MAGNOLIA MINDS: His ways are not our ways, but not how you think

By Andrew Harper

You are running late and frustrated about all the delays in your schedule, but as you drive to work, you realize you just missed being involved in a wreck. “His ways are higher than my ways,” you might say.

You lose a loved one who you feel has passed on too soon. “His ways are higher than my ways.” 

You ponder the mysteries of the Trinity. “His ways are higher than my ways.”

We have all heard verses of scripture used out of context (and we might have been guilty ourselves). This is not a new phenomenon. Taking God’s word out of context has its origin in the garden of Eden as the serpent twists and misapplies God’s instruction to tempt Eve.

Taking passages out of context has varying levels of severity. At times, it can lead to heresy, and at other times, it is a case of “right theology but wrong text.” This happens when someone uses a particular passage to express an orthodox idea that is not actually communicated in the passage.

Another consequence of taking a passage out of context is missing its real implications for understanding, discipleship, and ministry.

In quoting Isaiah 55:8-9 as an appeal to mystery, we have a classic case of “right theology, wrong text,” and because of this, we are missing the passage’s intended implications. The truth of God’s sovereign plan over all things and our lack of answers to life’s questions is clearly communicated in passages like Romans 8:28, but that is not the truth that Isaiah seeks to convey. We need to reclaim Isaiah’s original context and meaning so that we will delight in God, marvel at the Gospel of Christ, and seek to offer others grace and forgiveness. 

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God tells us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55 is the section of Isaiah after the exile. God has carried out the judgment that Isaiah warned of in chapters 1-39. Now, with the decree of Cyrus of the Persian Empire, God’s people can return. However, in their return, Israel puts God on trial and charges Him with neglect in their punishment. Instead of seeing God deliver them from the hands of Babylon by raising up Persia and Cyrus, they are still rebellious in heart in chapter 48. So conventional wisdom seems to say it’s time for another round of judgment. God’s people have not learned their lesson. This, however, is not what God intends to do.

Instead, in chapter 55, God shows His kindness to them, leading them to seek Him. He offers satisfaction, an everlasting covenant, and forgiveness for all they have done. The reason God’s ways are not our own is that we would not naturally do this to our enemies. This expression of love, grace, and forgiveness is not our way. These are the elements sitting above our ways and thoughts.

John Calvin said of Isaiah 55:8, “Men are wont to judge and measure God from themselves; for their hearts are moved by angry passions, and are very difficult to be appeased; and therefore they think that they cannot be reconciled to God, when they have once offended him. But the Lord shews that he is far from resembling men. As if he had said, ‘I am not a mortal man, that I should shew myself to be harsh and irreconcilable to you. My thoughts are very different from yours.’”

This view, for many believers, is not our default disposition of God, but it was for an unlikely character — Jonah. 

Remember when Jonah was asked to preach to his enemy? Jonah doesn’t run in the opposite direction because he is afraid of his enemy. He runs away because he knows God’s character too well. After the repentance of the Ninevites, Jonah 4:1-2 tells us, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.’”

Jonah’s story is a case study of Isaiah 55:8-9. His ways were not the Lord’s ways, not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of a lack of love. Jonah knew God and was known by God, but God’s ways had not yet become Jonah’s ways. 

As partakers of the everlasting covenant that Isaiah 55 promises, we have experienced God’s ways, His compassion, and forgiveness that we never deserved. Because God’s ways came to us in Christ, we can make God’s ways our ways through the work of the Spirit. We can offer compassion and forgiveness to those who do not deserve it because we have come to Christ and found nothing less. When we come to Christ, he sends us out to show the Lord’s ways, which are not man’s ways, to the world. When we carry out God’s ways for others to see, we publicly express the good news of the everlasting covenant that Christ offers. 

So the next time you extend grace, love, or forgiveness to those who do not deserve it and they come to you confused, just tell them, “His ways are higher than my ways.”

Isaiah is right: God’s ways are not our ways, but in Christ they can be.

Harper is the Adult Ministry Consultant at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.