This week in the attributes of God; God is sovereign. The New American Oxford Dictionary defines sovereign as a noun and an adjective. As a noun (a person, place, or thing), “a supreme ruler, especially a monarch.” As an adjective (a word used to describe a noun), “possessing supreme or ultimate power.” So, by now someone is asking, “Is God the noun or the adjective?” The answer is, God is both the noun and the adjective. However, God is not just a supreme ruler; he is supreme ruler with supreme or ultimate power.
From the first words of the Bible, “In the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1), to some of the last words of Christ to John in Revelation 22:12, “Behold I am coming soon bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done,” scripture, in its entirety, proclaims the sovereignty of God.
In Genesis 45:5-8, Joseph tells his brothers of God’s sovereignty over him, three times saying, “God sent me.” In Deuteronomy 4:39, Moses says, “The Lord God is in heaven above and on earth beneath; there is no other.” In 1 Chronicles 29:12, David king of Israel says that it is in God’s hands to “make great and to give strength,” and in 2 Chronicles 36:23, Cyrus king of Persia frees Israelite captives saying that God gave him the kingdoms of the earth. In Nebuchadnezzar’s confession of “the Most High” he exclaims, "all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35) Ephesians 1:11 says that God works “all things according to the counsel of his will.” In Isaiah 46:10, God himself says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.”
In The Attributes of God, citing a Charles Spurgeon sermon, A. W. Pink says Spurgeon rightly stated, “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s sovereignty…On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings…as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah.” Among men, the sovereignty of God is a hotly contested doctrine, but God’s own word settles the matter; Psalm 135:6 says, “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.”
Go Deeper:
Does God’s sovereignty bring you comfort or make you uneasy?
Open the Word and search out more references to God’s sovereignty.
Grace & Peace,
John
(You can reach Pastor John atjwhite@thevillagemi.com)