Jeremiah 18:15
Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
God's people forgot Him and turned to vanity, to worthless idols and empty substitutes and futile worship in place of Him. The ancient paths are the safe and right and established way He set before them, while the paths they chose are ways of their own devising that have not been prepared or cast up or made safe. By leaving His way for those unprepared ways they caused themselves and others to stumble from the right way, and that departure brings desolation and judgment and disgrace and spiritual ruin and dishonor to God. It rebukes teachers who left the safe paths by treating students with excessive severity and failing to keep the vulnerable from stumbling, and it applies to keeping the work centered in one place despite counsel to spread out, choosing convenience and human wisdom with resulting confusion and lack. It applies to turning from God's word and wisdom and provisions of salvation to the ideas of unbelievers and worldly authors and human speculation, and to seeking guidance from those who do not trust and obey God instead of looking to Him as the source of counsel. It describes those who refuse the call to amend their ways and persist in their own plans and resist correction until left to their own perverted imaginations, forsaking the pure snow of Lebanon for turbid streams of the valley, while remaining close to God requires time for prayer and Scripture and worship and keeping grace in the heart.
Leaving the Ancient Paths
Because God's people forgot Him they burned incense to vanity, turning to worthless idols and empty, futile worship and substitutes for Him. That forgetting was not mere neglect but a turning away from the way He had set before them to ways of their own choosing. In refusing His call to amend their ways and persisting in their own plans, their resistance to correction showed the same departure from His way.
The ancient paths are the safe, right and established way God appointed for His people. The paths to which they turned are ways of their own choosing that have not been established as right, nor prepared, cast up or made safe. Leaving what is safe for what is unprepared and misguided is itself a rejection of the way God set before them.
By that leaving they caused themselves and others to stumble from the right way, leading the people away from the ancient paths into unestablished ways. Teachers who so depart fail to make straight paths that keep the vulnerable from stumbling. Their conduct leaves them in controversy with God and under His judgment, so they must examine and judge themselves.
That departure brings desolation and judgment, disgrace and spiritual ruin and dishonor to God. Those who follow their own counsel will face calamity, and those who reject God's way for a chosen, misguided course and resist correction are left to their own perverted imaginations. Even with clear spiritual light and evidence received, persisting in such a course brings rebuke and judgment.
Warnings for God's People
Jeremiah 18:12-15 warns that forgetting God leads His people into false worship and away from the ancient, safe paths into ways that cause them to stumble, and this rebukes teachers who have departed from God's way. That departure is seen when those entrusted with students treat them with excessive severity instead of making straight paths that keep the vulnerable from stumbling. Such conduct puts teachers in controversy with God and under His judgment, even though they have received great light and clear evidence, and they must examine and judge themselves.
The same forgetting of God and abandoning of the ancient paths for misguided ways of their own devising is shown when the work is kept centered in Battle Creek despite repeated counsel to spread into other cities. Choosing what was more convenient and relying on human wisdom rather than returning to God's way brought confusion and scarcity of means. That confusion and lack of means were the fruit of disobedience to God's guidance in preferring empty, unprepared paths over the established right way.
The verse also exposes turning from God's word, wisdom, and provisions of salvation to the ideas of unbelievers, worldly authors, and human speculation. Seeking wisdom from human speculation instead of God's word leaves the pure source that could refresh the soul for polluted streams. To prefer the ideas of unbelief to God's plan of salvation and the life-giving wisdom He provides is to forsake Him for empty substitutes and stray into ways that have not been established, causing people to stumble.
Forgetting Him and leaving the ancient, established paths for ways that have not been prepared or made safe includes seeking guidance from those who do not trust or obey God instead of looking to God as the source of wisdom and counsel. Turning to worthless objects of worship in this way causes His people to stumble as they follow an unsafe course.
In its wider context the verse describes people who refuse God's call to amend their ways and persist in their own plans. Their resistance to correction reflects the same departure from the ancient right way into idolatry and unprepared paths. Rejecting God's way for a chosen, misguided course brings spiritual ruin, and those who resist correction are left to their own perverted imaginations.
Jeremiah 18:14-15 presents this turning from what is pure to corrupt ways in the image of forsaking Lebanon's pure snow for the valley's turbid streams. Forgetting God in this way leads people away from what is pure and toward corruption. Remaining close to Him requires time for prayer and Scripture, worship, and keeping the oil of grace in the vessel.