“GOD is greater than man; why dost thou strive against Him? for He giveth not account of any of His matters.” (Job 33:12, 1312Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. 13Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters. (Job 33:12‑13).) And yet He frequently explains Himself―sometimes exercising our faith and silencing our objections, by saying, “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” And at other times lifting up the veil and enabling us to scan His ways, so as to elicit a burst of admiring and adoring praise. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
There are ways of God which He has prescribed to us, in which He is imitable by us. “Be ye therefore followers (imitators) of God as dear children.” And there are ways in which He is sovereign―His own prerogative ways, in which He acts for His own Name’s sake. “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” In this we cannot imitate God. He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” He must in the strictest sense be arbitrary, or He is not God. But it is not for man to prescribe to himself his own will as his rule, because in doing so he affects to be God. The good pleasure which God has purposed in Himself, He will so accomplish, as to show that “He is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth from generation to generation.”
There are ways of God made known to us as His ways, and yet inscrutable to us in their mode of operation, but often discovered in their result. Of these ways there are two which, though very distinct, sometimes lead to the same end. First, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee.” Second, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” and “mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” These ways of God receive large illustration from the early Scriptures down to the crucifixion of Christ, in which the wrath of man was made to praise Him; as it is written, “For of a truth against Thy holy Child 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;” while at the same time, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, beginning at Jerusalem,” furnishes a most illustrious instance of grace abounding over sin.
The wrath of man raised “a great persecution against the Church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.” But how manifestly does the wrath of man praise God. “Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.” Again, the wrath of Jewish zealots would have compassed the death of the apostle Paul. Possibly there may be traces of human infirmity, of policy or expediency, found in the conduct of the apostle; but the Lord is supreme alike over the wrath of man, and the failings of His servant; saying to His servant, “Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” In his imprisonment at Rome, the apostle could calmly trace the Lord’s way, saying, “I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.” “Surely the wrath of man shall praise God.”
Let us turn to Levi. He is linked with Simeon in the atrocious massacre of the Shechemites. (Gen. 34) Jacob, when he was a dying, tells these two brethren what should befall them in the last days. “Simeon and Levi are brethren: instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” (Gen. 49:5, 6, 75Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. 6O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. 7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. (Genesis 49:5‑7).) Such is the language of paternal indignation. Jacob felt that his honor had been compromised by the rashness of his sons, and his “name made to stink among the inhabitants of the land.” Is this all the legacy the father can bequeath to his sons? It is all that can be done in righteousness; but God can turn even this curse to a blessing, as He did in after days that of Balaam. (Deut. 23:55Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee. (Deuteronomy 23:5).) He can make this cruel wrath to praise Him, and mercy to rejoice against judgment. As for Simeon: they had their inheritance within the tribe of Judah, (Josh. 19: 9,) as if they were hardly reckoned as a distinct tribe of Israel. They were “divided in Jacob,”―an instance of “the severity of God.” But to be scattered in Israel, as Levi was, eventually proved their highest honor. When Moses, the man of God, blesses the children of Israel before his death, judgment is indeed remembered in the omission of any mention of Simeon. But how mercy rejoices against judgment in the largeness of the blessing pronounced on Levi! It is Moses, as king in Jeshurun, speaking in the tone of royal grace, and not as the indignant father. Blessed instruction indeed! Whilst “the Father, without respect of person, judgeth according to every man’s work” during our sojourn here, He still, as the God of all grace, steadily pursues His purpose of blessing; scourging “in severity,” yet in love and faithfulness, and abounding in grace over the very sin for which He has chastened His children.
But to return to Levi. “And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed Thy word, and kept Thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob Thy judgments, and Israel Thy law: they shall put intense before Thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon Thine altar. (Deut. 33:8-108And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; 9Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. 10They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. (Deuteronomy 33:8‑10).)
The father’s judgment had scattered them in Israel; but this very fact was, by the grace of God, overruled to their honor, for the Lord was their inheritance. “But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as a heave offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.” (Num. 18:2424But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. (Numbers 18:24).) But besides this honor, their very scattering in judgment was overruled in mercy to make them a blessing to their brethren, for by this very means they were enabled to teach Jacob the judgments of the Lord, and Israel His statutes, which they could not have done, had they had a distinct portion of the land assigned to them, as was the case with the other tribes.
The acknowledgment of God as “a great King.” acting in royal grace, not only throws light on His ways; but cheers while it humbles and softens our souls. Whilst we feel His “severity,” it is well to acknowledge His “goodness.” The ready way of man when he feels the severity of God, is either to harden himself against God, as Pharaoh did; or to fret against Him, as Israel: “It shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.” (Isa. 8:2121And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. (Isaiah 8:21).) But when the soul is truly humbled under the mighty hand of God, He Himself lifts it up. (1 Peter 5:66Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: (1 Peter 5:6).) The severity has wrought godly sorrow unto salvation or deliverance. Then the severity itself is seen in the light of mercy and faithfulness. God is justified, and His goodness becomes the prominent feature in His dealings with us. Fretfulness is exchanged for praise. Humiliating scattering is turned to the account of more enlarged testimony to the gospel of the grace of God; while those who preach it, partake more of it in preaching it, by their deeper experience of their own need of that grace which they preach to others.