There are two distinct ways in which God’s counsel is presented to us in Scripture. First, there is God’s mind for us, given for our help and blessing, which it is possible for man to accept or reject. Secondly, there is that which God has determined to do, with which no one can interfere, and which God will assuredly bring to pass. It is very blessed for us indeed that God condescends to give us His counsel, to show us the way of blessing, and it is a very solemn matter for those who refuse to listen to what is counselled of God. Besides, it is a very great privilege that God has been pleased to make known His determinate counsel to men, taking us into the secrets of His heart and mind, so that we can take our way through this world in the sure knowledge that all that God has counselled to do He will surely perform.
The Lord as Counsellor
Among the glorious Names that belong to the promised Son of God in Isaiah 9 is that of Counsellor. How amazing it is that the One who is called, “Wonderful…The Mighty God, The everlasting Father,” and “The Prince of Peace,” should stoop down to present Himself as the Counsellor of men. The psalmist, in Psalm 73:24 has written, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” He had learned the value of the Lord’s counsel, and relied on it for every step of his pilgrimage in the world.
What is yet more wonderful is that the very Person who has stooped to give counsel to men was Himself a man in this world, and as Man, the dependent Man could say, as expressed by His Spirit in Psalm 16:7, “I will bless the Lord, who has given me counsel.” The Son of God in this world ever relied on the counsel of His God and Father. If others, like the psalmist that we have considered, relied on the guidance of God, the perfect, dependent Man, walked this way as an example for us all. Others relied on God for counsel, heeding His word, but there was only One who lived by every word of God, and that was God’s own Son in this world (Matt. 4:4).
When the professing church had reached its lowest depths of shame and folly, as seen in Laodicea, boasting of its acquired riches and independence, knowing not that it was “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;” the Son of God, as the “faithful and true witness,” presents Himself as One who gives counsel saying, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev. 3:17-18).
If the professing church refuses the divine counsel, she will be spued of Christ’s mouth, and this is the fate that awaits her at the coming of the Lord Jesus, for it is evident that she has no intention of abandoning her course of self-sufficiency, independent of Him that she professes to serve. But there are individuals who do listen to His counsel, who have the gold, the raiment and the eye-salve that He offers, and who have opened the door to Him on hearing Him knocking, and who enjoy present communion with Him while awaiting His coming, which shall bring them all that He has promised to the overcomer.
Israel’s Attitude to God’s Counsel
Recalling God’s ways with Israel, the psalmist speaks of how Israel praised Jehovah on the banks of the Red Sea, when they saw their enemies overthrown, but he is compelled to add, “They soon forgat His works; they waited not for His counsel” (Psalm 106:12-13). In spite of all that God had done for Israel, they had no thought of seeking His mind about the difficulties that arose, or of answering to His will for them, being marked by lust and murmuring. The end of Israel’s not waiting for God’s counsel is that they are carried into captivity (verse 46), there to cry, “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen.”
In answer to Israel’s cry, God intervenes and gathers them “out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south” (Psalm 107:3). Recalling the attitude of His rebellious people, the Lord says, “They rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High” (verse 11). This was the cause of Israel’s troubles: they despised the counsel of their God, and He was compelled to chasten them. Spite of what Israel was and did, when they cried unto the Lord, He came in for their help and deliverance from the bonds that bound them.
The rebellious spirit that marked God’s people in the psalms we have considered is again found in Isaiah 5:19. From verse 13 it would seem that some from Israel had already been led into captivity, but the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah were still unrepentant, and were almost mocking at the prophetic word that forewarned them of what was about to befall those that remained in the land, for they said, “Let Him make speed, and hasten His work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it.” They very soon knew what God’s counsel was, for His judgment fell upon the city and the temple because of the iniquity of the people.
When John Baptist preached to Israel, the divine counsel through him was “repent and be baptised for the remission of sins,” but “the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptised of him” (Luke 7:30). Had they accepted the counsel of God, it would have meant blessing for them, as it did for those who were baptized, for repentance and confession of sin is the way into divine blessing. How sorrowful it is to see men, whether in Judaism or in Christendom, rejecting the counsel of God which would bring blessing to them.
Marks of God’s Counsel
The contrast between the counsel of the Lord and the counsel of the heathen is found in Psalm 33:10-11. All the plans of the nations are brought to nothing by the Lord, but His counsel is eternal, nothing can frustrate it, it remains, manifesting the wisdom and the power of God. As it was then, so is it today; all the plans of men, be they ever so wise, will be brought to nothing if the Lord so desires. We have seen the great League of Nations, set up by the great powers of the earth, break up in pieces; and the United Nations has already been exposed as a weak and powerless instrument even when defied by very small nations.
Isaiah praises the counsels of the Lord (Isa. 25:1), speaking of them as being of old, and “are faithfulness of truth.” God has no need to make plans to meet current events in the world, He foreknew all that takes place, and deals with everything according to His wisdom, making “of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin” at His will, being “a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,” manifesting His faithfulness and truth to all who trust Him.
