THE EVEN PATH

Is it really true that the way of the just is evenness (or completely even — Holland version for uprightness), and that the Lord justly weighs the path of the righteous?

Does not the reality of this life seem to mock with this? You would be inclned to say so, if we consider the dark ways of God’s providence. No, Jacob could not assent to this word when he said, “All these things are aganist me.” Also not Joseph, when he had already spent so many years sighing in Egypt’s prison. Not Asaph either, when he said that waters of a full cup were wrung out to him, and that the wicked have more than heart could wish, Ps. 73. And would Job have assented to it with his whole heart when he sat down among the ashes and scraped himself with a potsherd, and when he cursed the day of his birth?

The friends of Job seem to assent to it, and therefore they come to the conclusion that Job cannot be a righteous man and that there must be special reasons why the Lord is dealing thus with him.

We could go on in this way to place before you from the truth a long line of examples, which seem to be contrary to the word of Scripture put before you.

And is it not yet so in this life? When there are those inimitable directings of a providential leading and acting God, which cause God’s church and children to walk through dark vales and which place them before so many questions, so many whys and wherefores, for which there seem to be no answer.

And yet it is without any doubt the truth. The way of the just is evenness, the Lord weighs the path of the just. Jacob, Joseph, Asaph, Job and his friends have learned this, and their united song is that of Asaph:

O Israel’s God, how good Thou art
To all the true and pure of heart!
Though paths of saints are frought with evil,
Thou showest favor to Thy people.

But this truth is only learned in the sanctuary, where Asaph became a great beast before God and where Job abhorred himself in dust and ashes. There the mysterious ways are illuminated, and although there may yet be much that cannot be explained, the church nevertheless learns to say, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.”

All inexplicable ways are explained in the way of Christ. For does it not seem unreasonable that the way of the just is evenness, if we see the Righteous hang on the cursed tree, that He was numbered with the transgressors and that they made His grave with the wicked? Here it also seems as though the way of the just is not even, but yet this way is also completely even, when concerning this we hear: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” And when we hear Peter on the day of Pentecost, then this way becomes completely even also, because Jesus Christ the Righteous was delivered up by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, Acts 2:23. And in the way of this Righteous One, the way of the whole Church of God is explained with all the darknesses which can come forth therein, because with regard to all these darknesses this word always holds: According to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

Yes, certainly, measured by the standard of the flesh the way of God is not even. Then man can rebel against God with clenched fists in bitter enmity about His way and dealings, but in the light of the wa yof Christ the path of the Lord becomes right.

Without the deep humiliation of Christ His exaltaton could never have taken place. His way leads by the way of the cross to the crown. Thus it now pleases the Lord to deal with His children here upon this earth. All that suffering, all those bitter disappointments, those grievous experiences have a divine purpose which the church of the Lord will first understand later on.

The whole way of God’s church is a way of strife because the Lord will not spare the flesh, which they would so gladly see spared. His way at all times goes through tribulation. The church, which one day shall enter eternal glory, shall be a congregation that has come out of great tribulation. And these tribulatons are of many kinds. Inward and outward tribulations; personal and family tribulations. But regardless of what nature these tribulations may be, they all have one purpose and that is, that the church shall be made conformed to the image of Christ. The growth in His knowledge and grace is not a growth such as man supposes, but it is a growth in the way of tribulaton and strife. The Church, in a general sense, can have no luxury. Such prosperity and wealth draws us away from Christ. “When Jeshu-run waxed fat. he kicked; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” But if the Lord wll show His covenant fathfuliness unto Hs people, the Lord will hedge the way of His people with thorns, for otherwise His children are as cows that break out, who corrupt their ways.

What a change came in the heart of Asaph when the Lord gave him light concerning His way! Then Asaph saw the foolishness of his rebellion and of his murmurings against God. Then he saw that God’s way is only faithfulness and love and that therefore there must be such dealings.

It is for your own eternal profit, that your way goes through tribulation. You can’t do without it. The so uneven way is completely even, for by this path you are made meet by the Spirit of God to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Do you know what hinders you again and again from being submissive unto God’s way and will? If is self-love. This makes you have such compassion for your own flesh; this makes you murmur so against God; but if the Lord clears up your way, you will certainly see and acknowledge that the Lord’s way is perfectly even; then you will delight yourself in His wisdom, love, faithfulness, and direction.

Learn to ask continually that this corrupt self-love may be discovered unto you. You have certainly read in the book of Bunyan about the Holy War. Therein Bunyan also writes about self-love. In case you have not read it, we shall mention it here:

“Self-love was also taken and committed to custody; but there were many that were allied to him in Mansoul, so his judgment was deferred. But at last Mr. Self-denial stood up, and said: ‘If such villains as these may be winked at in Man-soul, I will lay down my commission.’ “ etc.

That self-denial may arise in our souls to capture self-love and that this self-love may die at the cross of Christ, because in the way of Christ self-love has been killed and where this evil one is killed, there the path becomes wholly even. There we learn to sing:

O God, most holy are Thy ways,
And who like Thee deserves my praise?
Thy outstretched arm Thy people saved,
Tho’ sore distressed and long enslaved.
None understood but God alone,
To men Thy footsteps were unknown;
But safe Thy people Thou didst keep,
Almighty Shepherd of Thy sheep.

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