When contemplating God’s ways, especially with His people Israel, and thinking of the goodness and severity of God, the Apostle Paul wrote, “O depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Rom. 11:33). There is much to learn in God’s dealings with men, and what has been written has been written for our learning, but we are compelled to come to the same conclusion as Paul as we consider the complexity of all that God has done, and is doing. There are those things that we do understand in measure, and other things that are altogether beyond our understanding, though we do know that God’s ways and judgments are perfect, and governed and ordered in all their details by His omniscience and goodness.
Cain and Abel
We know quite well that God could have intervened and hindered Cain from slaying Abel, yet God allowed it. Whatever else we may learn from this, we certainly know that God was teaching us that He does not always arrest the progress of evil, and that when it suits His purpose He allows the wicked to triumph over the righteous in this world. Moreover, right at the beginning of the history of the human race God was showing what would take place at the coming of His Son, when the perfection of goodness in Jesus was met by the fulness of evil in man, and when God, in His wisdom, and in His predeterminate counsel, allowed men to take His Son with wicked hands to crucify Him. In marked contrast with what happened to Abel, God allowed the wicked Cain to escape from the consequences of his guilt, though death eventually overtook him, and he has the Lord to meet at the great white throne. What long-suffering God manifests in His ways with Cain!
Intercession
God in wondrous condescension listens to the intercession of men. We can understand God listening to the intercession of His own Son, while marvelling at the grace of the Lord in saying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” but how very wonderful it is to see how God pays heed to the intercession of Abraham for Sodom, and of Moses for Israel. Sodom was not spared, for there were not the number of righteous mentioned by Abraham, but Israel was spared in spite of the enormity of the guilt of breaking the first commandment. David prayed for the life of his child, but God did not answer it. Elijah interceded against Israel, but God told him of a remnant that had not bowed the knee to Baal. In all these what wisdom and knowledge are displayed in the judgments and ways of God.
Job
The friends of Job were all astray in their judgments of the ways of God with His servant. They knew not, nor did Job, of what had taken place in heaven between God and Satan, and were as ignorant as Satan of God’s purpose in allowing His righteous servant to undergo such severe trial. The friends of Job thought that he must be guilty of some secret sin of some enormity to be brought into such a plight. Job was also ignorant of the reason for the trial until God brought him into His presence, though he knew much more of God’s ways than his three friends. In the trial we see the endurance of Job, but also the patient way in which God achieves the desired end, and as we are told, we learn “that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11).
Babel
The first man with a kingdom in this world was Nimrod, and “the beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (Gen. 10:9-10). He was “a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Although he was evidently a strong, self-willed man, yet there is no word of God intervening to deter him in his course, saving as he may have been implicated in the building of the tower of Babel (Gen. 11), though he is not mentioned in connection with it. When, however, we come to the development of Babel by Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord intervenes to deal with the proud monarch, after He had warned him. Filled with pride, the mighty monarch said, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built…for the honour of my majesty,” and God intervened immediately, making him like a beast, until he learned “that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will” (Dan. 4). A mightier judgment will yet fall upon “Great Babylon” in the coming day, manifesting the severity of God, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, though in His case there was also the goodness of God (Rev. 18).
Nineveh and Jerusalem
The presence of Lot in Sodom had not prevented the outpouring of the righteous judgment of God on the guilty cities of the plain, for even at the last hour the men of Sodom would not listen to Lot. When Jonah preached to the Ninevites there was an amazing response, for all the people, from the king down, turned to God in repentance, and God spared the city, even if it displeased His servant Jonah. With Jerusalem it was very different. There was the temple of God, but the men of the city looked upon it as a kind of charm that they imagined would protect them from the judgment that had been long predicted, and was being pronounced by the prophet Jeremiah. Refusing the testimony of God through the prophet, and continuing in their idolatry and violence, the judgment of God fell upon them. There was the manifestation of God’s long-suffering in every case, but God showed His ways were equal in sparing Nineveh and destroying Jerusalem (Jer. 18:7–12).
Sin in the Priesthood
When the sons of Aaron sinned in offering strange fire unto the Lord, the judgment of God fell on them at once; yet when the sons of Eli sinned, dishonouring the holy Name of the Lord by their moral corruption, and also in the violent way they dealt with those who brought sacrifices to God, the long-suffering of the Lord was manifest. Eli remonstrated with his sons, though he should have restrained them; but they had ample time for repentance before God’s judgment fell upon them. In both cases we see judgment beginning at the house of God, but the judgment falls instantly when the priesthood is at first instituted so that it might be at once manifested that holiness becomes God’s house for ever.
The Sons of Korah
When Achan sinned, the Lord taught the people that it was not simply an individual trespass, but that “Israel has sinned,” God would teach His people early in their history that there is not only individual responsibility in the things of God, but also collective responsibility, and it applies to families, to nations, and to the assembly of God. Divine blessing can come to families as seen in the sparing of the sons of Noah, but divine judgment can also come upon families as seen in the sons of Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16). Yet when this solemn judgment fell, “the children of Korah died not” (Num. 26:11). No reason is given for this, but surely it is to teach us the sovereign mercy of God, even as it is written, “Therefore has He mercy on whom He will have mercy” (Rom. 9:18), for God needs not to give account to any of His actions.
