Back when I was teaching school, a new school building was built, but there were no sidewalks yet to take students and others from one building to another. I remember someone questioning the superintendent, Al Whitten, about the lack of sidewalks on which to get around. I distinctly remember Mr. Whitten’s reply. He said, “When you see where students are going to walk, you build sidewalks.” Whoever would have thought about letting the students determine where the sidewalks were going to be! To me, that was a good bit of wisdom and insight. Every one of us has been where there were sidewalks on which to walk, but people created their own walkway, which was usually the quickest and shortest way to get to their desired destination. Those walkways were usually bare because the grass was trampled so much.
When God created the earth and all that is in it, “He saw every thing that He had made and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God created only good, but He did have one exhortation for Adam and Eve as he said, “You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” (v. 17). God’s walking plan was perfect and simple. He had one rule, and He expected Adam and Eve to stay on the sidewalk. However, that old serpent, the devil, knew how to tempt Adam and Eve to get them to sin, and we know how that worked out!
We read in Genesis 6:5-7, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth… and it repented the Lord that He had made man and it grieved Him at His heart and He said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth…’” At this point, God saw how men were going to walk, and He determined to destroy them.
Yet, aren’t we thankful for Brother Noah? “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord… the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence… and God said I will destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:8-13). At God’s commandment, righteous Noah built the ark, and he and his were saved from the flood. Afterward, Noah’s family began to repopulate the earth. Noah was righteous and did things God’s way rather than his way. He stayed on the sidewalk that God established.
As time passed, though, men began walking in their own ways that sinful men walk. They built their own sidewalks. God saw how this was playing out, and He came up with a better plan that would put men back on the best walkway to get them to the desired destination. [Rather than being reactionary, God foreknew man’s departures from His commands (Acts 2:23; 15:18), and He devised a plan for mankind’s redemption before He created anything (1 Peter 1:20; Titus 1:2-3). ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
God sent His only Son to this sinful earth to redeem man and become our walkway to Heaven. He gave us a walking plan. “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps; He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth… He bore our sins in His own body on the tree that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; by His stripes we are healed; we were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls” (1 Peter 2:21-25). Peter enumerated in the verses just prior to this quotation many sins that men commit, and then he told how to get back on the sidewalk and make things right with God. God’s walking plan is not like man’s walking plan.
God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6). God saw where men’s walkways were, but He gave men instructions about the walkway that will put them on ‘the straight and narrow’ path that leads to Heaven (Matthew 7:14). We must follow God’s walking plan. May God bless you in doing so!
