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.’

The prophet Jeremiah called the people to repent and return to God, with a ministry that spanned the reigns of five of Judah’s kings: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. It is here that we find the people once again at the crossroad of choice, to follow God’s plan or continue down their own path. It reminds me of Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken”:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as far,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

One of the reasons that we find so little rest today is that we ignore God’s road. Crossroads always call us to make a decision, today God is calling to us at the crossroads of life and death. Yet the sad reality is that their choose involved ignoring God’s invitation. Unlike Frost who took the path less traveled they chose the well traveled road of culture. Today we stand at the crossroad of culture and Christ, which will we listen to, will it be the Lord or the lies? The crossroad of choice between traveling the highway of materialism or the Master. In our society it is easy to buy into the lie of money and more, yet we find fullness of life through faith in Jesus Christ. It’s not through anything we can buy or become, its not found in acceptance or our achievements but in the Almighty. Which path will we choose, in what direction will we go? The Bible is filled with God calling to His people to make a decision. In Joshua 24:15 Joshua challenged the Israelites to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” A few hundred years later, on Mount Carmel Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him….” 1Kings 18:21. Why does God seem to constantly be calling to His people to make a choice? Because to decide not to decide, is to decide. We need to make a decision, a choice, make up our minds. This path comes with a promise, it is a road that results in rest, rest for your soul, a choice with eternal consequences. Will we chose the road of rest or restlessness? Today many say they want the path of peace yet instead they choose a path plagued with problems. Here we find God giving us four commandments, stand, see, speak, and seek:

STAND
If we want to experience rest for our souls then we need to listen to the one speaking, we need to stop and stand. The command of standing requires us first to stop, a call that runs counter to our culture. A culture that calls us to go first and figure it out later, we want to walk not wait. The value of standing is that it creates a pause where we can ponder and ultimately pursue God’s plan. Standing creates room for stillness, something our culture is growing increasingly uncomfortable with.

SEE
Pausing provides an opportunity to look and see the choice before us, but in the call to be counted successful within our society or just survive it we fail to pause and often just pass right on by. In the rush to come, conquer and consume we miss the crossroad, failing to see our choice. The call of Christ is drowned in the turbulent currents of our culture. We fail to see because we never really look, we don’t take time to smell the roses. We miss the rose of redemption with its sweet sent of salvation, its perfume of peace. Trudging on instead we miss the truth, while the lingering oder of death and decay swirls around us. There is no rest for the soul stuck in the swirling stream of sin. In the midst of this mad rush comes the compassionate call of Christ, stop, stand, and see, consider what is and what could be. Without stillness we will never really see. Today will you purpose to pause, will you linger long enough to look and really see?

SPEAK
After standing and seeing we are next called to speak, what is interesting here is that only after stillness are we invited to speak. As the words of the Savior soak in, stand, see and then speak, we soon realize how reversed our lives really are. I fear that today most of our speaking is not done out of stillness, yet it is only after stopping standing and seeing that we are invited to speak. The word “ask” is repeatedly used in Scripture to express making a personal request for God’s guidance. Israel and Judah often faced divine judgment because they continually failed to ask for God’s guidance. Just like our modern day man refusing to stop and ask for directions, preferring instead, because of pride, to drive around refuse to admit they are lost. But not all ignored the advice of the Almighty. In I Samuel 23:1-2 David asked for God’s guidance before going to battle against the Philistines. The Scriptures tells us: “Now they told David, ‘The Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.’ David inquired of the LORD, ‘Shall I go and attack these Philistines?’ The LORD said to David, ‘Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.’” David was victorious because he did not run ahead of God in his own strength and power but sought the Lord’s guidance through prayer. Whenever I wait upon the Lord and seek His direction, I am never disappointed, but whenever I run ahead of God and do it “my way” its always a mess. At all your crossroads in life, “Stand still, and ask for God to guide and direct you in all your decisions before you take any action. Notice what we are to ask for, “ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is.” We are to ask for the good way not the golden one, today I fear that in our pursuit for happiness we have missed holiness. We ask God to fix our problems, to smooth out our rough roads, to make the ride comfortable, without any recognition that we may be on the wrong road. The call here is about asking which road to take, not fixing the one we want to take. How much of what we ask for would change if we would first stopped and see the good path? Today how much of your asking is done on the run? Christ’s call is for us to be proactive in our prayer not reactive, ask first then proceed. Yet many instead cry Lord rescue me while running headlong into ruin. Today we don’t ask we demand. So let me ask you, are you praying while pausing or just in passing?

