Walking the Ancient Paths: Preparing Your Lamp for His Coming

Do you have enough oil in your lamp? Gas prices are on the rise because the supply is down. War has caused a blockade resulting in shortages in available oil. The world is in turmoil and has been in a tumultuous state for some time. Does this mean we are near the end, is the world at a tipping point? Surely it has been like this before. History reveals wars and famines and great natural calamity. What makes this time different? Try having this conversation with a non-believer or a general skeptic and you will find them saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?”

Peter writes this very thing. In 2 Peter 3:3-4 he writes; “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.‘” Are we living in the time of scoffers? Haven’t scoffers always been around?

Ecclesiastes 1:9 says it best; “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Does this mean that time is just one giant loop with no end? John who writes Revelation tells us there is coming a time of great struggle and calamity, the likes of which have never been seen before. A world wide catastrophic sequence of events. How does one prepare for such a time? Do you have enough oil to see you through the darkest time in history?

Luckily, the oil being talked about here isn’t found in the ground, it isn’t suffering from shortages, nor effected by blockades. War will not defeat it nor skeptics denials hinder it. The oil is available in abundance for everyone but few seek the source. Many claim to seek the source but they don’t want the commitment so they say it with their mouths but their hearts are far from. Yahoshua said, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” (Matthew 15:8-9)

The passage Yahoshua is drawing from is Isaiah 29:13 – “And YHWH said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment taught by men.” Where is the disconnect? Why the contempt for the Way of Yahoshua, who we are told to imitate. This would include keeping the Sabbaths as He did, the Feasts of YHWH as He did, the Commandments and Statutes of the Father . . . as He did.

Jeremiah prophesied of a time such as this when he recorded the words of YHWH. “This is what YHWH says, “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Still even after YHWH says this He tells us the response of the people. “But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’” How is it that the modern church has lost its discernment for the ways of Elohim? How have they fallen so far into their own traditions of men? Why do they cry out every Sunday, “We will not walk in it!?

YHWH continues speaking through Jeremiah, “I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.’” Currently as I write this we are in the midst of the Fall Feasts, Yom Teruah has passed and Yom Kippur is a few days away. The Trumpets called us to attention, reflection and repentance, the atonement for our sins IS conditional upon our repentance and acceptance of the promise of forgiveness and new life in Messiah. IF we live as He lived. Not in our own strength or perfection or righteousness but through the power of the Holy Spirit who causes us to walk out the Covenant with Elohim the Father. Yet still as YHWH spoke through Jeremiah, “But they answered, ‘We will not listen!’

We who follow the ancient paths are not earning our salvation by keeping the Commands of Elohim. We are not earning but responding in love to the Creator of all things, “Yes, and Amen, to Your Ways, by Your grace, You have made away for us. Help us to walk the ancient paths that we might honor You, Adonai our King.”

It is time to wake up, it is time to hear the trumpets call, to go and buy oil for your lamps. For the groom is approaching and it is time for the bride to make herself ready. Do not ignore the call and find yourself unprepared.

“But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him. ’Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. ’But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. ’And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Adonai, Adonai, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Matthew 25:6-13

You are loved,
cj