by A.W. Tozer
"I being in the way," explained
Eliezer, "the Lord led me."
(Genesis 24:27, KJV)The circumstances were these: When Abraham was old and well stricken in age he called to him his faithful servant Eliezer and commissioned him to go on a long journey into Mesopotamia to procure a wife for Isaac, Abraham's well-beloved son. This was in the far-seeing plan of God and required a man of real faith and consecration to carry it out. The man must have unusual wisdom that he might be led to the right place and fix on the right girl. It looked like a difficult and complicated task, too much indeed for any man to accomplish, but Eliezer came through victoriously. He simply obeyed and God did the rest. He took the appointed way and the Lord led him. It was as simple as that.
Three hundred years later God said to Israel, "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared" (Exodus 23:20). Throughout the Old Testament and on into the New a way is set before men, and over that way the angel of the Lord hovers day and night, guarding and blessing all who faithfully walk in it. They have only to stay in the ordained path to assure the continued fellowship of God.
God's blessing follow the "way" as green vegetation the river. God never varies from the way; He never compromises nor approves a detour. There is just one way, no more, and our present success and future happiness depend upon our finding and following that way.
In the Scriptures the Lord is pictured as a Shepherd walking before His sheep, leading them through the dangerous wilderness of this world. Yet in Isaiah 30:21 it is written, "Your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, `This is the way; walk in it.' "Why does the voice of the Lord sound from behind us instead of coming as usual from before? The rest of the verse makes it clear, "whether you turn to the right or to the left." Whenever we turn our backs on the way, the voice comes from behind us. The Lord never leaves the way. Always His voice sounds in the way and if we wander from it we can only hear a voice behind us, never in front.
The story of the rich young ruler illustrates this further. As Christ watched the young ruler walk away from Him He could speak only from behind him. And as the distance between the two increased, so much more faintly sounded the voice of Jesus in the young man's ears. That was and could be only tragedy for the erring man. Christ calls men to Him. He never leaves the true way to go to them.
Most of the troubles of Christians result from their leaving the way of the Lord to walk in paths of their own choosing. This is justified on the grounds that it is merely an adaptation to the times, a wise adjustment to the changing tastes of modern men. Paul's words, "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some, " are lifted out of context and used to give apostolic authority to a bewildering variety of religious frivolities of which prophet or apostle never dreamed. Christians find themselves on unscriptural bypaths far from the plain way of the cross and, assuming they are on the right way, they pray day and night for God to lead them and bless their journey. But their prayers are worse than wasted. By leaving the way of the Lord they cut themselves off from divine assistance. No amount of frantic pleading can save them from disaster.
We can save ourselves a lot of desperate praying for help that never comes if we will but obey the plain teachings of the Scriptures and walk in the way they point out for us. We congratulate ourselves these days that we are more "enlightened" than were those rugged old men of Bible times, but I think we can learn a lot from the man who, more than 3,500 years ago, testified, "I being in the way, the Lord led me."
( Article taken from The Price of Neglect, Chapter 37 )
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