GOD’S MYSTERIOUS WAYS

Kings of the earth have their secrets of government; but they are but trifles in comparison of the mysteries of God’s government by Christ in the world. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,” says the Lord, “so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9)

Some of these mysterious pieces of management follow.

It is the manner of this kingdom:

1. To prefer the most unlikely, balking them that stand fairest in all human appearance. There is a thread of this method going through the whole economy of grace. Abel, the youngest, is preferred to Cain; Seth to Japheth his older brother; Jacob to Esau; Ephraim to Manasses; Moses to Aaron, three years older than he; David to seven brethren older that he. He calls the foolish and the base things of the world, passing by the wise, mighty, and noble, 1 Cor. 1:26. The mysteries of the kingdom are hid from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes. (Matt. 11:25) When the gospel is to be preached, they must begin with the Jews at Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified, for the design is to exalt the riches of grace.

2. It is the manner of this kingdom: To let things go to an extremity, to the utmost point of hopelessness before a hand be put to help them, and set them right again. Pharoah shall not only enslave the Israelites, but proceed to drown their males, before Moses their deliverer is born; their bondage shall be harder than ever, ere they are out of Egypt. When they are out, they are beset on all hands, and he seems to have them in a net, ere he and they are freely parted. Haman carried his plot so far against the Jews, that the decree was passed, the letters of execution written, and the posts dispatched with them, before there was a turn. It is a maxim with men, to crush things in their beginning because they may prove too strong for them afterwards; but our Lord takes the contrary method, to glorify the power of His hand.

3. To give the sharpest treatment to the greatest favorites. This is not the manner of men, but it is the manner of God. Hence said Asaph, Psa. 83:5, 14, “They (the wicked) are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” Never was one treated so hardly as the Son of the Father’s bosom. And it is the ordinary method, that the favorites of Heaven are cast down to the dust, while His enemies are lifted up on high; the former sigh while the latter sin. John the Baptist is in prison while the incestuous Herodias is at ball; her daughter dances, and John Baptist’s head is cut off, and in a charger brought to the incestuous woman to triumph over it. They have little skill of the mystery of God, that from their outward prosperity and ease gather the special love of God to them. On the contrary, “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” (Heb 12:6) As little skill have they that conclude the greatest sufferers are certainly the greatest sinners. If it be so, the apostles were the worst of men; “For I think (says Paul) that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.” (1 Cor. 4:9)

4. It is the manner of the kingdom: To meet men with astonishing strokes going in the way that God bade them, while they have a fair sunshine are going in the way of their own hearts. Hence said Solomon, Eccl. 8:14, “There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous.” Jacob was bidden to return to his own country; but what storms rose on him by the way, one after another! Moses was bid go to Egypt on God’s errand, yet he was in hazard of his life; but Jonah, flying to Tarshish, got a ship as ready to take him in as he could have wished. People are ready to judge of other men’s actions according to the outward aspect of providence on them: a most uncertain and dangerous rule, which cannot miss of making them condemn the generation of the righteous, and bless them whom the Lord abhors.

5. It is the manner of this kingdom: To lay by accepted petitions, and let them long lie by, time after time, while yet unacceptable requests are quickly granted. The people lusted after flesh, and they soon got their desire; they were bent for a king, and they soon got their desire in that too. But how many cries to Heaven were among the Old Testament saints for the coming of the Messias, a promised mercy, which yet were not answered till some thousands of years were run. God, while He flings a mercy to a carnal man uneasy for it, will let His elect cry to Him day and night for their mercies ere they get them. (Luke 17:7) And many a long process they may have before the throne depending many a year, ere they get their answer; as is evident in the case of Abraham for a seed; yea, they may be carried off the stage ere they be answered, as in the case of the cloud of witnesses, Heb. 11:13, who all died in faith, not having received the promises. And yet after all they are accepted, and the gracious answer is determined for them.

6. It is the manner of this kingdom: To answer accepted prayers with some one terrible thing or other, which yet are to be graciously and bountifully answered in due time. Hence said the psalmist, Psa. 65:6, “By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our salvation.” The woman of Canaan got repeated trials of this, Matt. 25:22–28. Moses and Aaron go in at God’s command to Pharoah, to demand his letting Israel go; and no doubt they prayed for success ere they went; but instead of that, immediately providence takes a run directly contrary to what they had been praying for; this made Moses himself stagger, as you see, Ex. 5:22, “And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast Thou so evil entreated this people why is it that Thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharoah to speak in Thy name, he has done evil to this people; neither has Thou delivered Thy people at all.” If at any time you have been praying for a mercy with particular concern and seriousness, and quickly after providence seems to fly in the face of your prayers, be not so weak and so ill seen in the mystery of God, as to think, Now, that is Heaven’s final answer; no, it is but a trial, very usual in the mystery of God; which, if you learn not by hearing, you will be fair to be taught you by experience.

