Why Does God
Convict us and why is that Good for
our spiritual Life?
Isaiah 55:8–9 says,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. . . .
As the heavens are
higher
than the earth,
so are
my ways higher than your ways
and
my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God’s infinite thoughts are far greater
than
our limited ability to comprehend them.
The psalmist exclaimed,
“How precious to me
are your thoughts, God!
How vast
is the sum of them!”
(Psalm 139:17).
God’s thoughts And
His ways don’t always make sense to us,
but we can rest in the knowledge
that He is always good, and, therefore, everything He does is good
(Psalm 13:6; 100:5).
The human heart is filled with questions for God:
”Why?” “When?” “How?”
We often wrestle with faith because of those questions.
How can we fully trust a God we don’t understand?
How can we have faith when God’s ways seem even cruel at times?
When we try to comprehend God’s ways, we can become
frustrated.
His ways are higher than our ways, and His actions often
do not make sense to our earth-bound minds.
We question God’s ways when young people die, when tragedies strike righteous people, when the wicked prosper (see Psalm 73).
So we beat on heaven’s door with our demand for answers,
and no answer comes but this one:
“My ways are higher than your ways.”
The key to finding peace with ways
that we don’t understand is in Psalm 131:
My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself
with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like
a weaned child with its mother; like a
weaned child I am content”
(verses 1–2).
A just-weaned child does not understand everything his mother does. She may correct him, take him to the doctor for vaccinations, and tell him “no” when he wants something very much. But he trusts her and loves her because he knows she loves him. He rests on his mother in complete humility and trust in her superior wisdom and provision. That’s what we must do with God when His ways are beyond our comprehension.
If we try to understand God’s ways from earth looking up, we won’t find many answers. Instead, God left us a clue in the word higher.
His ways are not merely different from ours,
they are higher.
Better. Superior.
They exist on a grander scale.
He parted the Red Sea because it fit His plan for Israel
(Exodus 14:21; Psalm 66:6).
He made the sun stand still so Joshua’s army could defeat their enemies (Joshua 10:12–13). He sent an angel to let Peter out of jail (Acts 12:6–10), but He allowed James to be executed (Acts 12:2). God has allowed some of His faithful servants to suffer terrible fates, even though He could have delivered them if He chose (Hebrews 11:32–40). When we try to make sense of these events with our natural minds, we won’t get anywhere. Instead, God invites us to come up higher and learn to see life from His perspective.
From earth looking up,
we see only confusion.
But from
heaven looking down,
we see
a plan unfolding.
In Isaiah 46:9–11, the Lord lays out His sovereign plan to use the Persian king Cyrus: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.” We may not know why God needs a “bird from the east” or why He would want to use a man like Cyrus. The man “from a far-off land” may not himself understand why he is moving across the world. But those who trust the Lord can rest in the confidence that God is at work. The Bible gives little room for the idea of coincidence (Proverbs 16:33; Psalm 37:23).
In God’s “higher ways,”
everything happens for a reason and will be
woven into the fabric of God’s good
plan for those who love Him
(Romans 8:28).
God’s ways are higher than our ways because His ways are always part of a bigger plan. We see only our small piece of the puzzle; God sees the finished work.
We see a portion of the jumbled back of the tapestry; God is the Weaver at the loom. When our desire is to live in step with His plan, we can have confidence that, even when bad things happen, God is still in control. He often takes what Satan meant for evil and turns it into good for the salvation of many (see Genesis 50:20).
God’s priorities are the magnification
of His glory
and the expansion of His kingdom
(Psalm 97:6; Luke 8:1).
When God’s glory and
God’s kingdom are our priorities, too,
we learn to rejoice that
His ways are higher than our ways
(1 Corinthians 10:31).
The King James Version and New King James use the word sorrows
in Isaiah 53:3 in
identifying the Messiah
as “
a man of sorrows.”
The NIV translates the word as “suffering,” as does the ESV,
which also notes an alternate
translation could be “pains.” Isaiah 52:13—53:12 is
the climactic fourth of the Servant Songs
and is often referred to as
the “
Song of the Suffering Servant.”
If you simply
read these verses carefully,
you will note
How much pain, suffering,
and
sorrow that
Jesus,
the
Suffering Servant,
actually endures
“See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him--
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness--
so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
“Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
“Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
“He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Jesus is called
“a man of sorrows”
because of
how much suffering He
had to endure.
He suffered first by leaving the glories of heaven
and
entering the human race
as a man.
Then He suffered all the things that humanity suffers, and then
finally
He suffered the
wrath
of God as the sin-bearer
Such suffering must have been all the more acute for Him,
given His perfect nature.
Who of us could ever understand the
depths of what
His righteous spirit suffered as
He lived
among fallen humanity?
Although He is called “a man of sorrows,” Jesus was not a morose, doleful person. He did endure times of sadness, but
He could rejoice in His sufferings as
He focused on the
final outcome.
Jesus is “the pioneer and
perfecter of faith.
For the joy set before him
he endured
the cross,
scorning its shame,
and sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God”
(Hebrews 12:2).
Jesus endured many
pains, hardships,
sufferings, and sorrows,
but
He kept His eyes on the final joy
of
completing God’s purpose
and
redeeming His lost sheep.
The old hymn by Philip Bliss is appropriate to quote here:
“Man of Sorrows,” what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood--
Sealed my pardon with His blood:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Guilty, vile and helpless, we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Lifted up was He to die,
“It is finished,” was His cry;
Now in heav’n exalted high:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
It was Jesus’ willingness to endure suffering and sorrow in a world of suffering and sorrow that ultimately rescues all who trust in Him from the very presence of any suffering and sorrow. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).