What does it mean that God is a God of order?

God is a God of order. He "is not the author of confusion." Disorder and confusion belong to the kingdom of Satan and darkness; but, He that is clothed with honour and majesty, who "covereth Himself with light as with a garment," cannot permit disorder in His kingdom. It would be utterly inconsistent with light, and derogatory to majesty. And as to His divine wisdom, it expresses itself in that perfect order which characterises all His counsels and works. It is this principle of divine order that pervades the universe. May we consider the heavens, which declare the glory of God, and the firmament, which showeth His handiwork, where He has set a tabernacle for the sun, and ordained the moon and the stars though there is no speech nor language with them, and though their voice is not heard, yet "their line is gone out through the earth, and their words to the end of the world." And to what, next to the glory of God, does their silent language testify? That God is a God of order.

Each of these vast luminous orbs, suspended in the skies, rises and sets in its appointed time — not a minute or second too late — and keeps its assigned place, or moves in its appointed sphere, without deviating one inch to the right or to the left. There is no confusion, no clashing. "He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down." All is perfect order. Or may we look at the lower creation around us, it is the same perfect order. Everything is in its appointed time and place, so beautifully described in Psalm 104.

If a good and great king demands order to rule throughout the realms, and unto the uttermost borders of his kingdom, he will certainly and most particularly insist on order in his family and at his court. And do you think that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and earth is named, could, in His heavenly courts above, and in His church tolerate that which would be inconsistent with His holiness and derogatory to His majesty? Was His great apostle of the Gentiles and of the church indifferent to the confusion and disorder in the church at Corinth? He told them, that God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, i.e., of that order, without which there can be no true peace. It is on the same principle, that the inspired apostle commands Christian women in the assembly, to have a cover (the symbol of subjection to another's authority) on their heads, "on account of the angels," because they are accustomed, to see in the heavenly courts above, everything and everyone in their proper places, and therefore would be grieved, if they saw a woman without that symbol of authority on her head in the church, where those heavenly principalities study the wisdom of God.

And as to the heavenly courts above, we find in those passages of the Old and New Testament wherever the Holy Spirit draws the curtain to permit us a glimpse into those heavenly scenes, perfect order pervading the whole; i.e. everything and everyone in their appointed place; and moving in their appointed sphere and time, in perfect harmony of action; be it as to divine government in the Old, or in connection with redemption in the New Testament. Even Satan with his wicked spirits must submit to that order, whenever they are permitted to make their appearance there. I need only to point out such passages as Job 1:6, (order as to time); 1 Kings 22:19, (order as to place); further Isa. 6 (besides the above mentioned half heavenly, half earthly scene in Ezek. 1) and further Rev. 4 and 5, to show how God wills his own immutable principle of divine order to bear sway throughout the whole of His creation, from the highest, down to the lowest. Now by the word "order," we understand such a condition of things and persons, where everything and everybody is found and moves or acts in the proper, appointed place, sphere, and time. Even the children of this world agree that order is one of the essential requisites for human happiness, prosperity, and success. "A place for everything, (and, let us add, "everybody,") and everything (and everybody) in its place," is a well-known adage, the truth of which is generally owned and acted upon, from the surroundings of royalty, down to the lowest employees in a manufactory. How infinitely more important (because divinely required,) is the principle of order for the relationships of the Christian, may they be those in the church or in the family, and how much more ought order to characterize everything in the individual believer's life and action.

Order is the law of the universe, else all would be mere chaos, for in no sphere is God the author of confusion. Every thing must obey His voice and submit to His power. Each department of His kingdom must recognise His government and be under his control.

Some have an idea that all order, method, arrangement, in the things of God are illegal, they are said to savour of system, and be evil. This is a great mistake. Is God the author of confusion? Is not the whole creation of God, excepting where sin has marred it, the perfection of method, order, and arrangement? Does not every heavenly body keep its course and time exactly, so that the best timepiece that can be made must often be tested by these bodies, and no one dreams of suggesting that the difference that is found is due to the star being incorrect in its transit.

