Return to the Ancient Paths

 

Thus says the Lord,

“Stand by the roads and look; ask for the ancient paths,

Where the good way is; then walk in it,

And you will find rest for your souls.

Jeremiah 6:16

Introduction

As a Christian, it’s easy for our public walk to be like a game of chess. People try to trap us with questions using out of context Bible verses to do it. Then they look for us to slip up. Oh look, there’s another preacher man that’s caught in an affair. Look at that Christian telling a lie. They don’t really want us to slip up, though. What the world really wants to see is a Christian that can do it right. That’s why they try to trap us with questions. They want us to answer them like Jesus would have, and yet we never do.

People ask questions like, “What’s your view on homosexuality?” Then when you tell them what the Bible says, they quote one of the deep cuts… like Leviticus 19:19 “Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”

It’s so easy to get so caught up in the law of Yaweh that we miss His heart. By the end of this, I hope to have helped reveal to you the heart of the Father.

Let’s go to the beginning.

A Path in the Garden

From the start, during creation, we see that God loves to speak and that all of creation loves to listen. When creation responded to His voice and took its form, He said that “it is good.”

When He said that, He didn’t say it nonchalantly. He said it with excitement, love, and joy in what He had done.

There’s something so incredibly awesome about hearing the voice of God. His voice creates life, and when He speaks to you, He knows exactly what to say to bring life to you. We may not want to do what He tells us to do, but after doing it, we will never say that we were worse off for doing it. The most significant moments of my life were all times when God spoke to me.

We also see that God loves for man to speak.

Genesis 2:26. He brought the animals to Adam to see what He would name them. He wanted to see how Adam would describe His creation.

Notice the chain of events: God speaks, life is created, man responds.

That was the original intention for creation.

All of that changed, however, when a third voice was allowed in. Fast forward a few days to one of the most pivotal events in the history of man. You know the story. The serpent managed to talk Eve into talking Adam into eating the fruit. It was Eve’s fault that Eve ate from the tree, but not her fault that Adam did. Just as Eve chose to listen to the serpent, she then reasoned it out in her mind. Adam made the same exact choice – to listen to a voice that wasn’t the voice of Yaweh. Listen to all of the different voices present in this passage.

Genesis 2:15-17 (NIV)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 3:1-5 (NIV)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

The Voice of God

Genesis 2:15-17 (NIV)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

The Voice of the Enemy

“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” “You will not certainly die, For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

The Voice of Man

“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

Departure from the Path

As He was accustomed to, Yahweh came by (some would say) in physical form, walking through the garden. The assumption is that this is something He was accustomed to doing, because they immediately recognized that it was God taking an evening stroll, looking for the crowned jewel of His earthly creation. It had been a bad morning.

All of a sudden, Adam and Eve found an entire wardrobe. The very first wardrobe. And it wasn’t even a good one.

All-knowing God obviously knew what had happened. Nothing surprises Him. He doesn’t ask “Why?”

He asked two questions that I truly believe reveal His nature to us.

First He asked, “Where are you?” He knew where they were. But He gave them the opportunity to come to Him.

Then He asked, and this is the most important question, “Who told you?”

Therein lies the problem. The original sin. Adam & Eve didn’t sin because they ate from the tree. That’s how their sin manifested, but that wasn’t the heart of the problem. The heart of the problem was that they became comfortable listening to voices that weren’t the voice of God. We were created for fellowship with God, and right away, before they even had the chance to “go forth and multiply,” they were putting more weight in the voice of a lizard.

In this we see the true definition of sin. It’s simple, although we try to overcomplicate and qualify it. Sin is a simple concept. All it is listening to a voice that isn’t the voice of God. Putting more weight in the voices and desires of others than in His. Doing what He tells you not to do, and not doing what He tells you to do. That’s why a walk with Him is so important. You can’t listen to someone you don’t spend time with.

The New Path

God doesn’t yell. He could if He wanted to. He could whisper, and the heavens would fall. But He doesn’t. He speaks softer than the quietest voices that you have distracting and speaking into your life, because He wants you to listen for Him. We should desire to hear from Him.

John 10:27 (NIV)

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

We could assume that the opposite is also true. The ones that don’t know His voice aren’t His sheep. He doesn’t know them, and they don’t follow Him.

So what happens next? Because they were no longer in perfect fellowship with God, God had to remove Himself from the equation and we found ourselves heading on a new path; this is where the curse comes in. By default, the curse comes as a result of the absence of the presence of God. Really go through and read the ensuing verses. God was in anguish about this. He angrily cursed the serpent, but then told Adam “because of YOU the ground is cursed… because of you, I cannot walk here alongside you.. “ That’s why it says the wages of sin is death. To paraphrase, the wages of a life lived out of the will of God is death. That’s why He says in John 15 that He is the true vine and we are the branches. If we live separately, we wither. We can’t just hold on to one thing He told us years ago and that be the extent of our walk with Him. It should be on a consistent basis. A daily stroll in the garden with Him.

Fast forward some more.

What set the fathers of our faith apart from the rest? Noah “walked with God.”

We don’t know what made God call to Abram, but whatever happened we know that Abram listened. We also know that Abraham trusted God enough that he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, saying that God would provide.

