We do not turn many pages of the Bible before reading, "And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart" (Gen. 6:6). Because of the greatness of His being, and the spotless purity of His holy nature, God's grief must have been infinite. Yet He must have foreknown that this great grief would be His as the result of the fall and corruption of mankind. Why should God have made man, and then allowed him to remain on earth after having given Him such untold grief? Can we, poor mortals, at all understand this great mystery?
In Zephaniah 3:17 we have an answer to our questions, not a full answer, but one which gives us some understanding of so great a mystery. This Scripture looks forward to the day when Israel will be blessed by God on the millennial earth, and reads, "The LORD Thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." Out of all the grief God will yet find joy for His heart in the blessing of men; and if such is His joy in the blessing of Israel on earth, what will be the joy of his heart over the redeemed who dwell with Him in heaven, and over those with whom He dwells on the new earth, for all eternity?
When the Son of God came into this world He was "A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," as had been long before announced by the prophet Isaiah. He was shamefully entreated by the leaders of Israel, refused, mocked and spit upon; He was set at naught and arrayed in a mocking robe by Herod and his soldiers; He was condemned, though pronounced guiltless by Pilate, crowned with a crown of thorns, and crucified in the utmost dishonour. When men had spent their resources of malignity, envy and enmity upon Him; and when the powers of darkness had assailed Him with all the forces at their command; "it pleased the LORD to bruise Him," and "put Him to grief," and that, when He made "His soul an offering for sin" (Isaiah 53:10).
We might well ask, Why did the Son of God come into the world to endure all this? Among the answers that Scripture gives to this question is that of Hebrews 12:2, "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The blessed Lord, before He came, foresaw all the glory He would bring to His God and Father through the cross; and the joy that would be His in sitting down at His Father's right hand after having secured His glory in the work of redemption. There was also for Him the joy that is portrayed in the parable of Matthew 13:44, of procuring in the church a treasure for His heart's affections. This is confirmed to us in Ephesians 5:25, where it is written, "Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it."
But it is also written in the Scriptures, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). It fills us with wonder when we think that God knew grief in ages past, and that His Son knew grief in His path on earth and on the cross. Does it not make us wonder afresh when we hear of the Holy Spirit being grieved? And yet, the One we sometimes grieve is the One who gives us joy, even as the Apostle Paul writes, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17).
Sometimes it is necessary for us to be "put to grief by various trials" (1 Peter 1:6), that the trial of our faith "may be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ"; and also that we might be even now, partakers of God's holiness, and produce, through exercise, the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And yet, while passing through trial, when the heart is engaged with Christ in faith, we can "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Our experiences in trial that bring to us both grief and divine joy, enable us to enter, in some feeble way, into the understanding of the divine mysteries that have engaged us.
Crushed by an adverse world of sin,
And more than mortal care;
Then glows the shining lamp within,
Celestial, bright, and fair.
O God! how wondrous is Thy way,
The power, the wisdom, Thine!
'Tis from a breaking vase of clay
That rays of glory shine!