people weren’t getting it, they could not listen perhaps because of their hardened hearts, and God wanted to give them many many chances to get it before allowing them to be judged.  

Stand at the crossroads and look;

Stand.  The Hebrew word here, (“imdu”) means to abide or remain, holding your position, unhurried.  It means do not rush into something, do not be in a hurry, do not go off half-cocked, don’t act prematurely without reflection.  This is saying stop and take inventory.  Before you take a step and choose a way, just stop and hold your horses.

We all need to learn to be still, slow down, and not make rash decisions.  How many people in the Bible made mistakes that even changed their lives forever by rushing, hurrying, and acting prematurely?  The examples are many.

Waiting on the Lord never means inaction but it means to stand still and wait for the next step with your attention on the Lord.

The next part of Jeremiah 6:16 says this: “Stand at the crossroads and look”.  Other translations say “Stand in the ways and see”.  God is saying, There are several paths that can be taken and you must decide. The Lord is saying to the people you all have a decision to make.  The Lord is saying to them that they must consider the direction of their lives.

Stand at the crossroads and look;

The word Look in the Hebrew, (“u-ra-u”  yoo-ra-yoo) means to see, to consider.  In the context it means to open your eyes to what God is doing in the present: God is offering you a way out of your mess.  You must wake up and see it.

Then the Lord gives them a piece of advice.  And we should know that when God gives us advice that we should take it.  He says: “ask for the ancient paths”.  The ancient paths refers to the way that God has taught His people in the past: how to live righteously and how to be obedient to their covenant God. They needed to re-discover how to walk with God.  They needed to re-turn to the covenantal relationship with God.

I don’t know if you have ever been lost but refused to ask for directions?  I don’t know if you ever realized you might have made a wrong turn but refused to pull over and turn around?

Ask for the ancient paths.  Both shepherds and wilderness hikers know to examine two paths in a crossroads and choose the well worn  one that is the way through the area that is safe.

But what is the ancient path?  The ancient path is to walk with God.  Like Noah, like Job, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did.    And today as Christians, Christ is the way, Christ is that path.  

When someone has strayed so far from God as the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day, what does it mean to ask for the ancient paths?  It simply means to repent which means to turn back to God and that does not mean to get religious but to get real with God and begin again walking with Him in covenant again.

Repentance is the way.  Repentance opens up the door to walking with God.  Repent means to turn away from sin.  God is simply saying walk with me how your ancestors did.  

The next word is ask where the good way is.  This means to pray and listen and to search the scriptures.  This is what a repentant person does.  Repentant people ask the question “what must I do to be saved?”  That question comes from a heart that is going in the right direction.  And the people who repent need to learn  how to walk with God.  They need to be made disciples.  They need a lot of care and a lot of prayer for their rehabilitation, to learn how to walk with God.

The next thing The Lord says is, that after you have asked for the ancient paths and the good way: is “and walk in it”.  This is a call to action.  Just having faith is not enough.  Believing is good but you must walk in your belief.

Faith combined with action is faithfulness.  We can’t just think about doing the right thing and we can’t just talk about doing the right thing.  But we must do the right thing.  That’s the walk in the way.

And the next thing the Lord said here is: “and you will find rest for your souls.”  Walking with The Lord gives us rest.  That means He refreshes us.  The opposite of rest is exhaustion and restlessness.  God is our resting place when we walk with Him.  

The blessing promised by God to the ones who get back on the ancient path is that ‘you will find rest for your souls’.  Jesus who is the way said in Matthew 11:28, Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

And the last part of this verse says: “But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.”  God anticipates what they will say.  This response is one of stubbornness.  God’s gracious offer is rejected.  Who would reject God’s grace?  Who would be that stubborn and rebellious?  We all would and we all have been.

Jeremiah shows us how God views a people who had known him but fell away.   A big lesson of the book of Jeremiah is that after God gives a person ample opportunities to repent that He will break them so He can remake them.  

Repentance is always the beginning of taking the right path.  Repentance is the way in to the way on.  Jeremiah’s message was “repent”.  The longer version was “repent for judgment is coming”.  This is not pessimism but the truth.  Love tells the truth.

Here is a summary of this lesson: There is a crossroads in the lives of people who have fallen away from the faith before the breaking of God comes, with a golden opportunity to repent and change our ways.  And if we do not repent now there will be another opportunity after the discipline of God.