Obstacle Course (Rewind)
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:6 NASB
Straight– The root word (yashar) means to be level, straight, just or lawful. In its derivations, it is often connected with the idea of law keeping and uprightness. It frequently means to make a straight and level path, free of obstacles. This is the kind of path made for a king. Some translations of this verse read “he shall direct your path” but that isn’t quite the right sense. God doesn’t push you out on your way without making the road ahead straight and clear. He doesn’t hand you a map and tell you to check in with Him when you reach the destination. He levels the path for you. It is both the work of God for man, as in this verse, and also the work of man for God (Isaiah 40:3). Uprightness is a lifestyle characterized by being blameless and blamelessness is a determination based on God’s standards.
It is common in military training to run an obstacle course. The intention is to develop agility, strength and perseverance. Too often we think of our lives in military terms, as if God sets us out on an obstacle course to see if we have the stamina to remain faithful. But that’s not what this verse suggests. God is actively engaged in clearing the path, like the man on the Olympic curling team who sweeps the ice as the stone moves toward its target. His job is to make sure nothing impedes the progress of the stone. God takes on the same role. He makes sure nothing impedes our progress toward His objective.
Of course, we often think that He isn’t doing His job very well because from our perspective it doesn’t seem as if the stone is heading straight for the target. But our view is defective. The only thing that stands in the way of God achieving His objective is us! That’s right, the Accuser has no ability to block God’s purposes without God’s permission. There aren’t any evil demons who are able to divert God’s plans unless they are allowed to do so. As long as we are obedient, God’s objective is achieved without interference. And when we are disobedient, we delay God, we do not defeat Him.
God grants us the ability to recognize His law and to walk in it. In one important derivative, this word is an attributive adjective of God Himself, emphasizing His righteousness and His reign over all people. The person who is judged to have straight paths from God’s viewpoint is said to have that quality of heart that enables him to be obedient to God’s will. This promise claims that our dependence (trust) on God will allow Him to straighten out our lives. We do not need to struggle with the mechanics of how this will be done. We are asked only to trust Him and not ourselves, and He will do the rest. Of course, trust in Hebrew is an actionword. We don’t wait passively for God to “fix” everything. We dowhat He asks, as soon as He asks it, in the confidence that this action will move us down the path He has made for us. It is a blessing for us to know that God is willing and able to repair what we have damaged if we only surrender ourselves to Him in all our endeavors. After years of struggling, it is a wonderful promise of grace to realize that our lives can be characterized by blamelessness and discernment. God does work miracles. This verse makes it clear. All of the crooked paths, all of the bends and curves, all of the mess that we have made, He will straighten. It is going to be painful, but the result will be a life of blameless freedom.
Topical Index: straight, yashar, path, Proverbs 3:6
How many twists and turns it took me
to finally realize the truth Skip writes about
today. God is not only WITH us, He does
in fact go before us to MAKE the crooked
places straight.
Once you get on His track by faith and submissive
obedience, you begin to vividly see His hand in all
that happens to you. To this day, I still find this to be
truly remarkable. But it has sure helped to grow my faith
and to keep my loving obedience to Him as my highest
priority.
In my experience (like Skip points out above) YHVH straightened my paths by straightening me. He “brought me into straight (hard) places” (KJV old term); He “straightened me out” at the end of a “rod of correction”; He “told me straight” about how I was being a part of the problem instead of part of the solution; He told me to “straighten up” my obedience to His laws – both moral and health; and He opened my eyes (discernment) to the real reasons why I was having such a hard time so that I could see straight and quit falling into my ditches over and over. I am telling this to y’all straight, too.
When I got straight enough to get out of His way, He had His way with my problems and they got blasted good, but because I was out of my own way as well as His, I didn’t get blasted, too. The problems seemed to get cleared up just about as fast as I got cleared up. That has been a real head scratcher. Good TW.
Good day, I recently have been reading Rabbi Jonathan sacks for a while. Not the deep deep judaic Mystic sense, but his common everyday life from covenant & conversation. She most often pregnancy and not only the judaic belief, but also brings in the Christian belief. The one true God. His writings are sometimes amazing. She’s currently been working on a little cartoon sketch that is a video. Which has led me to Rabbi David fohrman. Boy has he got Messianic beliefs within is teachings. Eating to the point of doing a sketch on a paradigm shift. Wow this is blowing my mind. God will use any angle to get me at peace with myself. Rabbi foeman has an excellent
Video that he even wrote a book about it. It’s called The Beast that crouches at the door. It brings me to be at peace with my own inner being to get the spirit that God gave me.
This, to me, is such an excellent word today. You said, “ God makes sure that nothing impedes our growth towards his objective“. Now, when we get stuck or off course,( at this point we may be tempted to say “screw it” and keep going in our own direction) sometimes the means that God uses (or allows) to get us unstuck and back on course can be quite painful. Depending how ingrained our resistance might be or how bent we might be! At this point in reading today’s word I ended up going to my bookshelf and pulling the book “The Hidden Beast” in hopes of getting further instruction from the Holy Spirit in these regards. The whole idea of transformation, so much of the time, seems to be what is being done to us, instead of with us. We are an essential part of our own transformation. It’s interesting how sometimes God lets life have its way with us so that we will spend time reflecting on what is going on within us. If that makes any sense at all. Trying to pull some thoughts out of my soul this morning. Maybe we all still have a certain degree of “prodigal“ within us. We are being refined as we submit!?
“ It is a blessing for us to know that God is willing and able to repair what we have damaged if we only surrender ourselves to Him”. That’s a wonderful word for me today. At my 52 years of age i had been informed that my biological dad is alive. At his 94 yrs of age he realized that it is time to repair some damage he caused some 49 yrs ago, when he decided lo live his life… his way. I can only sing songs of praises to Yahweh…I do not know this human being, I only know that i had been given the opportunity to meet him, to say hi and maybe being there when he says his goodbye to this world. Thank you Skip, love this TW!