The Ancient Paths

The Lord has said in Scripture that people see no real benefit in serving God. Basically, they say it doesn’t matter and what difference does it make. This is both a lie and deception. Here’s how.

The Job expression in 8:11 "Can papyrus shoot up without a marsh? Can the reed-grass grow without water?” means (according to Rashi the Jewish commentator) that reeds grow in the mud, but they dry out first before other grass dies. In other words, things appear to go well for those who don’t listen to God —their ways seem to be sustained— but their own ways will quickly become their downfall. Job 1:6 says that those who walk upright, those who listen to the voice of Jesus, to him God will make his righteous home complete and perfect (Rashi). What a wonderful promise!

Furthermore, in the same chapter of Job (8:7), the word is that the beginning of the righteous is small but in the end there’s great increase. I've seen this many times (it appears a quality of those of the millennial reign of Christ). Obedience seems like a small thing, something almost imperceptible like a seed in the ground. The result, however, is nothing less than completeness, fruitfulness, and perfection, for it is fruit born of God.

This I believe is a fulfillment of those who hear the voice of Christ and therefore fulfill the works God has for them as implied in Revelation 3:

“To the angel of the Messianic Community in Sardis, write: ‘Here is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know what you are doing — you have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead! ² Wake up, and strengthen what remains, before it dies too! For I have found what you are doing incomplete in the sight of my God. ³ So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and turn from your sin! For if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief; and you don’t know at what moment I will come upon you.

One other confirmation of the completeness God desires appears in Job 8:

⁸ “Ask the older generation,and consider what their ancestors found out;⁹ for we who were born yesterday know nothing,our days on earth are but a shadow.¹⁰ They will teach you, they will tell you,they will say what is in their hearts:

This Scripture shifts our attention to something profound. The Lord God of Heaven’s armies exhorts us to ask about the ancient paths in Jeremiah 6: 

16 Here is what Adonai says: 

“Stand at the crossroads and look;ask about the ancient paths,‘Which one is the good way?’Take it, and you will find rest for your souls.But they said, ‘We will not take it.’17 I appointed sentinels to direct them:‘Listen for the sound of the shofar.’But they said, ‘We will not listen.’18 So hear, you nations; know, you assembly,what there is against them.19 Hear, oh earth! I am goingto bring disaster on this people;it is the consequenceof their own way of thinking;for they pay no attention to my words;and as for my Torah, they reject it.