It is very instructive for the saints of God to consider God’s ways, whether with individuals, His earthly people Israel, the nations of the earth, or the church. The goodness of God is seen in His ways with Adam, for He brought him into a paradise of His own making, where there was everything to gratify the heart of man in innocency; and even when the severity of God was manifested in expelling the sinners from Eden, the goodness of God can still be traced in prohibiting man from eating of the tree of life. How dreadful it would have been to have a race of sinful men living for ever in this world, men like Cain, with bitter hatred in their hearts to God and to others.
Features of the Ways of God
Psalm 18 was written by David “in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies,” and having considered God’s ways with him, he was able to say, “As for God, His way is perfect” (verse 30). There can be no doubt about the perfection of all that God does, but how good it is when the soul is in the realisation of it. It is certain that David did not apprehend all God’s ways with him, for in their scope and complexity they are beyond the grasp of the creature; but he had learned sufficient of God, and all the goodness that he had received at His hand, to lead him to the realisation that God’s ways were perfect.
That we cannot apprehend the fulness of God’s ways must be evident to any who know that we are but finite creatures, and that God is omniscient and omnipotent. Indeed, when considering God’s ways with His earthly people, the Apostle Paul exclaimed, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33). We have the privilege of considering God’s ways, and how much of His wisdom and knowledge we can acquire in learning of them; but with all we learn, we are compelled to acknowledge how infinitely beyond us God’s ways are, they are indeed past finding out.
The psalmist exclaimed, “Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known” (Psalm 77:19). Just as the wake of a ship is seen for a moment or two, then all trace of it is gone, so is it with the footsteps of God in His ways with men. Unless God had recorded for us in the pages of inspiration His ways of old, we should never have been able to understand anything about them. But in this same psalm, in verse 13, the psalmist says, “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.” This is where we can learn of God’s ways with ourselves, secluded with Him in His own presence; but there also in communion with Him we can learn the meaning of what He has recorded of His ways in the Scriptures.
God’s Ways Made Known to Moses
How surpassing wonderful was the privilege of Moses when “the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend” (Ex. 33:11). It was then that Moses said to the Lord, “Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way(s), that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight” (verse 13). Moses realised that if he was shown the ways of God it would give him a knowledge of God that he did not as yet possess, and that to know God in this way was to find grace in the sight of God.
At once God answered, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” This was very blessed, to be assured of the presence of Jehovah in all the way His people would take, and to know that at the end of their journeys He would give His people rest. Moses also asked to see the glory of the Lord, and when this request was granted, we may be assured that he also learned on the mount with God something more of His ways. When recalling what he had learned of God, David in Psalm 103 writes, “He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel” (verse 7). This confirms what we have found in Psalm 77, that whether it be Moses, or any other servant of the Lord, the presence of the Lord is the place to learn His ways.
God’s Ways With the Nations
We can learn very much of God’s ways with the nations of this world from the Old Testament Scriptures. God was very patient with Pharaoh and with Egypt when they persecuted His people, and He gave them ample time and opportunity to repent, and to obey His voice, but when Pharaoh continued to harden his heart, the Lord in judgment hardened his heart, so that there was no longer space for repentance. Men have to learn, sooner or later, that they have to do with God, and if they continue in self-will, it can only mean divine judgment for them.
The Assyrian thought he was only doing his own will in inflicting punishment on Samaria and Jerusalem, saying, “By the strength of my hand have I done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man” (Isa. 10:13). He did not understand that he was but the rod of God’s anger for the execution of God’s judgment on His rebellious and idolatrous people, so the Lord said to him, “Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews therewith…as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up” (verse 5, 15). This proud boasting of the Assyrian only brought upon them the judgment of God (verse 12).
If, as we have seen with the Assyrian, God punishes a nation that He has used as His instrument because of its pride, He also gives wages to a nation that unwittingly has served His purpose. God used Nebuchadnezzar and his army to punish Tyre, “yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it” (Ezek. 29:18). So God gave “the land of Egypt” to Nebuchadnezzar, so that he and his army could take the spoil to “be the wages for his army” (verse 19). How little we know of the ways of God in regard to the conflicts of the world. Behind the scenes God works His sovereign will for the accomplishment of His purposes.
God’s Ways with Israel
God’s promises regarding His people Israel did not depend on how they acted, but in His governmental ways they could not escape punishment for their sins. When God gave His promises to David, assuring him that his son would have the throne of his kingdom established for ever, He added, “If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men” (2 Sam. 7:13-14). In reading the history of the kings of Judah we learn how necessary it was for God, in His ways, to carry out this chastening. Even the best of the kings who sat on David’s throne had to be chastened, and at the end the nation was led into captivity because of its departure from the Lord.
