Slideshow image

             Since the days of Adam and Eve human beings have sought to go their own way. In spite of the fact that God had provided explicit instructions to the first man regarding what they could and could not eat. “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden you may feely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it…” (Genesis 2:9,16-17). However, Eve and Adam decided to walk their way rather than God’s. “And the woman…did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6). That is only the first of a long line of examples from the days of Adam to those of the prophet Jeremiah where man decided to go his own way.
            God had greatly blessed the descendants of Israel and they had become a great nation only because of his blessings, but they became enamored with the ways of the ungodliness seen in other cultures and customs, and so much so that Jeremiah wrote “Learn not the way of the ungodly…” (Jeremiah 10:2). How disheartening it was for God to see a people that he had blessed and raised up with much love and mercy turn away from him and extinguish the light of truth in their lives only to replace it with darkness. They had become enamored with the ways of the world and the prophet said concerning their new gods “For one cut a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with an ax. They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it should not move” (Jeremiah 10:4). How futile was their way in turning from the living God who had blessed them to worship the creation. They had learned it from the nations around them.
            That same pattern has been seen among the people of God in the Old and New Testaments and down through the centuries. The principle was summed up with the word of the prophet Jeremiah writing specifically concerning these things. “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). The context of these words concerns human beings in general, but also when the people of God turn to the world for answers.
            When the apostle Paul wrote to the young preacher, he pointed him to the direction of God and not to the world’s philosophies. “And you from a child you have know the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation…all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect (complete), thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
            The Lord’s church is in the unique position of being able to take the good news of salvation to the world. The way of man is not in himself to direct himself or find salvation. Human beings need help and guidance from the word of God and the Lord’s church must do that. Let us always hold forth the word of truth so that the world will know which way to go.