Jeremiah 6:16 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.
The Lord had a special word for his people who had tried every new thing under the sun. They worshipped this god and that, when those did not deliver what they had hoped for, they would worship another. Their idolatry became grosser and more debased as the years progressed. No longer would a sacrifice of an animal do, but they had begun to sacrifice their children. What could have possibly been more precious than their children? Their crops, wine, wealth, their own self-pleasure, were the things that the gods of the Canaanites falsely promised in lieu of their children. The Lord who had redeemed them from Egypt would never ask or demand such an offering from them, and his offerings were not so that they could be blessed but so that their sins could be remitted. Their blessing was attached to their obedience to the law, not to the level of sacrifice they could give. The life of debauchery that Israel was living was exactly why they were about to be judged, and in the years before their judgment, God sends not only warnings of the impending judgment but a call to action, to repent and do the first works, to stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths… and walk therein.
Stand, See, Ask, Walk
The Lord’s instruction can be found in the action words in our verse “Stand, see, ask, and walk. That is the four-fold instruction they would have to follow if they hope to find rest for their souls. When they received this word from the Lord, they had come to a place where two ways meet, notice carefully He says, “Stand ye in the ways.” Ways being plural and not singular, that is, they have come to a crossroads. On their broad path to destruction, God has interrupted them and given them an off-ramp, an opportunity for repentance. The first thing that any man in this position should do is stand, stop your downward spiral into judgment and destruction, heed the warning of God, and consider His offer of repentance. Once you pass this exit, it may be many miles before an opportunity to turn around is found.
Then see, look where this path has led you, and consider where it ends. Sure, the broad path is an easy path and it is the popular path, but look at what it has made you! Just like the rest of the world, Israel had become just like the Canaanites God had judged centuries before, some of them even worse than the people they found in the land. So has the church in this hour become as horrible as the world around it. We used to watch special reports of the scandals and debauchery that took place in corporations, but now the news headlines are filled with the same reports, except now they are happening in the churches. Look where modernism has taken the church, look where the contemporary movement has taken the church, and if just a few short decades we have descended to such depths, what will happen if we continue on this path?
Stand, See, and now we must ask. Ask for the old paths. In Jeremiah’s day, there was a generation of men who did just that. Jeremiah, Josiah, and many others sought the God of David and discovered the word of God and lived accordingly and reformed the nation according to the word of God. That is without a doubt the old path that Jeremiah was speaking of, the path laid out for them by the Lord in the word of God and traveled by men like David and other Kings who “Did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” Don’t miss the fact that the Lord tells us we must ask for it, and so we must pray as did Josiah at the age of sixteen when he began to seek the God of David with all his heart. These men and their generation asked for those old paths long before they ever walked in them, and so must we. Pray earnestly that God will allow us in our generation to walk in the path the Lord laid out for us in His word, the path that Paul walked in, the path many heroes of the faith have walked in. Oh Lord, make the path clear to us, let us see it and help us to walk therein! Josiah spent several years asking and acting on this zeal, but it was 8 years between his seeking the Lord and his finding the scriptures, and so we see that God was faithful after many years of seeking the right way to show it to him and give them a revival of the Bible, so it must be with us, ask, seek, knock, inquire and as God showed them the Book, the old path, so will He show it to us.
Then we must walk therein. If we fail in this last command, then the whole mission is aborted. When we have seen the old path, we must walk therein. Our text says it is a good way, not an easy way, especially when it has been so long being untrodden. I grew up on a 400-acre farm in Alabama, and there were new paths that my father and the men of his generation had cut through those woods to access different hunting grounds, lakes, or gardens. They were often traveled and clear enough that anyone could see and follow them. Then there were the old paths that my great-grandparents had cut that were not obvious. My grandfather would point them out to me, and to him, they were obvious, but until he showed them to me, I could not see them. They had been many years without traffic, and if they were to be revived, it would take quite a lot of work and traveling on them. So was the case in Israel; the path of idolatry was well-worn and obvious, the course for that day. But Josiah and Jeremiah had seen a better path, an older path, though it hadn't been traveled in years. So they began to travel it, casting down the idols that had overgrown this old path. Walking therein made it broader, and before long, they were not walking it alone but with many people. The old paths have been grown over, but there have been some older men of God who pointed it out to us. Sure, there is a newer way to do church, an easier way, a more popular way, but there is not a better way than the old Bible way, for it is a "good way."
What is found in the good old Bible way? Rest for your souls. That is what the new can’t offer you, real rest, rest down in your soul. In Jeremiah’s day, there was a counterfeit peace being peddled. The false prophets and priests were crying peace, peace but there was no peace; “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” [Jeremiah 6:14]. These new path prophets told the people what they wanted to hear and gave a false sense of security that fertilized the nation's seedbed of sinfulness.
The nation was covetous “For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness…” [Jeremiah 6:13]. Their want and desire drove them to do anything necessary to fulfill their lust, working day and night for fleeting fulfillment! Is this not the current state of most of the world? Laboring day and night, sacrificing our lives at the altar of entertainment, self-advancement, wealth, and for what? A few moments of gratification that fly away just as soon as we have attained what we thought would make us happy. Here is our hope in this hour of no rest and false rest, rest for your souls. This is the rest that fulfills, this is rest that restores, this is godliness with contentment which is great gain. Rest is found in living your life according to the Word and will of God, then a man can have nothing and be on top of the world, or in contrast, he can own many things and yet not be owned by those things.
Rest isn’t just enjoyable but necessary, a man without rest can only carry on for a few days before his body will shut down and the soul that goes long seasons without the rest given by living a life of obedience to God will soon fall apart. Men search high and low for this rest, supposing to find it in wealth, prestige, position, or many new paths and all they find is more wearisome worries. Many have taken their own lives just to put an end to the rat race they call life, and no wonder, that sort of life is tiring, but there is a good way, the old Bible way, walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls.
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