SEEK
As you contemplate the call of Christ, you see it is both, logical and loving, stand, see, speak and then seek. Yet we rush past the crossroads without ever contemplating the call of Christ, we forge our own path while ignoring His plan. We only call on Him after we crash, and then only for a quick fix, failing to even considering that what we may need is not new parts but a new path. If that is the path we want to pursue then may be what we need is to be left stranded in our stubbornness. Many while stuck on the highway of their own foolish desire, grow angry with the Almighty, questioning His love, while failing to see that they ignored the sigh to His highway of hope, clear back at the crossroad. So to whom will you look? This is God’s invitation to turn to Him for guidance and direction in life. Yet His people would respond “we will not walk in it!” Instead of responding to His redemptive plan they rebelled. Today we too find ourselves at the crossroads of choice, between rest and ruin. Which path will you pursue, Christ’s or the cultures? The Almighty is inviting us to take the ancient path, this is not some new philosophy but a proven path to rest. Moving forward involves looking back, yet today in our pursuit of progress we often ignore the past. God was reminding His people to look back, to consider the path their forefathers had pursued. As we submit to stand at the Crossroads, looking to Jesus, asking for His guidance, and walking in His ways we will find rest for our souls. We will experience peace of mind and freedom from worry, regardless of the trials, hardships, difficulties hurts, pains, sorrows, or problems we may face.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one CHRIST traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Which road will you take, rest or ruin?

Matthews 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Throughout the scriptures Jesus regularly invited people to come to Him, which is the first of His three commands leading to rest. Second we will experience rest for our souls as we also obey Jesus’ command to:

2. TAKE MY YOKE (upon you)
At first these seems like a strange thing to say, even counter productive, given the fact that we are already weary and burdened. The last thing we need is one more thing to carry, yet Jesus is not calling us to add one more thing, this is a call of exchange. A yoke was a harness used to connect a pair of oxen, hence a pair of connected oxen was typically called a yoke of oxen. Jesus was using this metaphorically, referring to submission to the teacher, in New Testament times the phrase, “to take the yoke of” was used by rabbi’s to refer to becoming a submitted pupil of a teacher. It is used six times in the New Testament, the word has two dominant figurative ideas. First the yoke of rules and religion, this is mans yoke. Acts 15 spells out the yoke of following rules and a religious system to be accepted by God: – “After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” Acts 15:7-11. This is the way many people have been taught, they try to relate to God, through rules and religion. But this is not the “my yoke” that Jesus speaks of, He was referring to the second, the yoke of relationship. Jesus said that His yoke is easy and I think that this is in part due to the fact that His yoke is “well fitted.” Only His yoke fits the need, only His way works. Rules and religion will never fit the need, because our need is for a personal relationship, that longing in your heart is for Love not legalism. At our core we all want to be wanted, and religion reminds us that if we do this and that, if we work harder, if we measure up, then may be then we will be accepted. Relationship doesn’t focus on doing but being, its not about working but walking together, its not about a list its about life together. Religion always restricts, it binds us to the bondage of trying to achieve, instead relationship reaches out, it grabs us by the hand, meeting us where we are, but not leaving us there. Religion is always that hill you can never quite surmount, your always part way, always looking up at the next obstacle and how far you still have to go. Relationship removes the obstacle, it calls us to stand together on its highest peak looking out. Religion always focuses on the failures, relationship on the freedom we have through forgiveness. Yahweh’s yoke is easy compared to the man made religious yokes, His burden is light compared to the burden of human effort. This is the invitation, to trade in your yoke of rules and regulations for one of relationship, where you get to trade your “I have to” for “I get to.” Jesus said MY Yoke, only as we take up HIS yoke do we find rest for our souls. So which yoke have you been under, Jesus’ or man’s? For we access all that God has for us through our choices. His yoke pictures three things:

