What are the ancient paths in Jeremiah 6:16?

What a tremendous moral difference in these words from the condition of the people detailed in these chapters. What of the truehearted remnant at this time? There were Jeremiah, Hilkiah, Huldah the prophetess, Shaphan the scribe, Ahikam and Baruch. These were not divided. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel were all busy in the prophet's office at this time. It was no part of these to exhort each other to return to the old paths. What then? They were weeping (Jer. 13:17), and saying, "Seek not great things for thyself" (Jer. 45:5). But what of Jehovah God? His heart is laid bare in its pleadings here as nowhere else in Scripture. Like a husband deserted by a faithless wife He pleads for them to return, and as a father frantic with grief at the lawlessness of his children He calls upon them to obey.

What then is the bearing of Jer. 6:16 by analogy on saints to-day? The passage is so constantly used for mere ecclesiastical purposes that we are in danger of not only losing its force but of perverting the solemn language of God to Christendom at this moment. Is it not clear that to us such a passage for external order is to lose the whole plaint of Jehovah, miss the pathos of the message and show ourselves incapable of that holy refinement that springs from the true knowledge of God? Let us then get beyond the ecclesiastical failure to the cause. The old paths and the good way mean much more than talking of divine principles or of assuming to be standing for the truth. The men standing for the truth in the book of Jeremiah were living it.

What then are the ancient paths? Holiness to the Lord (Jer. 2:3). "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holiness unto Jehovah, the first-fruits of His increase." Have we not an echo of this for saints of today in the words of Revelation 2:4, "I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love." Instead then of attempting to form a testimony for the Lord by artificial means let us like the brethren of the early part of last century listen to the voice of the Lord. "To him that overcomes, I will give to him to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God" (Rev. 2:7). Both this passage and Jer. 2:2-3 should be read along with Matt. 2:30. "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me and ye shall find rest unto your souls." It is simple and easy to see that without all controversy the way to overcome is to imbibe the spirit of Christ.

It was during this time that Jeremiah in his second address to the people uses the text at the head of this paper. "Stand ye in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths." Has the gravity of the situation dawned upon us? Are we not in danger of taking this gracious appeal out of its place and apply it to what is merely external? Is there not distinct evidence on our part of seeking a correct ecclesiastical position without the inner moral condition which Jehovah pleads with His people about? But still more solemn, is there not a danger of missing the whole force of the Divine plaint and confining it to a mere detail, however solemn that detail may be? The old paths are clearly before us in Jer. 2:2-3. "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness."

"Thus saith Jehovah: stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, which is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest to your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein" (Jer. 6:16, N. Trans.).

Covetousness—loving self, money and pleasure—and violence and hatred mark the close of this period. The Lord will bring judgment upon it all. The way of deliverance, however, is always the same; it is found alone in Christ. In Jeremiah 6 we find the same state then: “Every one of them is given to covetousness” (v. 13). As in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, just before Christ comes, so here, they say, “Peace, peace” (Jer. 6:14). Earnestly the prophet seeks to awaken them as to the old paths, the good way, where they should “find rest for their souls; but they said, We will not walk therein” (v. 16). When the blessed Lord was here upon earth, He graciously invited them to come to Him, and they should find rest for their souls; but man will not take that way. He chooses other ways; so he finds no real rest. Like the troubled sea in its agitation and tossing, he knows no abiding quietude of heart, no peace of mind, no divine tranquillity.

Thousands of years ago, God made His Mind known through Moses and all was perfect as far as it went. Israel, however, constantly disobeyed. Many prophets were sent to recall them to the things that God had established at the beginning. For instance, Jeremiah prophesied, "Thus said the Lord, Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way, and walk in it and you shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6:16). But Israel refused and consequently went into Babylonian captivity.

We should then be more likely to see our attitude and words having real effect upon others, as is recorded in the case of Ezra. The fact was quickly revealed that in Israel there were a large number who were aware of the sin and departure but had not the faith and spiritual energy to act as he did. Awakened to the sin and need by him, they also assembled and wept as he did. And further than this, a leader amongst them declared that the only hope lay in putting away the evils in which they had been involved and obeying the instructions they had been given from the outset. He reminded them in effect of what the Lord had said through Jeremiah, recorded in verse 16 of his sixth chapter. The principle there stated stands good today. At the beginning of each dispensation God makes known the 'paths' that suit what He has introduced and established. These remain unchanged throughout the dispensation, and to revert to them after a season of departure is always right. Let us see that we do so today.

“Follow righteousness”, i.e., what is right. Well, what is right under such circumstances? First, to humbly and brokenly confess the failure, and not make believe that things are all right when all wrong. Secondly, to recognize that God always starts with what is right. He never, like man, experiments with the imperfect at the beginning, gradually advancing to the more finished production. Hence the way of faith, the right way, is always to revert to God’s original thoughts and institutions as far as may be practicable. In the last years of Israel’s history as a nation the Lord recalled them to “the old paths” and “the good way” (Jer. 6:16). It is not otherwise today.

And moreover He would teach them in a new way. He exemplified the things that He taught. Meekness and lowliness of heart is needed if the subject place is to be taken and maintained; and these things were perfectly seen in Him. He was the Son, "yet learned He obedience" and that obedience having been carried to death, He has "become the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey Him" (Heb. 5:8-9). In our Gospel we see the obedient One calling us into obedience to Himself, an obedience which is not burdensome and which leads into rest. "Rest for your souls" was proposed as the result of a faithful walk in the "old paths" of the law (see Jer. 6:16), but that rest was never attained by men. The only way to reach it was that made known by the Son, who had come to reveal the Father. The Father must be known if His purpose was to be achieved.

But if the end be thus sure, grace makes the way plain, the yoke easy, and the burden light. The obedience of Christ is the law of liberty. To a single eye His path is alone the question. Therefore the apostle has not a doubt that the saints addressed are as desirous of doing the Lord's will, as he of making it duly known. "And we have trust in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we charge" (verse 4). For there is a distinction between Christ's giving us rest, and our finding rest to our souls. The former is of sovereign grace, however labouring or burdened we might be, and the gift is free and full to sinners according to the glory of His person and the goodness of the errand on which He came and suffered; the other is of divine government, and we as children of God find rest to our souls day by day, not certainly in self-will which is our danger, but in simple-hearted subjection to Him and confidence in Him, even as He Himself always did the things which pleased the Father Who sent Him, and could say that it was His food to finish His work — that He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love. It is in obeying Him only that the believer finds rest to his soul; and so the apostle counts on the Thessalonians here.

Then He adds, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall FIND REST UNTO your souls." This rest is quite different from the rest of conscience which I get through the work of Christ; it is the REST OF HEART, the rest of spirit, that I get by communion with Him as a living Person from day to day. The first rest is the Sinner's rest, the second rest is the Saint's rest, and there is still another rest, of which the apostle speaks in Heb. 4:9 — "There remains therefore a rest to the people of God." That is God's rest, which we are going to get by-and-by. A sinner gets rest of conscience in the work of Christ; the saint gets rest of heart in the Person of Christ, and then there is God's rest -GLORY, where sin and its fruits can never come, into which He is going to take us who believe, spirit, soul, and body, for eternity: and that is the end of the path on which the soul enters who once trusts Jesus, comes to Jesus, confides in Jesus.