God Knows What He’s Doing

GOD’S PUNITIVE JUDGMENTS ARE UNSEARCHABLE. We do not know what God is up to when a person seems to be punished by God. When Jesus and his disciples passed a man who was born blind, the disciples assumed he was afflicted because of some wrongdoing. Jesus said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3). God’s punitive judgments are unsearchable. Likewise, GOD’S GRACIOUS JUDGMENTS ARE UNSEARCHABLE. We do not know what God is up to when a person seems to be punished by God. And we do not know what God is up to when a person seems to be blessed by God. There is no reason to be jealous when others experience favor. And there is no room for pride when we experience favor. God’s gracious judgments are unsearchable.

HIS WAYS ARE INSCRUTABLE. Judgments refers to God’s decrees. Ways refers to God’s activity. God’s ways are the path or road he travels to accomplish his judgments. And they are inscrutable, which means to be unable to track or trace a footprint. They are unfathomable. They are past finding out. Psalm 77:19 says, “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.” This is our God. God is real. God is alive. God is moving. God is going somewhere. God always reaches his intended destination. But God leaves no footprints as he travels. God leaves no fingerprints as he works. God leaves no DNA evidence for you to trace. His ways are inscrutable.

Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.” Israel witnessed God’s mighty acts. But they did not know why God did what he did. God only made his ways known to Moses. Yet Moses still didn’t get it. And he was disqualified from leading Israel into Canaan, when his anger dishonored the Lord and he took matters into his own hands. We must conclude:

GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

HIS WONDERS TO PERFORM

HE PLANTS HIS FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS

AND RIDES ON EVERY STORM

II. EMBRACE THE TRUTH OF GOD’S GREATNESS.

The attributes of God are categorized two ways: communicable attributes and incommunicable attributes. Communicable attributes are those we can share with God, being creatures made in his image. For instance, the attributes mentioned in verse 33 – wisdom and knowledge – are communicable attributes. But incommunicable attributes belong to God alone. Verses 34-35 declare the incommunicable attributes. It confronts us with the fact that God is God and we are not. God is so great that he does not need our advice or our assistance.

A. GOD DOES NOT NEED YOUR ADVICE.

Verse 34 says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” These rhetorical questions assume a negative answer.

NO ONE KNOWS THE MIND OF THE LORD. This is a paradox. There is a sense in which we can know the mind of God. We can know the mind of God through God’s word. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” We can know the mind of God through God’s Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:12 says, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” Yet we cannot know the mind of God.