In Romans 9–11, the Apostle Paul surveys God’s ways with His people Israel, showing how God dealt with them in the past, how He is dealing with them now, and what His future dealings will be. God's purpose and election can never be set aside, but the people He has chosen in His sovereignty cannot escape from His ways in government. The idolatry of Israel had to be punished, their rejection of Messiah brought upon the nation God’s judgment, but it also made way for the bringing in of the Gentiles at the present time. Soon the time will come when Israel will again be brought into blessing, “all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (11:26).
God’s Ways with the Professing Church
From Revelation 2 and 3 we learn something of God’s ways with the professing church. The church was called to be a witness for Christ in this world, but how soon it left its first love, and fell from its first estate. The Lord passed the church through times of discipline and persecution, as seen in Smyrna; and when the world comes into the church in Pergamos, the Lord threatens, “Repent; or else I will come against thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (2:16).
The corrupt teachings and practices of popery in Thyatira bring from the Lord solemn threatenings (Rev. 2:22-23); the dead state of Sardis compels the Lord to say, “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief” (Rev. 3:3); and the lukewarm state of Laodicea brings from the lips of the Lord, “I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16). Amidst the discipline of the Lord on the professing church, there is the discipline of those who are truly His own, for the Lord adds, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Rev. 3:19).
The Lord’s Ways with the True Church
While the discipline of the professing church proceeds, and the Lord chastens those who are truly His, how blessed it is to consider His ways with the true church, the bride of His heart that is about to share His glory in the coming kingdom. This is brought before us in Ephesians 5:26-27. Christ’s love for the church has been manifested in the giving of Himself on the cross to secure it for Himself; but His love is also seen in His care for the church during the time of her sojourn in this world.
The reason for Christ’s ways of love are clearly given, “That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” This is part of the present ministry of Christ, preparing the church for her place with Him in the coming day. He is using His word to produce the divine cleansing to make the church ready for the day when He shall “present to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Every mark of this scene will have for ever gone, no defilement, no mark of age, noting but what bears His own character, for it will be “holy and without blemish.”
God’s Ways with Individuals
Had Pharaoh been one of the common people in Egypt, his stubborn heart would not have been brought publicly into evidence, but God raised him to a place of eminence, and instructed Moses to say to him, “In very deed for this cause I have raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my Name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Ex. 9:16). Every fresh expression of Pharaoh’s stubborn will but brought forth some fresh expression of the mighty power of God, and his pursuit of Israel but brought before men the mighty power that could dry up the Red Sea, save His people, and destroy Pharaoh and his host.
God, in His long-suffering and wisdom, allowed Herod to slay James the brother of John with the sword, and to apprehend His servant Peter, but He sent His angel to rescue Peter, demonstrating to Herod that he was fighting against One more mighty then he. Herod, in slaying his soldiers, clearly showed that he refused to see the hand of God in Peter’s deliverance from his power, and in receiving the adulation of the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon he accepted the tribute that rightly belonged to God alone (Acts 12). It was then that God, in His government, put His hand upon the proud Herod, laying him low in death.
Another proud, persecutor of the church was Saul of Tarsus, but God did not deal with him as He did with Herod. Herod was made an example of God’s severity, Saul of His long-suffering and goodness. After Saul was called, how much he had to pass through in persecution and suffering for the Name of the Lord, and even a thorn was given for his flesh after he had been taken up to the paradise of God. In His wisdom, the Lord knew how to balance privilege with weakness, so as to make the vessel conscious of His sustaining power. Through suffering, the Apostle learned much of the ways of God, being able to say, “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11).
The ways of God with His own are often painful, for it is written, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:5-6). Behind the chastening and scourging there is a heart of infinite love, and every movement is direct with perfect wisdom. Moreover, God has shown to us the reason for His ways of discipline. This is the way in which we learn endurance and subjection to God; this is how we become partakers of God’s holiness, and bear the peaceable fruit of righteousness that He will display in us in the day of Christ’s glory.
There is therefore much for us to learn from the ways of God, whether with ourselves, or with others, as found in the Scriptures. As we learn God’s ways we shall deepen in the knowledge of Him, and of His wisdom; and the more we learn of His ways, the more shall be able to understand the words of Paul, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33). In their fulness, complexity, interrelations and scope, God’s ways are utterly beyond our comprehension, yet there is so much for us to learn from them.
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