It has been said, and it has been written, those that ignore history will fail. Shortly before Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon invaded Judea and Jerusalem, God told Jeremiah that judgment was coming, and that it was certain, it was as a matter of fact, unavoidable. The Pew has been involved in the past few blogs, examining, looking at and trying to understand the good way. God never abandons his people although we must understand that while the God we serve is one of mercy and grace he is also one of judgment. The people refused to listen to Jeremiah, they had abandoned the good way, so God told Jeremiah to tell the people this.    

Jeremiah 6

16 This is what the Lord says:

“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.’

Biblical history tells us they did not heed the word of God and that eventually brought God’s judgment against them. To keep it simple and to provide some continuity to this blog, they simply left the good way. It can be said with some reasonable accuracy that the Bible is consistent in its continuity and its purpose but it seems that there’s always somebody that’s trying to find inconsistencies in the scripture as it’s written. One of the pillars you might say of consistency would be the fact that God has always provided a way. We just seem to every now and then get off the path or as we like to say today, leave the good way. Scriptures about the good way emphasize walking in God’s righteousness, knowing of his justice and kindness a lot of times it’s described as a path of truth and peace. There are key verses which encourages choosing a moral path like Jeremiah 6:16 or practicing kindness and faithfulness proverbs 3:3 and walking in the good way of good people proverbs 2:20.

For the Hebrew people there is a prayer which was known as the Shema, this Hebrew word means to hear and it’s probably the most important prayer in Judaism. And you can find it and Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  It is worth including here for you to be able to receive the full impact of what it said to them.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This was indeed the map for the Hebrew Good Way. When we did our research on this particular Hebrew prayer we found that one of our favorite go to sites gotquestions.org. Had a very brief but ideal and concise description of that prayer. So I’m going to share some of those points that they made with you today. This prayer was so influential that Jesus used it as the beginning of his answer to the greatest commandment question which you can read in mark 12:28–30. Jesus acknowledges that the Lord God is the most important fact and that complete devotion to him is the most important of the Commandments. I would like to note at this point that in Deuteronomy 11:13 through 29 and in numbers 15:37 through 41, that these three other two parts were added later to cover all aspects of the 10 Commandments and are part of the full Shema prayer. The prayer simply instructs us to acknowledge his Lordship. Now fast forward to today and where we stand in the world situations that we face and sometimes it’s very easy to get very, very discouraged. Just as our Hebrew brothers did in their day. We, the Christians of this day also have a good way. It’s important that you remember as I wrote earlier there is continuity in the Bible. It’s not a new story every chapter or every book or anything like that. It’s a record of God in our lives and of the plan he has for all of us and just as the Hebrews had their good way so do we in our day and time. But our good way is to study, to read, to love, to care to take upon ourselves and within ourselves as much of the spirit as we possibly can through prayer and study. We have been called out to serve him, to become Christ like in the way we live. So I’m going to give you a short list of some scriptures that I found that you can lean on and turn to. There’s been so many we are so fortunate that the God we serve and His Son, whom He sent to be among us as God incarnate and lived among us that he might sacrifice himself for our sins has left us these words from the prophets and the apostles to study to read and to learn from. Here’s just a few.

Key Scriptures on the Good Way

• Jeremiah 6:16 (ESV): “Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.'”
• Psalm 143:10 (NIV): “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
• Proverbs 2:20 (NKJV): “So you may walk in the way of goodness, and keep to the paths of righteousness.”
• Psalm 23:3 (ESV): “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
• 1 Thessalonians 5:15 (ESV): “See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.”
• Galatians 6:9 (ESV): “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
• Matthew 5:16 (NIV): “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

God bless you and keep you on the Good Way.

Life is Good

jk