“God is remote from human affairs and does not see” is the vain assumption of men with a personal ambition to serve and who work on the principle that “the end justifies the means”. The Apostle Paul passes his verdict upon such people, “Their condemnation is just”.
Scripture amply bears out this truth. There is, for example, Jacob who secured the birthright blessing by means of deceit, and earned terror for himself in the after years, and embittered hatred between the two branches of Isaac’s family which has lasted for three thousand years and will remain unhealed until the anti-type of Isaac returns to set all things right.There is also David whose lapse into the sin so common with oriental potentates resulted in the ruin of his own immediate family happiness and in the long run broke the fortunes of the whole house of Jacob.
On the other side of the picture are the corrective measures of the grace of God to demonstrate his own righteousness through means of the unrighteousness of men. This is amply displayed in the sublime devotional and supplicatory Psalms of David. For to David, God was great and greatly to be praised; He was the Lord who justifies the righteous and brings the wicked to destruction; the Lord is the high tower and fortress of all who put their trust in him. David frankly confessed that, in truly human fashion, he was at times well-nigh envious of the wicked who prospered and spread himself like the green bay tree. And yet, when by comparison he viewed his own life, he confessed that he had never seen the righteous forsaken nor his children begging bread.
These psalms have a series of applications. They reflect on the personal experience of their writer who, as monarch of a new-born nation, was surrounded on every side by enemies and ambitious rivals over whom he prevailed because he loved the law of God and by it was made wiser than his foes.
These psalms were incorporated into the temple worship of the nation and represented the history of the whole people.
They were also adopted by the Christian Church as the wisdom and council of God for the guidance of men and women who needed their faith in Christ strengthened against the evil influences of the world.
They also have messianic implications to touch upon the remote end of national and human salvation from the bondage of sin. Jesus himself was intensely aware of this feature of the psalms, and in his own anguish and faithful hopes applied them to himself.
In such a fashion as this does God demonstrate most forcefully how he employs men to the end of their salvation, and how he turns even their unrighteous actions into occasions for mercy and redeeming grace.
The Jews feared the influence of Jesus with the people. They argued, “If we leave him alone the Romans will come and take away our place and nation”. So they contrived his destruction on the pretense of safeguarding the nation—”It was expedient that one man should suffer for the people”. But in their unbelief of Messiah their motives were wrong, and the means they adopted were worse, unjust and murderous, and although the end result was of God’s working it was not what they anticipated. They themselves were condemned for their sin, and the nation was indeed taken away and its place destroyed.
The close relationship between means and ends is clearly seen in the pastoral letters of Paul, as for example in Corinthians, where he defends himself against self-constituted apostles, who were in effect the enemies of the cross of Christ, who said that he did evil that good might come, and who compared themselves with themselves and acted by their own standards, and viewed themselves through rose-coloured spectacles, and were devoid of self-criticism. The rule always must be, “He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth”.
As practical sensible people who have the praise of God at heart we have to realise that the end of all human enterprise is either made or marred by the motives and the means employed. This is the case even in the sphere of our ecclesial labours. Our own past record has its many examples where misdirected zeal for a self-appointed mission has caused mischief and even bitterness between brethren, and has affected the successful working of ecclesias. This occurs often because would-be leaders of thought and action have no shortage of scripture on which to lean for self-justification. Even Satan at times transforms himself into an angel of light. It requires the true devotional spirit of David to determine what is God’s standard of truth and action. We need always his capacity to confess, “I have sinned”.
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay