Standing at the Crossroads

*"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it'" *(Jeremiah 6:16).

We have important choices to make. In the words of Joshua, it's time to "choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15). As Elijah put it, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him" (1 Kings 18:21). Like Jeremiah, we stand at the crossroads.

Will we choose life or death? Whether it's an unborn baby or an old man in a nursing home, a muscular athlete or a person with multiple disabilities, every life matters to God; but in Jeremiah's day respect for life had deteriorated so badly that parents actually would "burn their sons and daughters in the fire" as human sacrifices (Jeremiah 7:31). What choices will we make in our day when vocal advocates lobby for abortion and assisted suicide?

Will we choose right or wrong? In Jeremiah's day, morality had sunk so low that people acted like animals. Sex-addicted men were like "well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife" (5:8). Consciences had grown so calloused that the grossest sins caused no shame and the Lord lamented that his people "do not even know how to blush" (6:15). Will we make the right choices in a culture where sexual promiscuity has become the norm and homosexual activists deny the plain teaching of God's Word?

Will we choose the true God or a flimsy spiritual substitute? In Jeremiah's day, God's people had forsaken him, "the spring of living water," and instead had "dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (2:13). They exchanged the Creator for manmade idols that glittered with gold but tottered like hollow trees. "Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk" (10:5). The worshipers in God's temple had become so sinful that their daily lives contradicted the faith they professed. The Lord asked, "Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods . . . and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, 'We are safe'—safe to do all these detestable things?" (7:9, 10). In a culture of weak worship where the responsibility of personal holiness is seldom preached from the pulpit or sought from the pew, will we worship the true God truly and honor him in all we do?

Jeremiah 6:16 offers some road signs for all who stand at the crossroads.

"Ask for the ancient paths." Don't look for new directions when the answers are already staring you in the face. At the crossroads of life we should always ask, "What does God's Word say? What ancient wisdom applies in this situation?"

"Ask where the good way is, and walk in it." Not the easy way, the popular way, or the entertaining way: "the good way." Some of Jeremiah's listeners decided not to walk in God's way—a choice as irrational as a car owner deciding to ignore the manufacturer's recommendation and put orange juice in his vehicle instead of gasoline. The best choices are always based on what is right and good in the Creator's eyes.

"And you will find rest for your souls." When Jesus came to the crossroads, he chose the road that led to the cross—and on to resurrection and rest. Which direction will we choose?