February 7, 2010
A Smooth Path
I’d like to share with our readers some thoughts from the book “The Gospel According to Job” by Mike Mason. In it the author says and I paraphrase: In most religions, spiritual progress is represented by the arduous path that we have to climb to reach the top of a mountain. The route is difficult, treacherous, almost impassable. This pervasive image projects the impression that spiritual progress is a task that is only achieved by few, and only through this process of individual effort. As a consequence, sometimes we view spiritual progress as a human achievement, much like graduation or promotion or winning the heart of the person you love.
However, the Bible presents the path of righteousness with a totally different metaphor: a level path.
Isaiah 26:7 The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth
Isaiah 40:4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain
I imagine that, most of Israel’s land being rough and uneven, with hills, mountains, and cliffs all over the place, and relatively small or narrow plains and valleys, the image of a level path or level ground represents more accurately God’s work of salvation. Righteousness is not attained by strenuous human effort. It is attained by staying on the path that God has made for us!
The author even points out that Jesus had a solution for mountains, and I quote: “Why go to all the trouble of climbing a mountain if by faith you can have it thrown into the sea (see Mark 11:23)?”
J De Anda