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Christian Living

God Is Sovereign

Discover the Truth About Our Creator’s Sovereignty

Most people recognize God as sovereign. Yet they may not have a good understanding of what that word means. And because of their misperception, God often gets blamed for things he didn’t do.

Sovereign in the Bible

The word sovereign shows up 295 times in the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament, with over 200 times in Ezekiel alone. In all but a handful of cases it’s an adjective along with the word Lord, as in sovereign Lord. God is our sovereign lord.

Only in the book of Daniel does the word sovereign appear as a noun.

Four times we see that “the Lord Most High is sovereign,” three times from Daniel and once from the unlikely source of King Nebuchadnezzar.

And later we read the forward-looking prophecy of Daniel that Jesus is coming and will receive authority, glory, and sovereign power.

Sovereign in the Dictionary

Yet none of these places in the Bible define what sovereign is. But the dictionary is most helpful.

As an adjective—which is how the Bible mostly uses it—sovereign means supreme power. So as our sovereign Lord, we confirm that God has supreme power. No one surpasses his dominion. It is paramount.

As a noun we learn that sovereign refers to someone who exercises supreme, permanent authority, as in a king or queen. God is our king, the king of kings. We ascribe to him ultimate authority without end.

This is how we rightly understand God’s sovereignty.

Sovereign As Most Perceive It

Yet this is not how many Christians—as well as secular society—understands God’s sovereignty.

The common perception is that in God’s sovereign power, he controls everything. Therefore, nothing happens without his approval. But this eliminates us having free will, the ability to make our own decisions—be it right or wrong—about what we do.

More importantly, this incorrect view of sovereignty also means that people can then blame God for everything bad that happens.

How often have we heard someone lament, “Why did God let this happen”?

Yet these things that God gets blamed for stem from four other sources.

  • Other People: One source is people who make bad decisions.
  • Creation: Another cause is the natural order of how God created the world to function.
  • Sin: A third reason is the sinful nature within every one of us.
  • Satan: Last, our spiritual enemy, the devil, wants to mess up our lives and pull us from God. As such, Satan is often the cause of the bad things we encounter in our lives. So blame him.

God can use these things to accomplish his will and ultimately bring about good (Romans 8:28). But it’s an overstretch to say he always causes them to happen.

Conclusion

Yes, God’s sovereignty does allow him to supernaturally intervene in situations. And he can divinely determine to bring about hardship to accomplish his purposes. And he disciplines us to make us stronger.

Though these are both biblical concepts, they emerge as exceptions and not the norm.

To assert that God’s sovereignty makes him responsible for all the horrible events that happen in our life and in our world misrepresents who he is.

We must stop blaming God for our disappointments.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Bible Insights

Four Lessons from Job about Devotion to God

Job Professes His Spiritual Practices

The words of Job’s friend Eliphaz fail to comfort him. Instead they stir up anger. With a friend who speaks like Eliphaz I’d be angry too.

In Job’s reply to his so-called friend, he professes what he has done to align himself with God. He claims his practices prove his devotion to his Lord.

Job Follows God

Job says that he follows closely behind God. It’s as if he walks in God’s shadow, placing each step in the footprint of his Lord. With intention he trails after God, focusing on staying right behind him.

Job Resists Distractions

Job follows God with unswerving dedication. He keeps his eyes fixed on God, walking in his path. Job does not look to his left or to his right. He tunes out worldly distractions so he can remain steadfast in keeping aligned with God, going everywhere that God goes.

Job Obeys God’s Commands

Next Job says that he keeps the commands of God. He listens to what God says and follows his words with unswerving commitment. It’s as if Job pauses in expectation for God to speak. Then he immediately obeys him, doing everything he says to do.

Job Treasures God’s Words

Job ends his testimony saying that he values God’s words more than food. Though we might think this refers to the written Word of God, the Bible, it does not.

Job likely lives in a time before the Scriptures existed. This means Job treasures the spoken words of God.

Job would rather feed his soul by listening to God then feed his body by eating food. For Job to hear God speak, Job must remain in close relationship with him.

The Outcome of Job’s Devotion

Job is a man who carefully follows God with singular focus, obeying him and valuing everything he says. It’s an example of godly devotion we will do well to follow.

You’d think that for Job’s dedication, God would bless him and keep him from discomfort.

Yet for this time in Job’s life, he is in much distress and God’s blessings are absent in his life. Though a positive and pleasant outcome await Job, it’s far removed from his present life.

This is a hard reality to accept and to comprehend. Yet there are two things we must remember. First, God is Sovereign and can do whatever he wants.

We must accept this truth even if we don’t like it.

Second, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor. He loves us regardless of what we do or don’t do. In the end, we, like Job, will see God’s blessing and reward.

Until then we should follow Job’s example of devotion to our Lord.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Job 21-24, and today’s post is on Job 23:11-12.]

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Bible Insights

Is it Okay to Contend with God?

Job and His Friends Contend with God

Job’s life has crumbled. His wife turned on him. And his friends don’t help. After listening to their back-and-forth dialogue that accomplishes nothing, God interjects. At last he speaks.

At one point God says, “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?” (Job 40:2). In this rhetorical question, two thoughts stand out. The first is the idea of contending with God, and the second is correcting him.

Contend with God

Though we could view God’s question as implying that he doesn’t want us to contend with him, I don’t think this is what he means.

One understanding of the word contend is to debate. Another is struggle. When it comes to God, these are strong words. It seems foolish for us to debate God, to struggle with him.

God is sovereign. And we are far less than sovereign. Who are we to question him?

Yet I can’t think of any place in the Bible where God punishes his people for contending with him when they do so with respect. I can’t find a single verse that commands us not to question God or debate his ways.

In fact, I think God enjoys it when we ask questions—serious, soul-wrenching questions, just like Job.

For in asking questions, we seek him. And that’s what he wants.

Correct God

However, there’s a right way to contend with God and a wrong way. The wrong way is when we think we know better than him, when we try to correct him and tell him he made a mistake.

When we do this, we forget God is sovereign, and we try to elevate ourselves over him. This is foolish. And it separates us from God. This isn’t what he wants from us.

The Bible says, be angry and sin not (Ephesians 4:26). In parallel fashion, we can also say, contend with God and don’t correct him. That gives us the balance we need.

God enjoys our sincere questions, but we must never forget he is our sovereign Creator and we are the created.

[Read through the Bible this year. Today’s reading is Job 40-42, and today’s post is on Job 40:2.]

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Bible Insights

God’s Sovereignty At Work

In the story of Jonah, we see God’s sovereignty at work, with God exercising control over nature. Here’s what God does:

  • He sends a wind (Jonah 1:4).
  • He calms the sea (Jonah 1:15).
  • He provides a fish to shallow Jonah (Jonah 1:17).
  • He commands the fish to deposit Jonah on dry land (Jonah 2:10).
  • He makes a vine grow to give shade to Jonah (Jonah 4:6).
  • He causes a worm to chew the vine and kill it (Jonah 4:7).

Furthermore, God’s sovereignty allows him to show mercy towards the people of Nineveh and not destroy them as he had originally planned.

However, God does not exercise control over Jonah, allowing him to do what he wants, when he chooses,and how pleases. Jonah has free will—and God does not interfere with that even though Jonah’s choices cause him a lot of grief.

God gives Jonah the freedom to mess up—or to do what is right.  That’s God’s sovereignty at work. That’s how God rolls.

Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Bible Insights

God’s Sovereignty Allows Him to be Benevolent

God is sovereign; it is one of his characteristics. To be sovereign means to have supreme rank, power, and authority.

The word sovereign appears hundreds of times in the Bible (mostly in the Old Testament) and is usually used as a title for God or in addressing him, as in “Sovereign Lord.”

Many people object to the idea that God is sovereign; it offends them or causes fear. That may be because of a tendency to see sovereignty from a human perspective.

They assume that God’s sovereignty allows him to be malevolent. That is, he is just waiting for us to mess up and then he will do us harm—or give us grief just because he can. But that is not his nature.

God is good and just. His sovereignty actually allows him to be benevolent.  He wants to do good to us, to offer us good things we don’t deserve (grace) and to withhold punishment that we do deserve (mercy).

God’s sovereignty allows for benevolence; his love prohibits malevolence.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Bible Insights

God as a Potter

…And We Are the Clay

The Bible contains many word pictures that help us to understand better our relationship with God. I have eight of them that I will share in the coming days. Note that each offers but a partial picture into God’s character and none is all-encompassing, but they are highly illustrative. Here is the first:

God is a potter and we are the clay.

He molds us and makes us into whatever he wishes, sometimes into elegant vessels and others into common utensils. From this, we can see God portrayed as being in control, creative, a craftsman, a workman, and sovereign.

God’s sovereignty, is something that is not too popular in today’s world.

Correspondingly, we, as clay, are moldable, subject to his will and pleasure; we have no real will of our own.

[Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:6, Isaiah 29:16, Isaiah 45:9, Romans 9:21]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.