God’s Counsel Regarding the Nations
Of old, Egypt gave shelter to God’s people Israel, when Joseph was next to Pharaoh, but afterwards there arose a king that knew not Joseph, and he persecuted God’s people. God has not forgotten the kindness or the persecution. The persecuting Pharaoh suffered because of his sins, and his people with him; and today, in spite of God’s judgments in a past day, Egypt is one of the leading nations opposed to Israel. Egypt has already suffered because of this, but God will yet deal with the Egyptians, as prophesied in Isaiah 19, for “the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt…because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which He has determined against it” (verse 17).
This will be just before the Lord comes back to set up His kingdom, and His discipline of Egypt will have the desired effect, for “The Lord shall smite Egypt: He shall smite and heal it: and they shall return to the Lord” (verse 22). All the enmity that we see today will pass away, for the happy conditions are described in the beautiful language of verse 25, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.”
Edom’s case is very different from Egypt’s, for Edom, according to “the counsel of the Lord” shall be a desolation, “As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah…no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it” (Jer. 49:17-22). Not a word of hope is held out to Edom, which has followed in the footsteps of profane Esau, and found no place for repentance, therefore the Lord has said, “I have sworn by myself…that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be a perpetual waste” (verse 13). If Egypt is a witness to the goodness of God, Edom witnesses to His severity.
Babylon, like Edom, was marked out for the destruction seen in “Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof…so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein” (Jer. 50:40), and this was according to “the counsel of the Lord, that He has taken against Babylon” (verse 45). The final judgment of Esau awaits the coming of the Lord, the judgment on the kingdom of Babylon has already been executed, though the judgment on “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots” (Rev. 17:5), also awaits a day soon to come.
The Counsel of Peace
How refreshing to the spirit it is to turn from God’s counsels of judgment of the nations to the counsel of peace spoken of in Zechariah 6:13. Those who had returned from the captivity had brought back with them silver and gold, and the prophet Zechariah is told by the Lord to take from certain of them these precious metals and make crowns. The crowns were to be set on the head of Joshua, the high priest, who prefigured “The Man whose Name is The Branch” (Zech. 6:9-12), the One who would build the temple of the Lord in the coming day.
When the Lord Jesus comes back to take the kingdom, He will reign in the dual character of Priest and King, and “He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne.” What a day of blessing that will be for Israel, brought back from their scattering among the nations, to be under the beneficent sway of the Lord. In that day the counsel of peace shall be between Jehovah and the King-Priest who sits upon the throne of Israel. This counsel of peace is the fruit of His work upon the cross, the rich benefits being now brought to His people Israel, who once rejected Him, but who now acclaim Him as their Messiah.
God’s Determinate Counsel
If Israel are blessed through the counsel of peace, it is on the righteous basis of the work of God’s Son, when He died on the cross. The cross is the witness of Israel’s guilt, for it was by their wicked hands Jesus was crucified and slain. But God took the occasion of their wickedness to work out His plans for Israel’s blessing, and for the blessing of all who trust in Him, so that Peter could say, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). God can use even the wickedness of man to subserve His counsel and will.
Not only does Peter bring this home to Israel while preaching at Pentecost, but he delights to speak of it to God, saying, “Lord, thou art God, which made heaven and earth…for of a truth against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:24-28). It was necessary, to fulfil God’s counsel, that Christ should die, and God took the occasion of man’s rejection of His Son to carry out this great work that would secure His glory, and [be] the basis for accomplishing all His purpose.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of “the immutability” of God’s counsel (6:17), showing that God, in His goodness comes down to meet man in his weakness, and to show that what He promises He will assuredly fulfil, He confirms what He has promised with His oath. God’s counsel is indeed immutable, it can never be altered; there is no power in earth or heaven that is able to turn God away from what He has set Himself to do. How blessed it is that His immutable counsel has decreed our blessing.
God’s Counsel and Eternal Purpose
In Jeremiah 49 and 50 we have considered God’s counsel in relation to Edom and Babylon, and in both Scriptures God’s purposes are spoken of, but they are purposes and counsels in relation to the nations of the world, and connected with time. What the Spirit of God brings before us in Ephesians 1 has to do with God’s eternal purpose, “which He purposed in Himself” (verse 9). All that God has for the saints of this day is “according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will” (verse 11).
God’s counsel is the plan that will secure His eternal purpose, and He works all things according to this plan. How very encouraging it is to the Christian to know that nothing happens in this world but what subserves the will of God. God is not acting publicly today in the events of the world, as He surely will in a coming day, but His counsel has ordered that everything must work towards the great end of fulfilling His eternal purpose. In that which God does not rule He overrules, even as He makes the wrath of man to praise Him.
Christian’s ought not to be ignorant of what God is doing, for, through His servants, He has fully made known His mind and will, even as Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). God has been pleased to make known to us His counsel regarding His ancient people Israel, regarding the nations, and regarding the church. We are not in ignorance of what lies ahead, for it has been given to us in the pages of inspiration. The believer can look, as in a mirror, into the world to come, where God’s purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord for His glory will be secured, and into the eternal scene, where God will be all in all; and we can rest in the midst of all the present evil and confusion around as knowing that God is working all things after the counsel of His own will.
R. 31.10.67