HoHum:
Daniel Overdorf- A few weeks ago a friend of mine came into my office. Bypassing any greeting or small talk, he jumped immediately to this question: “What do we believe about God’s sovereignty?” I delayed answering by inquiring, “Why do you ask?” “I’m teaching about Esther in Sunday school this week,” he explained, “and the commentaries I read keep talking about God’s sovereignty. I don’t know what to think about it. I think I’m supposed to believe God is sovereign, but these writers keep making it sound like God just controlled Esther and King Xerxes and those other people like puppets on a string. That’s not how it works, is it?” I attempted to answer his question and explained that “we” (meaning the Christian church/ Church of Christ) typically struggle with this doctrine. “I don’t believe we’re just puppets on a string,” I assured him, “but God does hold ultimate authority over everything. In His infinite wisdom, God allows, beneath the blanket of His sovereignty, humans to make choices and to face the consequences of those choices. Regardless of what we choose, however, He continues furthering His world and His people toward His purposes.”
WBTU:
What is “the sovereignty of God?” A simple definition is this: God is the supreme ruler and authority over all things. While the word “sovereign” is rarely used in the Bible, it is still man’s best effort to combine all the attributes of God into just one word. The idea is valid: God is unlimited, absolute, supreme, and sovereign.
God’s sovereignty is on display as one traces the history of God’s people throughout the OT. Though the Israelites often frustrated the Lord with their moral and religious compromises, and though they often faced difficult consequences as a result of their decisions, God kept guiding, leading, and protecting them as He worked out His purpose among them
Many instances but look at 3 from OT:
1. Job- Stephen Hooks says, “First and foremost, the God of Job is sovereign. He rules over the world he has made, and before him everyone and everything bows. In the end, Job is finally reconciled to his Maker by acknowledging God’s sovereignty and bowing before Him in humble submission
Joseph from Genesis- “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20, NIV. 2. This account demonstrates a mysterious tension that often befuddles and divides scholars. On one hand, humans exercise free will in the ability to make choices, and they face the consequences or reap the rewards of these choices. On the other hand, God’s unseen sovereign hand guides people, problems, and circumstances to achieve His purposes
3. Esther- God’s name never appears in Esther. Omission may represent a deliberate attempt by the author to teach something significant about God’s providence: His work does not always appear obvious to the naked eye. God can accomplish His purposes with or without visible miracles. God did not act or speak openly in Esther, but He guided and protected His people with an omnipotent hand. For this reason, Esther has brought great encouragement to God’s people over the centuries, particularly during their dark periods when God seemed absent.
The Bible shows that God is sovereign. God sovereignly protects and guides His people toward His purpose, which is His glory. This truth holds 4 implications for today’s church
Thesis: God’s sovereignty brings out our trust, submission, praise and loyalty
For instances:
God’s sovereignty brings out our trust
We will not always understand God’s higher ways. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
Even so, we must trust, regardless of what we see and experience in life, God remains on His throne. “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne.” Psalms 11:4
Even when God brings trials and suffering, we trust that this is his goodness disciplining us and making us strong. For we remember “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28, NIV. And this, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” James 1:2, 3, NIV.
Concerning the church, we can trust that God’s plans for his church will come to completion. His church will endure. Those who predict the collapse of the church have grossly underestimated God. “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matthew 16:18, NIV. Since her beginning, the church has faced physical, intellectual, and cultural attack. Yet, she endures. And she will continue to endure
The church stands not on our shoulders, abilities, or creativity, rather it is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” Ephesians 2:20, NIV. We can trust that the church’s future remains certain in the hands of our sovereign God.
God’s sovereignty brings out our submission
Even though our human nature calls for answers to all our questions and resolutions to all theological and philosophical dilemmas, and though we may wish to see and hear God acting and speaking openly, “God must be allowed to know what he is doing, and lies under no obligation to give any account of himself (Clines).”
Our responsibility lies not in complete understanding, but in obedience beyond understanding- submitting to His guidance and following His direction. Trusting Him with the results, we simply obey. When we realize that whatever happens is the will of God at least in the sense of permission if not in the sense of purpose. We learn to live and to pray in complete submission to his will, even as Jesus did as he faced Calvary: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”” Luke 22:42, NIV. Such an attitude is especially important in the face of adversity.
God’s sovereignty brings out our praise
God stands above all. He does not change. He will work out His ultimate purpose.
“Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.” Habakkuk 3:17-19, NIV.
When we don't have a job, praise God anyhow. (He knows our needs and he is just on time, never late) When it seems the earth is breaking up beneath our feet and we feel we don't have anywhere to stand, stand on the rock of Jesus (he said I will never leave you or forsake you).When something seems impossible and we can't humanly find an answer, remember nothing is too hard for God (he specializes in things that seem to be impossible). When all fails continue to praise the Lord (this is the hardest time to do it). Complaining and murmuring got the Israelites no where but plagues and staying in the wilderness for 40 years instead of the land of milk and honey.
God’s sovereignty brings out our loyalty
When we trust in God’s sovereignty, we gain the courage to put ourselves at his disposal, and obey regardless of the cost
A great deal of this Scripture is from the Intertestimonial period where the Jews were persecuted by the Greeks. “Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawn in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and ill-treated-- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.” Hebrews 11:35-38, NIV. They trusted and obeyed even to the point of death and torture.
In his novel The Source, James Michener described a period in Jewish history around 170 BC when the Jews in Palestine faced severe persecution. Greek officials came to Jerusalem and read an edict that forbade any Jew from worshipping Yahweh, and ordered them to lay their hands on an unclean pig that was placed on an altar in Jerusalem. Any Jew who ignored this edict faced a scourging unto death. Michener described one old man who refused to lay his hands on this pig: They stripped the old man till he stood naked; they then tied him to a pillar, where ten swift blows of the lash tore at him terribly. The lead tips in the whip caught at his face and ripped out one of his eyes. They tore away a corner of his mouth and laid bare the muscles on his neck. “Will you now acknowledge the pig?” asked the captain, and when the old man refused, the man with the lash directed his blows lower on the body, where the lead tips tore away at the man.... The captain hoped that the whipping would do the old man in but it did not. The old Jew had within him some profound source of resistance and he survived so that he was finally thrown to the ground, where he lay quivering as men with sharp knives came to flay him. And when it seemed that he must surely be dead, he raised his head and called out the Shima of the Jews: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” And on the long, wailing pronunciation of the last word he died.
