If we look at the history of the children of Israel at the close of their journeyings, and ask two questions, what widely differing answers we should get! Suppose we were to ask, first, What hath Israel wrought? We should get the answer in Deut. 9. Yes, at the very moment when God was just about to bring them through the Jordan into the land, they had been a stiff-necked people, and had been rebellious against the Lord. Not only had they made, and worshipped, the molten calf, but, as Moses said to them, “Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.” This, then, is the answer to the question, What had Israel wrought? Is it not evident, if God had dealt with them on the principle of law, according to what they had wrought, that, in righteousness, He could only have cursed them?
Let us now look at the other question—“What hath God wrought?” For an answer to this question we must turn to Numb. 23; 24 Here, at the close of their journey, we find the power of men and Satan combined to curse them, the very thing they deserved, if dealt with according to their sins. Balaam said, “Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought me.... saying, Come, curse me Jacob; and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.” “From the top of the rocks.” What a contrast to the plains below! There we learn what Israel had wrought—what they were, and what they had done. Here, on the heights, we get God’s thoughts of His people, and what He had done. Balaam saw Him a person on high, whom he could not resist. Israel were a sanctified, or separated, people from the nations. God, who came down to deliver them from Egypt, is the same at the end of the journey. There is no change in God. “ God is not a man that he should lie, neither the Son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?.... He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.....God brought them out of Egypt..... According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought?What they had wrought was rebelliousness and perverseness. God had redeemed them from Egypt, and at the end of the journey thus completely justified them.
All this is fact; but how God was righteous in thus passing over their sins, and not imputing them unto them, is not revealed in the Old Testament, and cannot be explained, except by that propitiation by the blood of Jesus which God hath set forth, to explain His righteousness, for the remission of the sins of His people.
We have thus, very briefly, looked at these deeply interesting scriptures. And now, at the close of another year, which may be the close of our journey here below, we would ask the same two questions; What have we wrought? What hath God wrought?
If we are believers, God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them—then, whatever He hath wrought in us is to His praise. But how much of our past has been like Israel in Deut. 9! Surely, if God were to deal with us according to what we have wrought, if He were to enter into judgment with us, could He justify our ways? No more than He could have justified Israel. Let us look up from these plains of Moab—let us look up from what we have wrought—whilst owning it all before Him; let us remember where God justified, it is then from that time said, “What hath God wrought?” Now, if we look up to those heights above, what do we see? One in His presence, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. What hath He wrought? Did He not come down in infinite love? Did He not engage our eternal redemption? Has He not accomplished it? Was He not delivered for our offenses? We see Jesus; we see Him; God sees Him. God raised Him from the dead for our justification, our accepted sacrifice, atonement, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. God says, all that believe in Him are justified from all things.
Thus the believer’s justification is entirely on the ground of what God hath wrought. “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.” “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This could not be on the ground of what we have wrought. Hence, whenever we look at ourselves, or what we have done or felt, as a ground of peace with God, we are unhappy and uncertain, filled with doubts and darkness. God, who changeth not, delivered up His well-beloved Son to bear our iniquities, and raised Him up again from the dead, for our justification—therefore He gives us the blessedness of sins forgiven, and sin not imputed. Yea, God, who, if He judged us, must condemn, is now our Justifier, Oh, wondrous grace reigning through righteousness! God is just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. From this time shall it be said, What hath God wrought? If we thus close our wilderness journey, let us remember God is for us. God is greater than Balak, or Balaam, or Satan the accuser. He is for us at the close as at the beginning. When He has proved us, and shown us all that is in us, He loves, He justifies unto the end. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” “Moreover.... whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” What hath God wrought?