William Cowper, a British poet and hymn writer composed a piece titled “God Moves in Mysterious Ways”. I don’t know if he was inspired to write that poem after reading the Book of Ecclesiastes, but the thoughts expressed in that poem certainly wouldn’t be at odds with what we’ve discovered in our journey through Ecclesiastes over the last seven months. Let me read to you the first two stanzas:
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.
Qoheleth, the author of Ecclesiastes, certainly would agree with those words. God does indeed move in mysterious ways. In fact, as Qoheleth looked around at life “under the sun” here on earth, much of what he saw didn’t really make sense. The wicked often prospered while the righteous suffered. The poor were oppressed by the rich and powerful. The wise and the fool alike both faced the certainty of death. But through it all, Qoheleth never wavered in his belief that God was in control, that, as Cowper put it, He was “working his sovereign will.”
We’ve discussed the idea of God’s sovereignty throughout our journey through Ecclesiastes and we’ve certainly seen some aspects of that sovereignty demonstrated there. But although we often speak of God’s sovereignty, I’m not convinced that we really have a good handle on exactly what we mean when we use that term. Obviously that’s such an enormous topic that I couldn’t even begin to tackle it in great detail tonight, but I’m convinced that it will profit all of us to spend just a few moments contemplating God’s sovereignty.
We need to begin with the basics and define what we mean by God’s sovereignty. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve looked at dozens of definitions that have been written by all kinds of people. Some of them are very good, but frankly, many of them fall short of defining God’s sovereignty in a manner that is consistent with God’s Word. Perhaps the best definition that I found was this one by A.W. Pink:
To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God.
In other words, God’s sovereignty is not just one in a long list of the attributes of God – like His omniscience, His omnipotence or his omnipresence – but it is the very nature of God Himself and all those other attributes are just aspects of His sovereignty. But as accurate as that definition is, it is not particularly helpful in our quest to understand what we mean by God’s sovereignty. So let’s use this working definition tonight to help us get a better handle on this concept:
God’s absolute right to do all things according to His good pleasure and the power to carry them out.
There are three distinct and significant aspects to that definition. So let’s take a moment to look at each one briefly:
God’s absolute right…
The idea of God’s absolute right to do as He pleases has its foundations in creation itself. Since God is the Originator and Creator of all, he has the absolute right to determine exactly how that creation is to operate.
That shouldn’t be such a surprise to us since we see that same principle operate in a more limited manner in our everyday lives. Some of you may be aware that Pastor Dana has been working with Dr. Hector to develop a specialized wheelchair and they are to the point of applying for a patent for their work. And once they get that patent, they will have the right to control everything related to that chair. They could manufacture it and sell it themselves, they could contract with another company to manufacture the chairs on their behalf, or they could sell their patent rights to another party. But since they are the creators of that chair, they have the right to control everything related to their work.
Obviously God’s absolute right over His creation is much broader and more absolute, but the idea is still the same. As the Creator, God has the absolute right to do whatever He wants with His creation.
That is an idea that we have seen throughout Ecclesiastes. Beginning in chapter 1, Qoheleth described the cycles that God has ordained – the sun and the wind and the water cycle – and he goes to great lengths to make the point that no matter how hard he may try or how wise he might become, man is incapable of altering those God-ordained cycles. However, since He is the one who put them into place, God has the absolute right to alter those cycles however and whenever he wants. And we have Biblical evidence of Him actually doing that at times. In Joshua 10:13, we read how god stopped the sun in the middle of the sky for a whole day. And there are countless examples of God using the wind and the clouds to do His bidding.
But not only does God have absolute authority over nature, he also has absolute authority over our lives. That’s the point that Paul makes as he writes to the church in Rome:
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ’Why did you make me like this?’" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Romans 9:20, 21 (NIV)
In other words, God has the absolute right to take these lives which He has created and use them in any way that He alone determines in order to carry His purposes, plans and ways. Which leads us directly into the second part of our definition…
…to do all things according to His good pleasure…
The Psalmist certainly understood this aspect of God’s sovereignty. We find these two passages which clearly show that God operates according to whatever pleases him.
