The Obedient Path
From "Notes on Deuteronomy" by C.H. Mackintosh
The Word of God does not suit man's thoughts; it judges them,
it stands in direct opposition to his will, it interferes
with his plans, and hence he rejects it. The human will
and human reason are ever in direct antagonism to the Word of
God, and the Christian must refuse both the one and the
other if he really desires to be divinely guided. An
unbroken will and blind reason, if we listen to them,
can only lead us into darkness, misery, and desolation.
Jonah would go to Tarshish, when he ought to have
gone to Nineveh; and the consequence was that he found himself
"in the belly of hell," with "the weeds wrapped about
his head." Jehoshaphat would go to Ramoth-gilead,
when he ought to have been at Jerusalem; and the consequence
was that he found himself surrounded by the swords
of the Syrians. The remnant, in the days of Jeremiah,
would go into Egypt, when they ought to have remained
at Jerusalem; and the consequence was that they died by the
sword, by the famine, and by the pestilencein the land
of Egypt, "whither they desired to go and to sojourn."
Thus it must ever be. The path of self-will is sure to
be a path of darkness and misery; it cannot be otherwise:
the path of obedience, on the contrary, is a path of peace,
a path of light, a path of blessing, a path on which the
beams of divine favor are ever poured in living lustre.
It may, to the human eye, seem narrow, rough, and lonely;
but the obedient soul finds it to be the path of life, peace,
and moral security. "The path of the just is as the shining
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
Blessed path! May the writer and the reader ever be
found treading it, with a steady step and earnest
purpose.