7. It is the manner of this kingdom: To muster up various impediments, make many embarrassments, and set up iron gates, in the way of some great good thing that is to be done for a person, a favorite of heaven. This was taught by the apostles, Acts 14:22, who were employed in confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Some get their mercies with a great deal of ease, they drop into their lap like ripe fruit off the tree of common providence. But the children of the covenant come not so easily by theirs; and the greater the mercy is, readily the more and greater are the difficulties in the way thereof. Esau and his posterity were soon and easily settled in Edom, the land appointed for them; but it was many a year after, ere Jacob’s posterity was settled in Canaan, the land appointed for them; and they fought many bloody battles before it. Abraham had the promise of a son; but behold the barrenness of his wife is rolled in the way of the promise; and as if that had not been enough, he and she both grew so old, that it ceased to be with her after the manner of women. Much alike was it with Zacharias and Elizabeth, in Luke 1:18. But this is for the honor of God, in making the iron gates open of their own accord, and bringing the promised mercy in spite of the impediments.

8. It is the manner of this kingdom: To set things on a run to bring in a promised mercy; and then when it comes to the point, that one is just expecting to receive it, suddenly to cause a stop, and make a turn that make it quite hopeless-like. When the Messias appeared, there were great hopes among the believing Jews of a glorious time for Israel; and these were not vain, but they suddenly met with a shock; the Messias was crucified, dead, and buried; that made some of them like to lose all their hopes. Hence said the two disciples that were going to Emmaus, Luke 24:21, “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.” This is a very ordinary piece of the divine conduct, the mystery of God, first, as it were, to pass the sentence of death on a promised mercy, to bury and lay the gravestones on it, and then to raise it up, and bring it in. David had the promise of the kingdom; he is sent for to court, has Saul’s favor, is made general by him, against the heart of the people. Now things were on a run towards the accomplishing of the promise. But behold, this run is suddenly stopped; Saul seeks his life; he is for many years hunted like a partridge on the mountains, thinks one day he will fall by the hands of Saul, and says in his haste (Psa. 116:11) “All men are liars.” So Moses being bred up in the court of Pharoah, had a secret intimation that he would be the man who would deliver Israel. Accordingly, when he was forty years old, he sets himself to work; but it misgives in his hand, and he is in hazard of his life, and is forced to flee the country, and for forty years after he lives retired in Midian, by which time it would seem he had lost all hope of the matter. Yet was the work done in its due time.

9. It is the manner of this kingdom: To make use of hindrances of good things for furtherances thereof. Hence said Paul to the Philippians, chapter 1:12, “I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.” It was mete that Paul the apostle of the Gentiles should be at Rome, then the chief city of the world, to preach the gospel there. He often purposed it, but was disappointed. Hence he said, Rom. 1:13, “Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto), that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.” How got he hither? Why, there was a mob raised on him by the Jews, he was taken prisoner by the Romans, tossed from hand to land, till he was obliged to appeal to Caesar, and then the Romans carried him to Rome. Jacob was brought into heavy case by what befell his son Joseph; but behold, that was the means of the support of him and his family. In the mystery of God there is frequent working by contraries; providence driving straight forward to the designed point, while it seems to us to be going quite against it. Haman goes to the king to get Mordecai hanged, and by that very means is brought to lead him through the city on horseback, in the greatest pomp and splendor. Had not Joseph been put in the prison, he had not come to the court.

10. To give weak backs heavy burdens to bear. Thus Christ chose His apostles fishermen, to set up His kingdom in the world, combat the learning of the schools, and the force of them who had the power of the sword. Paul unriddles this mystery, 2 Cor. 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” While He makes a worm thrash the mountains, to beat them small, the greater is the glory of the mighty hand that does it with such a flail. (Isa. 41:14,15)

Hence we may learn not to be rash in passing judgment on the state of affairs in the world, while you see the seeming confusions in your own case, of others, or of the world. Wait the finishing of the mystery. Then you will see surprising, particularly,

1. An admirable harmony between jarring providences and promises. They will meet in close agreement; and it will appear that there never was any real discord between them, but that providence took the best way towards the accomplishing of the promises.

2. A beautiful agreeableness of smiling providences in the case of the wicked, to the divine perfections. By these will appear the goodness, patience, etc., of God without any the least marring of His faithfulness in the threatening.

3. The base believer who took the mystery on trust, fully satisfied; the wise and prudent who would believe no farther than they saw, confounded.

Improve the mystery while you have it, before it is finished, as it is in Rev. 10:6, 7, that when the mystery of God shall be finished, there shall be time no longer.

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