Moses sought to hear God. He wanted to see His face!

Every single person who had a lengthy walk with God had a heart that wanted to listen to Him.

Every single person who didn’t finish well did not.

So fast forward a little bit to Moses and the law. The Ten Commandments, and all of the Levitical laws. The laws weren’t put in place to perfect God’s people. Humanity existed in a state of perfection while in the garden, where they were naked. Yet the law, when put into place, would have ensured that everyone at a bare minimum wore clothes. So why the Law? The Law was put into place to give mankind another opportunity to walk with Yahweh, just like Adam did in the garden. The purpose of the Law was to demonstrate His heart. We found ourselves on a new path, but God was still calling us to the old one!

Returning to the Path

If the Law showed us that there was an ancient path for us to return to, Jesus was our means to return to that path.

Colossians 2:14 (NKJV)

having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross

The Law was nailed to the cross. This doesn’t mean that the Law isn’t relevant any more, but it means that we are no longer made inadequate by it when we accept the perfect sacrifice. It was established as a reminder that mankind could never measure up through works alone, but rather through their closeness with God. Because God knew that if people approached Him in their sinful nature, they would be burned up just like the guy that touched the ark. Sin nature cannot withstand His presence, because nature was created for His presence. Anything else not of Him would be burned away. That’s the gospel. You can see it in every page of the Bible, the tremendous love that God has for us. The way that He yearns for us to walk with him just as intimately as Adam did in the garden.

Part of that close walk with Him means that He is our sole source of counsel and direction. Anything that we trust in that isn’t God is an idol. If God says that the sky is green and clouds are cotton candy, then we have to trust Him. Regardless of what science says. He’s the creator of the universe. His ways are higher than ours, and in case you didn’t realize… He’s smarter than we are. That’s in the Bible. Jeremiah 10:14.

Psalm 1:1-3 (ESV)

Blessed in the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

Look at the parallels in what David was saying, and what Eve did in the garden.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

While Jesus was in His earthly ministry, He walked the ancient path daily.

John 5:19-20 (NIV)

19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

Jesus also wanted us to be close to the Father. Remember when He got mad and flipped the tables in the Temple? That wasn’t because He hated capitalism and salesmen. It was because the merchants were extorting people, and depriving them of their means to a sacrifice – meaning they couldn’t draw close to the Father. See, the Father so desires closeness with us, that he sent Jesus to die in our place as a sacrifice for our sins.

Sin separates us from God, and that’s why He hates it so much. That’s why God withheld the knowledge of good and evil from them in the garden, unless they ate from the tree. He didn’t want them to have any other voices to listen to. That’s why He gave us the Word, it’s a book full of counsel. It brings us closer to the Father. The Word is Jesus, and the goal of Jesus was to bring us closer to the Father. If you don’t have a heart connection with the Word of God, then I submit to you that you don’t know Yaweh.

John 8:47 (ESV)

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

That’s the entire gospel. That God wants us to live a life of closeness to Him. That’s why we were created. People ask, why would a loving God send people to hell? The truth is, Hell is just the absence of the presence of God.

So bringing it back full circle, there is an ancient path that we forget about. I want to invite you to make a return to this path.

The path of Jeremiah 6. This path is the path that Adam walked in the garden, side by side with Yawheh. It’s the path that Jesus walked. It’s the path that you and I were created to walk. It’s a path where every direction, every affirmation, every fiber of our being comes from Him. It’s the path that He wants us to stand in.

How many of us ask God before making a big decision? Do we ask Him before you make a small one? How many of you can discern the voice of God from the voice of your flesh? Do you hear from God consistently?

The reason Christians get caught up in debates about what is right or wrong according to the Law of the Bible is because they miss the heart behind it. So we look at things like homosexuality, or abortion, and we take what someone told us the Law says, and we beat people over the head with it.

Can a man marry a man? What the lifestyle of someone on the ancient path says is that a man shouldn’t marry anyone without consulting God first! That’s what happened to the great and wise Solomon. He was so sure of his knowledge and wisdom that he forsook the knowledge that comes from God!

This isn’t a copout, or giving permission for you to say that God told you to sin. We know that God is not a liar, nor will He ever contradict what He has already said in His Word. So please don’t try to take this out of context. The key point is that if you were to seek God for every decision you made, then you would find a new level of closeness with Him. If you stand in the crossroads and ask for the ancient paths when it comes to the big job decision. Or the church that you become a part of. Or wisdom for dealing with the conversation you have to have but don’t know how. We can’t do life out of our own knowledge, nor are we supposed to be able to. We have to hear it from Him!

Action Points

1. Identify the various voices in your life. Where do you hear God speaking to you? Where are there voices that speak louder than God? Are the voices pushing you closer or further from Him?
2. Know God. What do you need to do to know the voice of God more intimately? Are you willing to cut out the things that keep you from doing that?
3. Seek first the Kingdom. Are you asking for the will of God in even the smallest areas of your life? Do you value and place God’s opinion over yours? Do you reason God in your terms, or do you reason yourself on His terms? What areas do you think that “I believe this, therefore God does too?”