Day 9 - Seek the Ancient Pathways

SCRIPTURE:

Jeremiah 6:16

“Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, 

and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

DEVOTIONAL:

Israel was walking in ways that lead her down paths of destruction and distance from God.

What transformed me: Often we are taken in by the latest, the newest, the trend. If something is new, it’s better. If something is bigger it must equal success.

Israel ignored God’s plea and turned to the pathway of selfishness and mistrust. Their way and the latest attractions of neighboring cultures offered new, more and better.

The reason we seek something new is because we are trying to find an answer to quiet a restless heart. God invites us to seek the ancient paths. In Hebrew the word is “Olam” meaning old, concealed, hidden, perpetual, timeless, from eternity.

This is the path that leads to the mountain of God, a way through the Red Sea, a circle around Jericho. These are pathways that lead away from the noise of our day to refuge, a journey back to Eden where we walk again with God in the cool of the day. 

These paths are “Tov” meaning pleasant, agreeable, happy, well-off, prosperous and they offer rest for our soul.

Notice what God speaks through Isaiah, and as you look, see the internal transformation that happens when you walk in the whispered ways of the Teacher:

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!” Isaiah 30:20-22

Are you distracted by new? Are you looking for something, but not looking to God? Stop, seek, listen for the ancient pathway and walk on it. Only when you walk on His pathway will you find rest and freedom.