When You Come To A Fork In The Road

Introduction

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” said, Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (1925-2015).  While there is sufficient evidence that Yogi Berra said it, it did not originate with him.  He merely popularized it. This saying was published in several newspapers, such as the Fort Gibson New Era, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, about twelve years before Berra was born, as follows:

“Wise Directions.

‘When you come to a fork in the road, take it.’

‘I will, if it is a silver one.’”1

Dr. Ray Pritchard writes, “The year was 1915, and America was inching toward World War I. In Liverpool, England, a young man decided to return to New Hampshire while he still had a chance.  As he prepared to leave England, he composed a poem that he later insisted had been simply a gentle joke for a good friend. Yet the composition became one of the best-loved poems of the twentieth century.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The poet was Robert Frost. His poem is known around the world as ‘The Road Not Taken.’ All of us have been there!

We have all come to the crossroads of life where two roads diverged, one winding off to the left, the other disappearing in the distance to the right. We stood at the fork in the road and wondered, Should I go this way or should I go that way?”2

It is ironic that people take the words of man seriously but do not take the Word of God seriously! Jeremiah 17:5-8 reads, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man

And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. ‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

Note three things from our text. 

I. First, there is a reality to experience.

In our text, we find two words: “. . . Cursed. . .” (Jeremiah 17:5a) “Blessed. . .” (Jeremiah 17:7a).

No one in their right mind will chose to be cursed by God.  Remember Moses’ words to the children of Israel, recorded in Deuteronomy 11:26-28 reads, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.” Later, Moses exhorted the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Don’t ask God to pronounce a blessing on what He promises to curse.

II. Second, there is a reliance to express.

Jeremiah 17:5 reads, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.” The foolishness of not trusting in God is demonstrated in Isaiah 31:1-3, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, And rely on horses, Who trust in chariots because they are many, And in horsemen because they are very strong, But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, Nor seek the Lord! Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And will not call back His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, Both he who helps will fall, And he who is helped will fall down; They all will perish together.” 

Dr. Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) explains, “Humanism is something that takes God from His throne, enthrones man in all of his nuclear glory, and makes man the sum and the substance, the center and the circumference of everything. And we begin to sing, ‘Our brothers, who art on earth. Hallowed be our name; our kingdom come; our will be done on earth,’ because there is no heaven. The chief building block of humanism is evolution, which is religion. They say we can’t teach creation because that’s teaching religion in the public schools. Humanism is religion, evolution is religion. It’s an attempt to explain everything apart from God. It is a negative religion. It, in itself, is a faith, because evolution has never been proven. It is monkey mythology (Amen), but yet, our kids in these dangerous days are going to have that coming through the pores of their skin.”3

Jeremiah 17:7 reads, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.” Psalm 1:1-2 reads, “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,     Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 31:14 reads, “But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’” Psalm 34:8 reads, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Psalm 84:12 reads, “O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!” Psalm 146:3-4 reads, “Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish.” Proverbs 3:5-6 reads, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 16:20 reads, “He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:25 reads, “The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.” Dr. Joseph Parker (1830-1902) writes, “‘The best of men,’ one has quaintly said, ‘are but men at the best.’” 4

On the word translated “trust” in our text, Dr. Andrew Robert Fausset (1821-1910) explains, “This word is emphatic. We may expect help from men, so far as God enables them to help us, but we must rest our trust in God alone (Psalm 62:5).”5 Psalm 62:5 reads, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.”

Earlier, God through Jeremiah declares, “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

III. Third, there is a result to expect.

Jeremiah 17:6 reads, “For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.” There is a stark contrast in the result between following one road over the other. Jeremiah 17:8 reads, “For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.” Psalm 1:3 reads, “He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” These verses remind me of a book by Isobel Kuhn titled, Green Leaf in Drought-time; The Story of the Escape of the Last C.I.M. Missionaries from Communist China. The publisher, Moody Press, provides the following: “As Isobel Kuhn states in the introduction, the purpose of this book is not to simply tell another story of the trials that Christians and missionaries faced under communism in China. Its true purpose is to describe God's provision for His children that allows them to ‘put forth green leaves when all others around are dried up and dying from the drought.’ This book tells the tale of Arthur Mathews and his young family, who were missionaries with China Inland Mission in the 1950s. In 1951, China Inland Mission called for an evacuation of all its missionaries in China due to the oppression of the communist leaders there. Two years later, Arthur Mathews finally made it out to Hong Kong, after enduring torture and starvation. Yet his faith remained strong. What gave Mathews such strong faith? What enabled him and his wife to endure what they went through? Isobel Kuhn tells a compelling tale, based on Mathews’ own letters, about the Source of his strength: God and God alone. God continually showed Himself faithful to Arthur and Wilda Mathews. Though Arthur and Wilda were unable to do the work they felt called to do, God showed that through their hardships He was more than enough for his children. The enduring faith of the Mathews family was a legacy of incalculable worth to the native Chinese church. As Kuhn asks, ‘What more potent message could God have given these people? No wonder He deliberately sealed the lips of His servants, confined their hands and their feet, and then poured His life through them that the Chinese church might see and might desire ... Was God wrong to do this? In the farthest, most inland part of that great land was God unfair to ask two corns of wheat to die in this world’s comforts that others might see for two long years (not just two days: God gave them a good stretch of testing time) how He is sufficient for all these things? He sent them to serve by life and so sealed their lips. It was a much more potent message.’ God is the true source of life, and God will keep His children even to the end. He kept Arthur and Wilda Mathews, and He will keep you too. This story is an incredible reminder of the truth of God’s sustenance and life.”6  What if it doesn’t happen like that?  Hebrews 11:30-40 reads, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”

