There are features of the ways of God that we may learn, both as regards His ways with us personally, and also in relation to His ways with Israel of old, with men generally, and with the church; but we only learn in part, for in their complexity, the ways of God are inscrutable. The infinite variety of the threads that are woven together in the divine pattern of God's dealings cannot be fully grasped by mortal men, but here and there we may be privileged to discern some part of it, which will cause us to exclaim with the apostle, "O depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"
In the days of Eli, when Israel "was smitten before the Philistines" (1 Sam. 4:2), "the elders of Israel said, Wherefore has the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines?" and,without enquiring of God for the reason, they said "Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh to us, that, when it comes among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies" (verse 3). There was no humbling of themselves before God, no sense of the evil that had brought judgment upon them, and no seeking of God's face to discover His mind in relation to their defeat. Instead, there is a call for the ark, which they vainly imagined would secure victory for them.
No doubt they knew well of how the ark had gone before Israel to find out a resting place for them (Num. 10:33); how it had rested in the bed of the Jordan to allow the people to pass over dry shod (Joshua 3); and how the warriors of Israel had but to follow it round the strong walls of Jericho to bring them to the ground; but they had not considered that all these events had been ordered by the God of Israel. The movements of His ark were to be governed by the will and word of God, and even David had to learn this lesson in sorrow (2 Sam. 6).
The elders of Israel evidently thought that God's ark was a kind of charm they could use against their enemies; never for a moment thinking that God would ever allow His ark to be taken by an enemy. Therefore when the ark came into the camp, “all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again;" and even the Philistines were afraid, for on learning of the presence of the ark, "they said, God is come into the camp" (verses 5-8).
But God allowed the ark of His testimony to be taken by the Philistines, and to be brought into the house of their god; just as He allowed men to take His own dear Son and in working with Satan, to encompass His death. It was a chastisement for Israel to lose the custody of God's ark, but God vindicated His own Name, first in the overthrow of Dagon, then in his destruction. So also was it when the Lord Jesus died! How solemn and sorrowful for Israel that they should be the means of the true Ark of Jehovah going into captivity: how awful the judgments they have received and shall yet receive, because of their wickedness in crucifying the Son of God; but God has vindicated His own Name in the death of Christ.
How powerless was Dagon the Philistines' god in the presence of the ark! He is compelled to fall before it, and then he is destroyed. And how powerless was Satan, the god of this world, first, when he tempted the Lord, then when he brought about His death. The entry of the Lord Jesus into death was the means used by God to secure the defeat of Satan, even as it is written in Hebrews 2, "That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14-15).
God may use the Assyrian as "the rod of mine anger" for the punishment of His people, but the proud Assyrian in ignorance of God's ways, did not realise that he was but God's instrument, and his vanity and evil thoughts and doings brought upon him the just judgment of God (Isaiah 10). So also was it with the Babylonians! God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the temple, after the glory had departed, and to take its holy vessels into Babylon. But Nebuchadnezzar was brought low in God's time; and when the profane Belshazzar challenged the God of Israel by using the holy vessels to praise the gods of his own making, God intervened to vindicate the honour of His Name in the overthrow of Babylon and its profane ruler. God was long-suffering: He allowed the holy vessels to remain in Nebuchadnezzar's temple, but He would not tolerate their use for the worship of other gods.
In the last days, God will allow the armies of the nations to surround Jerusalem, and to take the city, punishing the apostate people; but He will bring the nations into judgment, destroying their armies and their cities (Zech. 14; Rev. 16:19).
Down the ages, God has often allowed His own to be evilly entreated, and it is not always possible for us to understand why He should allow wicked men to persecute and slay His saints and His servants. We do know that God allows these things for the purifying of His people, and that all His actions towards His own are in the perfection of His love and wisdom; and even if wicked men seem to prosper, and the righteous are put to grief, yet the day is surely coming when, at the judgment seat of Christ, we shall understand as we cannot now, the ways of God, which are past finding out.
R. 3.2.62.