As is my habit, I recently walked early in the morning on the paths of Blackmer Municipal Golf Course just across from our back gate. As I walked, I considered the path.
They are not particularly smooth paths, and they are worn. They are made of asphalt and some small sized gravel. These cart paths have been there for quite a long time. They prevent ruts and tracks from golf carts in the native Buffalo grass. They can also provide one with a sense of direction. Are you headed to No.1, No. 5, maybe finishing at No. 9?
Or, maybe your Grandkids are here and they want to feed the turtles and the fish in the lake. You can take a path to the bridge. There used to be some ducks to feed as well, but rumor has it that one cold winter when the lake was completely frozen over, and there was no open water for protection, the coyotes got them all. And I remember a time when there were some baby ducks…but the turtles got them, much like submarines during a war. I’ve actually observed baby ducks traveling in a convoy just behind Mom, one at a time simply disappear.
Life can be a bit brutal at times. Maybe a lesson for us all.
But I digress, this is about the paths, not baby ducks
In certain seasons of the year, should you choose to walk in the grass instead of the paths, you will get grass and weed seeds in your socks/shoes. And, the grass is probably a bit more irregular of a surface than the paths.
In the warmer seasons, If you were to venture off the path and into the rough it wouldn’t be unusual to encounter a snake. Some of the snakes would not present a problem, but it’s not unheard of for the snake to be a rattler and the consequences of such a meeting, as you might imagine, could be somewhat serious.
I had also noticed earlier in the year during the recent drought, the grass was crunchy when you walked on it. Strange to hear that crunchy sound in the quiet of an early morning. I wasn’t sure at first what the sound was.
So, while there are not many obvious, mortal dangers to straying off the path, the path is there for a reason and it has definite advantages.
And that brings me to Jeremiah the prophet.
I read most mornings with my friend Matthew Henry, the 17th century English Bible commentator.
Sometime back we were reading in the book of Jeremiah and I noted his instructions to his people to seek “the ancient paths.”
Jeremiah was observing his once prosperous and happy people and saw that their kingdom had fallen apart before his very eyes.
The reason for this, Jeremiah himself says best…
v16 “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. v17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.”
This from Jeremiah Chapter 6.
Can you see the problem? It can be summed up in the closing words of v17, “we will not hearken.” I know many of you reading this may not speak the King James English, but in our vernacular it means, “we ain’t gonna do it.”
My friend Matthew does a great job of explaining this to us.
“They left the ancient paths, which were appointed by the divine law, which had been walked in by all the saints, which were therefore the right way to their journey’s end, a safe way, and, being well-tracked, were both easy to hit and easy to walk in. But, when they were advised to keep to the good old way, they positively said that they would not. They chose by-paths; they walked in a way not cast up, not in the highway, the King’s highway, in which they might travel safely, and which would certainly lead them to their right end, but in a dirty way, a rough way, a way in which they could not but stumble; such was the way of idolatry (such is the way of all iniquity — it is a false way, it is a way full of stumbling-blocks) and yet this way they chose to walk in and lead others in.”
Did you catch the part about “standing in the ways” and “asking for the old ways?” Our society I fear is not asking, headed hell-bent instead for the new and untried “ways.”
Is there trouble in or on your path? Have you maybe seen what you need to do in your situation, and like Israel said, “we will not hearken?”
Might this apply to our great nation? Might this apply to you? I know it applies to me.
The consequences to the wrong path are startling, and historically clear. For Israel, forsaking the one true God, and straying off the path after idols, and a multitude of other transgressions took them into captivity for 70 years, starting with being conquered by Babylon. You don’t have to believe me on this, or my friend Matthew or even the Bible for that matter. Just get yourself a good history book, if any unrevised ones still available.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not needing or wanting 70 years of captivity. But then I’m surely not as bad as Israel am I? I haven’t built any idols….or have I?
I’ve heard it said many times that if you want to see how God works in your life, look at Israel. He will work pretty much the same way in your life.
If you have kids, which behavior do you reward? God works the same way.
Thus ends your lesson for the day.
I was pleased with myself. The ‘ancient path’ thing came to me as I walked. I keep notes and quotes in my Evernote app and in a very short amount of time I had found my original notes. It was in October of 2017 when Matthew and I read that.
Surely you didn’t think I was smart enough to actually remember that myself? I’m a huge fan of my Evernote app. It’s like a brain that I can actually search, unlike my own brain which at my advanced age seems to be unsearchable.
That’s a thought for your day and a tech-tip all wrapped up in one post. And, at no extra cost to you!
You’re welcome