“Thus says 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” (Jeremiah 6:16 KJV).
There is the old path and the new path. There is the old way and the new way. Old does not mean the bad or outdated way. New does not mean the better way. The old way can actually be better than the new way.
The “old paths” were not just the ways the patriarchs and those redeemed out of Egypt walked in. The “old paths” means the way of God from eternity past. It’s the path of holiness and righteousness. It didn’t begin with Israel; it began with God. To Israel during Jeremiah’s day, it was the way they once walked in their past and was almost forgotten.
The Lord remembered when Israel walked in the old paths. “Thus says the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown” (Jer. 2:2). But Israel departed from the old paths and put God and His Word behind them (1 Kings 14:9) and the Lord asks, “What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” (v.5).
God is asking Israel to stand at the fork in the road and consider the old way and the new way, and choose the old way because it is the good way and it will bring rest to their soul. But Israel said no to the old way and continued in their idolatry and sin and was ultimately judged.
There was a time when the church walked in the “old paths.” I can still remember many years ago when the church had power and purity because she walked in the old paths or in the will of God. I remember when we had biblical Christianity and not this contemporary Christianity. Paul reminds us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
No one is preaching on returning to the old paths of power and purity because everyone likes this newfangled modern religion that has a club mentality and a carnival spirit and is embraced by the world.
But we would be wise to look at where we’re heading and consider returning to the old paths when God was in our midst and we had power and purity and were making a difference in the world.
