Out Our Way: Old 'new' trails - Isaiah 46:1-4

Out our way, one discovers that there are many trails to follow and not all lead to where you want or need to go. I certainly got mixed up more than a few times and I suspect I was smarter than the cows we had to move, although at times I think Charlie might argue that. Even with an idea of why we were moving the herd and where we were going, I still took a wrong trial at times thinking it was a shortcut or because it looked easier than the one we were on. But Charlie knew the area and the trails and would call me back. And when a boss cow started leading her troop down the wrong trail, Charlie remind them who the real boss was and got them turned around.

At the end of the drive, usually to new pasture and filled reservoirs, whether the cattle understood and were grateful — not too likely — Charlie and I were satisfied. We knew the grass was short and the water drying out where they had been, and that the move was for their sake even when they protested.

Now, it may be wishful thinking or pure imagination, but it seemed to me some of the older cows sort of knew who Charlie was and trusted him. They tended to go where he pointed them without much complaint or resistance. It tended to be the new cows — the young ones who had no trail experience — who protested the loudest and tried to lead others astray. As is not uncommon among the inexperienced youth who have not yet developed trail wisdom, they believed they know better. They ignored the “boss” cows who had learned the ways of the Tiger Ridge and to trust the Big Boss — Charlie — to guide them on the right trail. And, every year, some would run off down trails that led nowhere and get lots. But Charlie — and, over time, I — knew where the false trails led and would go get them and bring them back despite their complaints and certainty that they — young, strong, and sure of themselves — knew more than the rancher or the lead cows. Sure that they had discovered a new and better trail than one the old ones followed, they would bellow to other greenhorn cows who were just as foolish and inexperienced to come join them. Some did, but “new” trails had been tried many times by other foolish and inexperienced cattle, and always led to the same dead ends. The old boss cows knew that as did Charlie and I, and while they might delight in their delusional rambles for a time, we would always come get them and lead them back to the right trail. After all, they are only cows.

Of course, humans can lack trail sense and be as foolish as cows — and history has shown us many false trails that keep getting “rediscovered” by ignorant folks. As the English philosopher, George Santayana put it, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” As cows have no recorded history nor the ability to study it, they may be excused for not knowing better — but human beings are a different case. In the Isaiah passage, the old false trails of paganism and idolatry had again been lifted up as the new road. Israel, as it may be recalled, lost the Holy Land because too few bothered to remember the past. The 10 tribes of the North forgot and followed Baal and other pagan gods because they were “new” and different from the faith learned during the Exodus as Moses led them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Swallowed up by the secularism and idolatry of the pop culture of the day, they took the false trail and are lost. Ignoring the old bosses and the prophets, the new leaders loudly proclaimed a “new trail,” and led the 10 tribes of Israel back into slavery and oblivion.

In the south, the kingdom of Judah fared little better. Though they had the Temple and a certain smugness about their superiority to their brothers and sisters who had perished in the north, they to began to be led by young trail foolish leaders who declared the old trail of paganism and idolatry was a “new trail.” In time, the popular cult of the day led to the destruction of the Temple and the nation. Judah was taken into Babylon — Iraq. Isaiah had cried out and warned that the “new” trail was actually an old one that led nowhere — but he was an “old fashioned fuddy duddy” locked in the past. Besides, the new leadership was more popular and exciting. That their “new” — ancient — theology was wrong and had led to disaster time and time again was rejected. Bellowing and urging other foolish folks to follow, they took the old trail — that they claimed was new — and led as many as they could astray. The result was, as it had always been, a dead end and destruction. Israel ceased to exist as a nation and remained alive only because of a faithful few who refused to be bullied into taking the “new” old trail that led nowhere. They had studied history and the past and, in Babylon, they began to write down and organize the scrolls that told the history of God’s people in what today we call the Old Testament.

Even in Babylon, Isaiah reminded the people that while they had forgotten the past, God had not forgotten them. And, indeed, history would repeat itself, for after 70 years, a new Exodus led many of the faithful few back to Judah to rebuild the Temple and reclaim the promise of the Promised Land.

Today we see in politics and even in the Church those who claim that they have found “new” trail and urge anyone they can to abandon the old. The Bible is ignored and rejected by some clergy as is the Constitution and World History 101 by some politicians. The authority of the Scripture and the Gospel is called “fundamentalism,” while hate speech is now called free speech and free speech is called divisive, bigoted, and intolerable. This is nothing new, just the old dead end trail being rediscovered and declared to be the new trail with the same old results. “Those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.”

But back to Isaiah and the lessons I learned on the trail. Though the foolish who lack trail sense may lead many down the wrong trails, the Boss does not give up on them. As Charlie went after those foolish cattle who were sure their trail — that led nowhere and to their eventual destruction — was superior to the one that actually did get them to fresh pasture and water, so God continues to uphold His promise to lead His people in the way of life and wholeness even when they stampede in the opposite direction. If those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, then so also those who pay attention to history will have cause to hope.

As God declared through the prophet Isaiah, “Even to your old age and grey hairs, I am He; I am He who will sustain you.” (Is 46:4)

Blessings,

Brother John Bruington