Dr. Ray Pritchard shares the following in his book titled, The Road Best Traveled: “You make your decisions, and then your decisions turn around and make you.”7 There are two roads one leads to spiritual fruitlessness and the other leads to spiritual fruitfulness.  W. Philip Keller (1920-1997) explains, “As a tree by the waters grows, in spite of drought all around it, so I, by drawing upon the life of Christ, grow into His strength.”8 

Conclusion

When you come to a fork in the road, remember:

There is a reality to experience.

“Cursed” (17:5) or “Blessed” (17:7)

There is a reliance to express.

“. . . trusts in man. . .” (17:5) or “. . . trusts in the Lord. . .” (17:7)

There is a result to expect.

“. . . like a shrub in the desert. . .” (17:6) or “. . . like a tree planted by the waters. . .” (17:8)

John Oxenham, pseudonym of William Arthur Dunkerley (1852-1941), penned these perceptive words,

To every man there openeth a way, and ways, and a way,

And the high soul climbs the high way,

And the low soul gropes the low.

And in between, on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth a high way and a low;

And every man decideth the way his soul shall go.9

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) explains, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”10

Proverbs 28:13 reads, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

Dr. Peter Marshall (1902-1949), the well-known Scottish American preacher, twice appointed Chaplain of the United States Senate, prayed, “I know, Father, that I must come to you just as I am.  But I also know that I dare not go away just as I came.

Often I have known failure– failure in the moral realm, failure in my actions, failure in my attitudes, and failure in my disposition.

I have confessed all these defeats to you, and you have graciously forgiven me.  Yet I know, Lord, that merely to forgive me will not suffice. For unless I am changed, I shall do these same things again.  At last I know, Lord, that only you can correct that within me that makes me do wrong.

Where I am blind, you must give me sight.  Where I fail to heed your voice, you will have to do something about my deafness.  Even when I deliberately choose to do what I know is wrong, you will have to do something about my will.

Lord, I acknowledge my total dependence upon you.  Make me over into the person you want me to be, so that I may yet find that destiny for which you gave me my life.

In Jesus name I pray.  Amen.”11

Jeremiah 17:5-8 reads, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man

And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. ‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.” Remember these verses when you come to a fork in the road.

______________________________________

1Fort Gibson New Era, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, July 31, 1913, “Wise Directions” (Filler item), Quote Page 2, Column 6, Accessed: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/5630739/ .

2Ray Pritchard, The Road Best Traveled (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1995), 15-16. 

3Adrian Rogers, “Faith for the Family” Sermon Notes (Hebrews 11:23-27).

4Joseph Parker, The People's Bible – Topical Index: Volume 28, “HUMAN NATURE,” 171. Database © 2008 WORDsearch Corp.

5Robert Jamieson, Robert, A.R. Fausset, David Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory on the Old and New Testament, (New York, NY: S.S. Scranton and Compnay, 1875), 1:523.

6Accessed: 09/06/17 http://www.worldcat.org/title/green-leaf-in-drought-time-the-story-of-the-escape-of-the-last-cim-missionaries-from-communist-china/oclc/869571  . 

7Pritchard, Road, 20. 

8David Jeremiah, Your Daily Journey with God: 365 Daily Devotions (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2016), 5. 

9John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley), “The Ways,” in Familiar Quotations, ed. John Bartlett, (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co. 1955), 796.

10AZ Quotes, “C.S. Lewis Quotes,” Accessed: 09/05/17 http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1334084 .

11Peter Marshall, The Prayers of Peter Marshall, ed. Catherine Marshall (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1954), 28.

 

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort 30775 Jay Drive Spanish Fort, Alabama 36527

Author of Don’t Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah and

Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice [Both available on Amazon.com in hardcover, paperback and eBook]

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Miss-Revival-Spiritual-Awakening/dp/1462735428 &  http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Biblical-Preaching-Giving-Bible/dp/1594577684 / fkirksey@bellsouth.net   / (251) 626-6210

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