● Connection, this is the “Be with Me.” Yokes are made for two, not one, we were not meant to go through life living apart from God. How much of our sin stems from solo living? Trying on our own instead of living with The Lord? Today much of Christianity consists of going it alone only and only calling on God when we get stuck. We resort to calling on God only if we have to, it reminds me of the famous phrase from Corrie ten boom who so eloquently asked is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? We may think we are independent but in truth we are all connected to something, and without Christ we become tethered to trying instead of trusting. Christ’s yoke fits well, it is lighter than the one we’ve been pulling by ourselves. So let me ask you what are you connected to is it Jesus?

● Direction this is the “Follow Me.” The idea and whole point of a yoke is the forward motion of the two connected together. A yoke is not a picture of prison but rather of progress. May people have lives that are spiraling out of control going backwards or at best going no where because without the leading of Christ its just chaos. Yet here is the challenge to being yoked to Jesus, you can’t go your own way anymore. We submit to follow Him and His direction for our life. So let me ask you who are you follow is it Jesus?

● Cooperation this is the “Work with Me.” To be yoked together means that we cooperate with Him and His work. Before we come to Jesus, we are living for this side of eternity, but when we become yoked to Him, we are joined to His work where we discover that our lives can make an eternal impact. So let me ask you, are you working with or against God? Rest is the result of obedience and we are either resting in Him or wrestling with Him. The fatal mistake of most believers is to seek to bear life’s load alone. The secret to rest for the soul is found in casting off the yoke of self for one with the Savior. Third we will experience rest for our souls as we also obey Jesus’ command to:

3. LEARN FROM ME
We are to learn from the Lord, but the great question is are you open to learning? All of us are ignorant, until we willingly submit to learn from the Lord. When we come and take up His yoke, the process of learning begins. The first thing we learn is gentleness, this is not weakness but strength under control. Religion can be cold and harsh, but Jesus describes Himself as gentle. He invites us to come with our cares and concerns, to pour out our deepest, darkest fears. 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” He is not harsh with our hurts, but gentle, He understands our pain for He knows what it is to hurt, but He also has the strength to heal. What we need to learn most is that He wants to love us. Second we learn humility, this is selflessness. Often religion is rude, and what we experience is anger and arrogance. Our humble Savior cares, it was the hungry, the hurting and the lost that were drawn to Jesus because He cared for them and met their needs. The Lord longs to teach us how to cast off the blinders of selfishness, to see like the Savior. You see to look at the lost through the Lords eyes is to trade our wants for weeping.

One day a man went by to see a farmer who was plowing his field with a team of oxen. The man noticed that one of the animals was seemingly a little bigger than the other so he asked him about it. The response from the farmer was very interesting. He said that the big animal was an older animal that was well trained and the smaller one was a young animal that was new to the yoke. The man went on to inquire as to why he put them together and this is the answer that He got,
“Well you see, it’s like this. That older ox is the best ox that I have ever had; he knows his way around the field. The reason I put the younger one with him is so the older, more knowledgeable ox could teach him how to plow. If I never put them together the younger one would never learn. By himself the younger ox would pull himself to death, but together he learns to cooperate with and rest in the strength of the older ox.” Does your life feel like the ox whose pulling himself to death? True rest is found in obedience to Jesus’ commands. COME to Me, TAKE My yoke upon you, LEARN from Me. Today you are invited to rest in the Redeemer, will you come?