"How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways"

All that lies behind the judgments and the ways of God with His people and with all men of necessity is beyond the comprehension of men, no matter how spiritual or enlightened. God may, on occasion, reveal to His servants what He is about to do, and even give reasons for His actions, as when He spoke to Abraham about the impending destruction of the cities of the plain. Yet how often, after having considered the wisdom and knowledge in the ways of God, we have to exclaim with the apostle, How unsearchable are His judgments and untraceable His ways!

Moses had a place of peculiar intimacy with God, for "Jehovah spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend" (Ex. 33:11), and this encouraged Moses to say to God, "And now, if indeed I have found grace in Thine eyes, make me now to know Thy ways" (ver. 13). This desire was granted, even as is recorded in Psalm 103:7, "He made known His ways to Moses."

What Paul says in Romans 11 is confirmed in Psalm 77:19, where it is written, "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy paths are in great waters; and Thy footsteps are not known." It is not by searching the complex actions of God's dealings with men in the events of time that we shall learn anything of His ways. We might as well endeavour to trace the course of a ship in the ocean by its wake the day after it has passed. Its wake is seen for a very short time, and then it has gone for ever. Yet there is a place where we may learn something of God's ways, for in the same Psalm we read, "O God, Thy way is in the sanctuary" (Ps. 77:13). Moses learned of God's ways in His presence in communion, and that is where we may learn.

Entering into the sanctuary, we can ask as David did, "Make me to know Thy ways, O Jehovah; teach me Thy paths"; having the assurance that "The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His way" (Psalm 25:4, 9). Still, with all our learning of God's ways, we shall the more realise that behind all God's dealings there is that which is beyond all human under-standing. When our souls in wonder reach this conclusion, how blessed it is to be able to say with David, "As for God, His way is perfect" (Psalm 18:30). Knowing the perfection of all that God does, the heart can rest in the sense of His love and wisdom, even if we but have a feeble apprehension of His ways.