THE MYSTERY OF GOD’S WILL
Richard M Brown
Ephesians 1: 8-10
I wanted to draw attention, dear brethren, to this reference to the mystery of God’s will. When that word “mystery” is used in the Scriptures it refers to something which can only be known by divine revelation. In other words, it is not something we could otherwise arrive at; we could not deduce it from circumstances or from whatever facts might be at our disposal: it would be impossible to understand but for light from God. I think that is just what it means here: the mystery of God’s will, as it says, is “to head up all things in the Christ”. Now you could not have arrived at that by looking, for example, at the situation in the world. It could only have been made known to us by a direct revelation from God. If we reflect on it carefully it ought to impress us that He has “made known to us the mystery of his will”. The more we think about it the more we must come to see what a very blessed thing that is. Here we are, just a handful of us, we feel our smallness and weakness; we are of no account at all as far as the world outside is concerned, yet, through grace, we can count ourselves among those to whom God has made known the mystery of His will! What a very blessed thing it is that there are persons on the earth who are in the secret of what God is going to bring to pass. He has made known to them something that could not be known any other way; what was never known even by saints of earlier dispensations. Its being referred to as “the mystery of his will” helps us to see that behind God’s public dealings, behind all that happens in the world, and the way God influences those things, and His providential dealings with men - behind all of that - God is working steadily towards this great end, when “the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth” will be headed up in the Christ.
It is important to see that the bringing in of Christ was not dependent upon the incoming of sin. This is what God has always had before Him. If I may so speak, reverently, God did not decide to introduce Christ when it was a question of meeting the challenge of sin; God had in mind to bring Him in anyway. It was always in God’s mind that He would introduce Christ and that He would secure a universe - heaven and earth - all brought under the sway of that blessed Man and held for the pleasure of God. Adam is a figure of Him who was to come. God made him head, and gave him dominion over the lower creation. Adam was to represent God to the creation; and he was to gather up from the earth all that was for the pleasure of God. That will be seen in a far greater way in Christ in the world to come, in “the administration of the fulness of times”.
Now, dear brethren, the understanding of this great fact is intended to steady our hearts. Outwardly things are going from bad to worse, but our hearts are to be steadied by knowing that, in spite of all that is going on around, God is working towards this great end. It is “the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself”. He did not consult anyone else; He did not seek anyone else’s mind about the matter; and because it is what He willed there can be no question that God will reach His end. The knowledge of that is to steady us; so we are not swayed this way or that, we are not blown off course, and we do not give way to discouragement or despair.
We have examples of how this works out in a practical way in 1 Samuel 2. The chapter starts with Hannah’s song, and verse 10 says, “Jehovah will judge the ends of the earth; and he will give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed”. That is the first reference in the Scriptures to God’s Anointed. One might ask what Hannah was referring to, given that Israel did not have a king at that time. We know it looks on to David and, ultimately, is prophetic of Christ. Some commentators say this must have been written long after Hannah, because she could not possibly have known anything about God’s king. Of course, Hannah was speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit. But whilst Hannah was privileged to give utterance to it, it reveals - just for a moment, we might say, the curtain is drawn back - that God had His King before Him; God had His Anointed before Him. There is another example later in the chapter, where a man of God was sent to Eli to pronounce God’s sentence of judgment upon his house. It is a very solemn message: that God would cut off his house, so there would not be an old man in it for ever. Then in verse 35 God says, “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest” - and this is the reference - “and he shall walk before mine anointed continually”. The man of God was God’s spokesman; he is one of those persons who is not named in the Scriptures. As far as we know, he appears on this one occasion to deliver this very solemn message and is never heard of again. What comes out is this remarkable reference to a future priest that would stand before God’s anointed. Now, again, I take it that is a reference to David. But the point I wanted to bring out is that persons such as Hannah and the man of God, when they found themselves in the position of speaking for God, it is almost as if they could not help but refer to God’s anointed. Why? Because that is what God had before Him - the introduction of His Anointed in a coming day.
Now, as far as the public position was concerned, things had reached a very low ebb in 1 Samuel. It says, “the word of Jehovah was rare in those days; a vision was not frequent”, chap 3: 1. Things had fallen into disrepute under Eli’s sons, and there was a famine of the word of God. There is a correspondence with the public position in our day. Shortly after this the ark fell into the hands of the Philistines, and was then neglected in the house of Abinadab for possibly sixty years, a period which included forty years of the reign of Saul, and what a reign that was! Had you gone by the public position, you would say it was going from bad to worse. Yet these references to God’s anointed show us what God had before Him even in those dark days; and it shows what individuals who were with God had before them. I think it right to say that, if God has something before Him, then those who are with God are entitled to have it before them too.
Now, I give that as a simple illustration of “the mystery of his will”. Behind His public dealings, God had His anointed before Him, and though many years would pass before David was crowned, God was working steadily towards that day when His anointed would be introduced. So you can understand that persons like Hannah, or that man of God, would not have been overcome with discouragement, though living in very difficult times, because they had that secret in their souls, as having received light from God. And I think that is just the position we are in: God has made known the mystery of His will, “to head up all things in the Christ”. That is something we are to treasure in secret. It is part of our testimony, the knowledge that, notwithstanding all that is going on around, the great departure that we, alas! have had our part in, God is working to this great end and He will not fail in it.
I trust, dear brethren, that this simple impression may comfort and strengthen our hearts; and stimulate the desire to be more with God, and that the light of God’s great thoughts may be more real to our souls; that we may prove in increasing measure their power and the satisfying character; and thus be able to overcome in an evil day. It is a very great privilege that He has made these things known to us. I trust we may appreciate more and more the privilege of it, and be exercised to take up divine thoughts in a greater way, both for the pleasure of God and for our blessing.
Word in a meeting for ministry, East Finchley
15th November 2016