Ancient Paths
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 6:16
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…”
People tend to believe newer is better, that they are smarter and wiser than the generations that preceded them, and that what their forefathers did or believed was ignorant and wrong. There is a term for that. It is called “recency bias.” Recency bias is a bias in our thinking whereby we favor recent events over historic ones. The church is not free from this problem.
While it is easy to caricature those in the church who exercise caution about innovations in worship and preaching as legalistic traditionalists, it might be wise to stop and think more seriously about what they are saying. No doubt some people like the old ways just because that is what they grew up with. They look with nostalgia on the past and long for glory days that may or may not have been truly glorious. But there is wisdom in anchoring our faith and practice in the currents of historic Christianity lest we get trapped by the undertow of modern culture and sink in a sea of worldliness.
Jeremiah pictures the Israelites of his day as being a people on a journey. They are traveling on a road that, like every road, has a destination. He urges them to pull over, stop in a rest area, get out of the car (or off the donkey), and give some serious thought to where they are headed. He wants them to ask for directions. “Where are the ancient paths? Where is the good way?” He wants them to reassess and change directions. Another word for that is “repentance.”
It isn’t like the road they are on is without issues, after all. There is no peace for its travelers, (Jeremiah 6:14). Those who are taking this road are finding themselves wearied by it. That’s why he tells them that if they take a different path they will “find rest for [their] souls.” In other words, if the road you are traveling on leads to one disaster after another, maybe it’s time to reassess the route you chose.