The Lord Jesus soon showed to all that He was the God who gave the manna (Ex. 16), and also the Jehovah of Ps. 132:15, Who said: "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread." Accordingly He bade the multitudes sit down upon the grass in hundreds and in fifties (Mark 6:40). Order is stamped upon all His ways, whether in creation or in grace. "God is not the author of confusion." But before He performed what was really a stupendous miracle, He gave public thanks for the food He was about to administer (Matt. 14:19). Wonderful combination of human dependence and divine omnipotence in One person! In His hands the five loaves sufficed for five thousand men besides women and children, with twelve baskets full of fragments remaining. Little wonder that in an outburst of enthusiasm the people at once desired to make Him king (John 6:15). A ruler who is a giver would be indeed a boon to long-taxed men.

Thus, from the very first words of holy writ, where we find God, commanding the light to shine out of the darkness that lay upon the chaos, and dividing the light from the darkness, until the last pages of the divine book, showing the glorious heavenly city with the perfect symmetry and harmony of its divine structure, and in the closing chapter, the heavenly paradise, where we find "in the midst of the street, and on either side of the river, the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month," it is the same divine principle of Order, that stamps every page of that perfect word, where man's wisdom, which is folly in divine things, cannot displace one single sentence, nay, not one letter, without producing confusion. This spirit of order and harmony, truly divine in its perfection, breathes its sweet and salubrious fragrance from every page of Holy Writ into the soul of its believing readers, in order that their daily life may breathe the same spirit of peaceful order and harmony, in dependence upon Him, who during His life on earth, was always the pattern and expression of it.

The apostle now comes to the practical deductions from the divine principles laid down for regulating the assembly. The Corinthians had assumed absolute openness or really license for human will from the fact of the powers distributed to one and another by the Spirit. To control a meeting where He wrought thus seemed unreasonable. But here they were wholly mistaken; for the blessed One who is now sent down from heaven is a Spirit of order, and works in love for the purpose of maintaining the Lordship of Christ. Hence no power at work in or by man exempts from the rule of the Lord, but on the contrary exalts it, if exercised according to the will of God.

Verse 33. "For God is not the author of confusion,"8 etc. A gift is not God, nor is it, in the manner of its exercise,. an expression always of His will. But God dwells in the assembly, and in each particular saint. This solemn and ever blessed truth lies at the bottom of all special direction as to behaviour in the Church. What is expected of His worshippers is not so much a ready consciousness of any gifts or powers in themselves, as a deep and reverent sense of God's immediate presence. He is greatly to be feared in the assembly of His saints.9 His presence is in all such assemblies. And where He is felt in His supremacy both peace and order will prevail. His gifts will praise Him, and His saints will bless Him. All that is genuine will have its free and happy exercise, while natural wilfulness is awed into stillness before Him. Confusion is the fruit of human self-seeking, but grace acquaints us with the God of peace. And where the hearts of His worshippers are filled and quieted with His abounding peace, their outward habit will express their inward state.

(Vv. 32, 33). Moreover, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, a statement that excludes all idea of being moved by an uncontrollable impulse. With men speaking under the power of demons it would be otherwise, resulting in unholy excitement and confusion. God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace. Any scene of confusion in the assemblies of God's people is clearly not of God.

The conclusion the apostle then shuts up the brethren to is, zeal for prophesying, and no prohibition of speaking with tongues, regulated as we have seen in the assemblies. For all things, not these merely, are to be done becomingly and in order. But the Spirit alone can give us to discern always what is comely, and the order is not left to human discretion, but revealed by the Lord. Thus man's will, as it is condemned in every detail of individual life (for we are sanctified to obedience, yea, to the same kind of obedience as our Lord Jesus Christ), is no less excluded from the assembly of God which He has formed for the glory of Christ, and in which He acts by the Holy Ghost according to the written word.