It is in this context of calling a wayward people back to God that Jeremiah confronts Jerusalem. Is that the type of people who are hearing the message of Jeremiah today? Are we the intended audience? Chances are, for the most part, we represent people who have already returned to God, and we don't need to hear a scathing, confrontive message intended for backsliders.

However, in this verse is some excellent advice regardless of where we may be in our relationship with the Lord. There are decisions being made every day - we frequently find ourselves at a "crossroad", and need guidance and wisdom in making godly decisions.

Notice with me that the verse can easily be divided into three parts: 1) Stand and Look; 2) Ask and Walk; 3) Rest or Refuse.

I. Stand - Look

In a moment of decision, it's important to stop and give careful consideration. There aren't many left, but RR crossings on our country roads say it well, "Stop, Look, Listen". The problem we constantly face is that we have become a culture of haste.

Just prior to the turn of the century, this commentary was printed in the "New York Times":

"The 20th century is being called the 'hundred-year madness'. It started with horses and hours. It ends with Maseratis and microseconds, with cars speeding across highways, airplanes streaking across skies, microprocessors burning across desktops and magnificent metal birds called Discovery, Endeavor and Columbia circling the earth. This century's mad dash of innovation has produced all of these things -- and the most frantic human era ever.

"We phone. We fax. We page. We e-mail. We stuff day planners. We race from one end of life to the other, rarely glancing over our shoulders. Technology, mass media and a desire to do more, do it better and do it yesterday have turned us into a world of hurriers.

"Stop and smell the roses? No more. Instead, better wake up and smell the coffee. What an exhilarating, exhausting world we've created - a world of seven-day diets and 24-hour news channels and one-hour photo processing and 30-minute pizza delivery and 10-minute facials and two-minute warnings and Minute Rice.

"Fast food. Fast computers. Fast cars in fast lanes. And Nestle Quik and Quik Marts and quick-cut commercials. A superhero faster than a speeding bullet and a bullet train faster than a speeding car. VCRs with five fast-forward settings. Sound bites and the rat race and instant coffee and microwave popcorn and radio stations that make a breathless promise: `You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world.'

"Get rich quick. Get fast-tracked. Get your 15 minutes of fame. Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse. Run on empty. Just do it.

"People do recognize this kind of hurry in their lives. They talk of fixing it, but they don't have the time. A survey conducted for Hilton hotels found 71 percent of Americans think time is moving too quickly, but only half of them would slow down if they could. And even fewer -- 43 percent -- don't think thinning their packed schedules would make them happier."

This is a snapshot of the world we live in, and I'm afraid that often the church falls into the same trap. We've become too hurried to stop and look, carefully consider the path we are about to go down.

Now may be the time for an important decision in your life. Please take the time necessary to carefully consider the alternatives. Of course we understand that our sight is limited and flawed, and we must depend on the guidance of Him who sees it all. But there is a partnership, we must use the faculties that have been given, and then trust in God for the ultimate direction.

When it comes to making this ultimate decision about life, Jesus says,

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13, 14)

Perhaps you remember from your American Literature class, the poem of Robert Frost where he captures some of this contemplative essence of the decision, and the fact that ours may not be the popular path. Listen to the first and last stanzas:

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.

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.

"The Road Less Travelled" by Robert Frost

Stand ye in the ways; to examine and decide which is the right way.

II. Ask - Walk

Men especially have trouble with the asking part. Dan Betzer tried to help women understand their husbands. He explained it this way, "If we're out on a trip and we say, 'I'm not lost, I know exactly where we are,' we're really saying, 'No one will ever see us alive again.'"

We men just don't want to admit it - we don't want to humble ourselves to ask for directions. And we sure don't want our wives to tell us where to go!

But let's make sure we get the picture. Adam Clarke, in his commentary on this verse, expresses it well when he writes:

"A traveller is going to a particular city; he comes to a place where the road divides into several paths, he is afraid of going astray; he stops short, endeavors to find out the right path: he cannot fix his choice. At last he sees another traveller; he inquires of him, gets proper directions, proceeds on his journey, arrives at the desired place, and reposes after his fatigue. The soul needs rest; it can only find this by walking in the good way. The good way is that which has been trodden by the saints from the beginning: it is the old way, the way of faith and holiness. BELIEVE, LOVE, OBEY; be holy, and be happy. This is the way; let us inquire for it, and walk in it."

It's important to note that there is a parallel between the "good" and the "ancient."

Find out about the old paths - This too is foreign to our culture. We don't want the old, we want the new. Old Fashioned, Old Foggie, Old Man, Old Woman, Old Hat - these are all negative, pejorative expressions. Old is passé, New is the order of the day.

This is also true when it comes to religion. The mood in America is "Do your own thing - create your own religion." How many times have we heard someone say, "I believe in God, but I like to do it my own way." Now we have pinned a name on it, it's the doctrine of the "New Age" - I am my own god.

In the quest for Independence, we have cut ourselves off from our past, and each is doomed to find his own way with no guidance from the ancients.

When we stand at the crossroads, we are called on to consider the old paths, the ones prescribed of old by God.

For those who take the good way, the ancient path, the way trodden by those who have been faithful through the years, there is a promise of rest. It's easy to leap from this to what Jesus said in Matthew 11:29 - "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."

What we understand is that what is available for the destination is also present for the journey. At the end there will be complete and eternal rest, but there's a piece of it that applies to our daily walk.

But then, on the other hand, Jeremiah's message ends with this terrible epitaph - "We will not walk in it." What can be of greater rebellion than this, to know the way, and refuse to walk in it.