Straight path confusion  – says who?

Clarity is knowing that you know and that nothing is outside of God’s goodness net. Sometimes we find an expression that evokes a sigh or a bewilderment so profound one asks “says who?”

Qur’an, Hud (11:56) إِنِّى تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ رَبِّى وَرَبِّكُم ۚ مَّا مِن دَآبَّةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ ءَاخِذٌۢ بِنَاصِيَتِهَآ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى عَلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍۢ مُّسْتَقِيمٍۢ ٥٦I

The God of the Bible has his ways, entirely different to ours. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and yet what he shares with us is consistent with his ways and his primary thoughts towards us.   He makes paths for us to walk, and he allows us to make paths for our feet, crooked or straight. We should not however confuse unbending with constricted, straight with strait.

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Why the Islamic deity is on a straight path is beyond me.

Indeed, I have relied upon Allāh, my Lord and your Lord. There is no creature but that He holds it by its forelock [i.e., controls it]. Indeed, my Lord is on a path [that is] straight.— Saheeh International

The straight path in both the Law and the Gospel is the path assigned  for humanity. Even when the Word of God was made flesh, he was not on the same path as those that were following him. The confusion is deafening, and that does not even address who the speaker is in that verse.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

On the roads we tread, long, short, winding, upwards or downwards God says he has us. On the mountain or in the valley, our God has us.

Contradicting the Lord

Leader says “you can’t”, the people say “we will”

Joshua 24:19-21 lays out the hard facts about serving God.


19. Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

20. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”

21. The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.”

Exodus 23:25 is a conditional statement about sustaining life and guaranteeing health.

But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.

Ruth 1:1 establishes famine in the land
Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

Nehemiah 5:3 reports famine
There were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.”

They should all be alive today if they had served (had not forsaken) Yahweh.