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
Psalm 115:3 (NIV)
The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.
Psalm 135:6 (NIV)
In other words, God is completely free to do as He pleases without being constrained by anything outside of Himself. We talk a lot about our freedom as humans living in this world, especially here in the United States. But none of us experience complete freedom. Our freedom is constrained by all kinds of outside sources. For example, our freedom is limited by laws, by traditions, by those in authority over us, such as our bosses at work and even by the expectations of others. And that is just the beginning of the list. So none of us are truly free to do as we please.
But God has no constraints to His freedom, so His freedom, like his authority, is absolute. God is never constrained to do something that He does not please Him. He is never backed into a corner where He is forced to do something he does not want to do.
This is especially true when it comes to our salvation. But I’ve heard some well-meaning, but deceived Christians claim that God was somehow caught off guard by Adam and Eve’s sin and that therefore He had to come up with a new plan to provide for our salvation. So that somehow Jesus dying on the cross for our sins was just a fallback plan that god really didn’t want to have to implement.
But they would have to completely ignore this familiar passage from Ephesians to even consider such claims:
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Ephesians 1:4-6 (NIV)
What Paul makes very clear in this passage is that it is God’s pleasure to make us holy and blameless in His sight through the shed blood of Jesus. It was a plan that God put in place before the creation of the world. And it is a gift that He has freely given to those who trust in Jesus, without being constrained to do so by any outside influence.
But even if God has the absolute right to do all things according to his good pleasure, He would not be sovereign without the third component of our definition:
…and the power to carry them out
When Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book titled When Bad Things Happen to Good People in 1983, it is this aspect of God’s sovereignty that he flatly denied. That book was written out of Rabbi Kushner’s attempt to deal with the fatal illness of his own child and to answer the question that serves as the basis for the title to His book – Why do bad things happen to good people? In part, he answered that question with these words:
If God can’t make my sickness go away, what good is He? Who needs Him? God does not want you to be sick or crippled. He didn’t make you have this problem, and He doesn’t want you to go on having it, but He can’t make it go away. That is something which is too hard even for God.
Rabbi Kushner is claiming that God doesn’t want bad things to happen to good people, but that He is just not powerful enough to prevent them. We obviously don’t have time tonight to address the issue of why bad things happen to good people, but if there is one thing that we have learned from Ecclesiastes it is that we can’t make judgments about God based on what we observe here in this world. We have to use the Word of God as the basis for what we know about God. And here are just a couple of passages that clearly show us that God does indeed have the power to carry out all of those things which He has ordained according to His good pleasure:
For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
Isaiah 14:27 (NIV)
"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.
Job 42:2 (NIV)
In fact, the entire Bible is the record of God carrying out His purposes and plans exactly as He wishes, without constraints of any kind. That is what makes God sovereign. Or to quote A.W. Pink again:
To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God.
Perhaps the greatest picture we have of God’s sovereignty is the Book of Revelation. The vision of Jesus that is recorded by John in that book reveals to us the final culmination of God’s sovereignty. It confirms that all of God’s purposes, plans and ways will one day see their complete and final fulfillment.
So perhaps it is fitting that we’re going to go from our study of Ecclesiastes, where God’s sovereignty was often veiled to the study of the Book of Revelation where it is on full display. We’ll begin that transition next Sunday.
Often in the Bible, the sovereignty of God is described as God’s reign. And while it is true that He reigns completely today, we won’t see the full extent of that reign until all the events of the end times culminate with the complete, visible reign of Jesus. Near the end of the Book of Revelation, we get a glimpse of that reign.
Pastor Dana to read:
1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." 3 And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever." 4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!" 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!" 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Revelation 19:1-6 (NIV)