Gibeah
The sins of the children of Benjamin were so obnoxious to the other tribes that they gathered together to deal with the evildoers and when Benjamin refused to give up the culprits, Israel went out against them in righteous wrath (Judges 20). The children of Israel “went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first” (verse 18). In spite of their seeking counsel of Jehovah, twenty two thousand men of Israel were smitten that day. Having been so ignominiously defeated Israel wept before Jehovah, and again asked counsel of the Lord, asking if they should go up against Benjamin. This time they lost eighteen thousand men in a humiliating defeat.
The third time they go to enquire of the Lord there is not only weeping, but fasting and sacrificing. Israel had been thoroughly humbled by their defeats, and their fasting and offerings indicated their self-judgment before their God. Israel had to learn that God had not only a controversy with Benjamin, but also with the whole nation. It was not enough to rise against Benjamin in righteous anger, there had to be the realisation that Benjamin’s sin was their own, and that they also required the discipline of God as did Benjamin. It was a time of lawlessness, not only in Benjamin, but in Israel, for “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25), hence the need of God’s judgment on all.
Removed by Death
When God takes away one of His own by death it is not always in judgment. This is seen when God took away the son of king Jeroboam, “because in him there” was “found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel” (1 Kings 13:13). God, in His goodness, took away the lad from the evil to come. It was God’s severity to the wicked Jeroboam, but His goodness towards his son.
There is “a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16-17), when God removes from the scene of testimony one who evidently is no longer suited to represent God in this world. Ananias and Sapphira were removed by death for lying to God’s servant, which was accounted as a “lie to the Holy Ghost” (Acts 5:3). Many since that day have lied in the things of God and have not been removed, and God’s mind in the matter is surely seen in the “great fear” that “came upon all the church,” and in none of the rest daring “to join himself to them.” God intervened in His government at Corinth when they were behaving badly at the Lord’s Supper, as it is written, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Cor. 11:30). Lack of self-judgment, and assembly judgment, brought the righteous judgment of God in His government of the assembly, and it was a voice for the assembly, His judgment coming that the saints “should not be condemned with the world” (verse 32).
Prophets Who Were Killed
God allowed wicked men to slay His prophets, as the Lord shows in Luke 11:49–51, but the Lord also slew one of His prophets who disobeyed Him (1 Kings 13:21–23). In the case of the martyred prophets, God will require their blood at the hands of those who slew them, but the prophet from Judah, who had delivered so faithfully the message of God to king Jeroboam, merited the divine judgment, for he knew what God had commanded him, and should not have been influenced by the old prophet at Bethel. Jonah too was a disobedient prophet, and he too was disciplined of God, though God spared him the extreme penalty of death, and made him a sign of Messiah for Israel (Matt. 12:39; 16:4).
Acts of Divine Judgment
There are many acts of divine judgment recorded in Scripture, sometimes against individuals, sometimes against companies of people, and sometimes against nations. Many a one has gathered sticks of the Sabbath day, yet God has not punished him, but the man spoken of in Numbers 15 was stoned for doing this very thing. At that time it was challenging the law of God, yea challenging the sanction of the law of God, and the sinner paid the penalty of his rebellion with his life.
God no doubt allowed those to be slain upon whom the tower of Siloam fell (Luke 13:4), and it was a warning for others to be ready when death came, a readiness that comes with repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Many innocent women and children have perished in the wars of mankind, and many questions regarding this may rise in the mind, but the Christian knows that all God’s ways are perfect, and that the judge of all the earth is righteous in all His acts and ways.
Prosperity of the Wicked
Many like the Psalmist are perplexed at the prosperity of the wicked (Psalm 73:3). Everything seems to go well with them in life, and even in death. It was only when the Psalmist entered the “sanctuary of God” that he understood their end (verse 17), and it is the end that matters. God in His wisdom may allow His children prosperity in present things to carry on His work, but He may allow them to know adversity and poverty, giving them a rich compensation, for “Has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith” (James 2:5).
Job knew that “The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure” (Job. 12:6), though Eliphaz thought that “in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon” the wicked (Job 15:21). What Eliphaz thought was sometimes right, but it was not always right, as the writer of Psalm 73 knew, and as we know from what is all around. When we realise that God has allowed Satan to become the god and prince of this world, and that he has the authority to dispose in some way of the kingdoms of this world (Luke 4:6), we will not be perplexed at the prosperity of the wicked.
Although the possessor of all things the Son of God was poor in this world, yea “He became poor” that we might be enriched through His poverty (2 Cor. 8:9). Moreover the Son of God suffered as none every suffered in this world, being reproached, rejected, crucified and slain. In all this we see how everything in the world is out of accord with God’s mind, and that we cannot interpret God’s ways from what is seen, but only from what He makes known to us.
Nor did the Lord offer present prosperity to His own in this world. Even when the Lord was here Peter was able to say, “we have forsaken all, and followed Thee” (Matt. 19:27), and the Lord told him to look for his prosperity “in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory,” As His disciples in this world the Lord promised them “tribulation” (John 16:33), but their part, and ours, will be with Him in His coming kingdom, and in His Father’s house.
Much of the ways of God has been revealed to us in His word, but it ever remains that “His ways are past finding out.”
R. 27.11.69