Dave's Diary

Today we start a four-week season of focussing on various “Ancient Paths”. This is a reference to Jeremiah 6:16 in which God’s people are commanded to

“‘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.”

Of course, in general, these Ancient Paths refer to ways of everyday living which align with God’s will.
But they are also ways we relate to God Himself. In this latter sense, we may think of them as “means of grace” – channels by which God’s love, grace and power are transmitted to our lives.

We’ll be considering four “ancient paths” over the next four weeks, and today we start our consideration of the ancient path of listening to God through study and meditation on His written Word, the Bible.

Daily Reading: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

When he gave these instructions to the Israelites, Moses had just reminded them of the way God had given them the Ten Commandments and inscribed them on tablets of stone (see Deut. 5). It’s these written commandments to which he refers in Deut. 6:6. And then Moses presents to them a description of a life lived under the influence of these written words of God. He speaks of impressing them on one’s heart and on one’s children; and of creating a life, family and community that are saturated with these written words by placing visible reminders of them in multiple places, carrying them with one wherever one goes and speaking about them at every opportunity. This is a call to a “Word-Soaked life”.

What’s most important in this passage, though, is the motive for living such a Word-soaked life. God’s people are called to soak ourselves in the written Word of God so that we will know and understand how to love God (v.5). When we love God, we long to please Him. When we love Him with all our heart, soul and strength, our desire to please Him will overpower every other lower desire. But we can only know how to love God, when we come to know God Himself and what pleases God. And the surest way to know what is pleasing to God, and hence how to love Him, is through His written Word.

Holy Spirit create in me a longing to love the LORD more today than the day before, by knowing Him better today than the day before, by being more faithful to the study of His written self-revelation than the day before. Amen.