The Sovereignty of God

Those who believe the scriptures believe that God is Sovereign – that He acts He pleases, according to His own good pleasure without getting permission from anyone. How can one not believe this truth, since it is scattered throughout the sacred writings. Unlike the idols who “have mouths, but … cannot speak …eyes but … cannot see … ears, but … cannot hear … noses, but … cannot smell … hands, but … cannot feel … feet, but … cannot walk … [and who] cannot make a sound with their throat” it is the LORD who has “established His throne in the heavens, and His Sovereignty rules over all.” (Psalms 103:19) In Psa 115:3 and 135:5-6 it is written: “… our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” and “For I know that the LORD is great and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.”

God does whatever He pleases. This is not limited to the natural world. But God also does whatever He please in the kingdom of men. “God reigns over the nations,” says the psalmist (Psa 47:8). After his humiliation Nebuchadnezzar confessed that God’s …

(Daniel 4:34-35) … dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, “What have You done?”

Through his experience the king learned that “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes” (Dan 4:25); and this is true even here in the United States of America.

God rules! And the prophet wrote …

(Isaiah 52:7) How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

This is the message that men need to hear: God reigns in the heavens and on the earth and He does whatever He pleases! This is absolute authority. God does not ask permission to do what He does. Furthermore, whatever He determines to do will be done! No one can frustrate His plans. When God told Isaiah that He would redeem His people from captivity, bringing them back to their land He said:

(Isa 43:13) Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?

Earlier on, while speaking about His judgment upon the earth, but especially upon Assyria the Lord said…

(Isa 14:24-27) … Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?

While praying for deliverance from the sons of Ammon who were mustered for battle against Judah, king Jehoshaphat prayed unto the Lord saying…

(2 Chron 20:6) O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.

No man can successfully stand against Jehovah. But men try, nevertheless. King Herod, for example, attempted to put a stop to the Lord’s plans when he sent his men to Bethlehem to murder the Christ child. Later the Jews, working in cahoots with the Gentiles, sought to keep the Christ from his throne. A thousand years beforehand the Spirit spoke of their plans.

(Psalms 2:1-3) Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”

In their prayer in Acts 4, the apostles make it clear that Psa 2 was fulfilled in the events that took place in Jerusalem against Jesus. Having been threatened by the religious leaders and told to stop preaching in the name of Jesus the apostles cried out unto the Lord saying…

(Acts 4:24-28) … “O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, 'WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE, AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS? THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.' For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”

These men thought they could foil the plan of God to seat His Christ upon the throne. Instead, God used their evil rebellious plan to accomplish what He had predestined to occur – the death of the Messiah. Before the crown there would be the cross, that’s what God had predetermined with His Christ. And God did not hide these plans either, but revealed them through His servants, the prophets. As Jesus himself said when he met the two on the road to Emmaus …

(Luke 24:25-27) … “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Later, he spoke similar words to the apostles …

(Luke 24:46) … “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day.”

It was God’s predetermined plan that the Christ would suffer and die before entering into glory. The Jews, however, failed to see this. Though Jesus stood in their midst as the Son of God hearing his teaching and observing his great works, they did not understand and nether did they see. And in them these words of Isaiah were fulfilled once again; the words which say…

(Matt 13:14b-15) … “YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.”

The Jews in the days of Jesus closed their own eyes and ears to what was before them. God used their blindness to fulfill all that the prophets had written concerning the Messiah’s suffering and death. As Paul said in his sermon in Acts 13…

(Acts 13:27-29) "For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

The Jews would not have Jesus as their king and so they rejected him. This was, in reality, a rejection of God Himself. For Jesus said: “… he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.” (Luke 10:16) But this rejection did not take God by surprise; it was predicted in the prophets. Beside all of the other verses that we have seen, here is another – Psa 118:22-23

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

God sent Jesus into the world to be given the throne of David – his father according to the flesh. God’s plan is that He reigns on the throne forever and that his kingdom would have no end (Luke 1:32-33). The Jews, however, would not have Jesus to be that king and to be David’s heir. But God’s plan would not be thwarted.

(Psalms 33:10-11) The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation.

Christ now reigns on David’s throne and he has been given all authority – not most of it, but all of it – in heaven and on earth. No man can frustrate what God has purposed and with this knowledge Christians ought to face the future with confidence. God rules in heaven and on earth.

That God accomplishes His purpose even through wicked men and wicked deeds is seen in other passages too – more specifically, in Gen 50 and In Isaiah 10. In Gen 50 Joseph speaks to his brothers about the evil they committed against him when they sold him into captivity.

(Gen 50:20) As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

The brothers sinned against Joseph in selling him into slavery – what they did was meant to result in evil for him. But God meant it good – for the salvation of His people. In Isa 10 God used Assyrians as a rod of discipline for His people.

(Isa 10:5-7) Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation and commission it against the people of My fury to capture booty and to seize plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend, nor does it plan so in its heart, but rather it is its purpose to destroy and to cut off many nations.

Did the Assyrians know they were nothing more than God’s instrument for the discipline of His people? As they saw it they were acting only for themselves, hey were accomplishing THEIR heart’s desire; and for this they were held accountable because of their wickedness.

(vs. 12) . … So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.

God rule! He is the Sovereign of heaven and earth. And though men may seek to frustrate His plan, they cannot succeed? The absurdity of even trying! And with regard to men’s attempt to keep Jesus off his throne the Lord of heaven and earth scoffs and promises these people that He will “speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury.” They cannot stop His plans! Even while they are doing all they can to thwart Him, God installs His King upon Zion, His holy mountain telling him

(Psa 2:7-9) “… ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'"

God is Sovereign! And so He appeals to these rebels …

(Psa 2:10-12) Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled how blessed are all who take refuge in Him!