Day after day, century after century history shows us how much the world is being shifted away from right thinking to a wrong view about God. People have lost a right view of who God is on a biblical basis. Particularly the Sovereignty of God. He is more so described as a powerful being whom we don\’t know much about but owes us everything good. If any unpleasant trial or problem comes upon our life, when we lose a loved one through death, facing sickness or have a child born with some kind of disability, we then conclude that this God is not good; or He has lost control of things. Therefore He is not worth our service, worship and obedience. It does not take a long time to lose the right view of who God is: it only takes a couple of generations that would do what is right in their own eyes while neglecting the word of the Lord (judges 21:25).
His attributes
We often talk and rightly discuss about some of God’s attributes like His omnipresence, His omniscience, His holiness, His Justice, His love, grace, goodness, mercy… and many more which He even communicates unto us created in his image. There is no way we can describe the God of the bible in His fullness, even after we have been fully transformed in Christ likeness in glory (Rom 11:33-36). Nonetheless, let’s see one illustration on what it means that God is sovereign in regard to His power. Among a multitude of ways that God has shown his sovereignty through the history of the world, the people of Israel have seen in a greater way His manifestations.
God is Sovereign!
In a conversation between God the almighty and Moses in the book of exodus, we see how reluctant Moses was in regard to presenting before Pharaoh and ask him to let the people of God go out of Egypt:
Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue”(Exodus 4:10).
This sounds like a prayer made by Moses before the Living God on the holy mountain. He is complaining before God concerning his speech impediment. But right before this prayerful sentence came out of Moses\’ mouth, God the almighty had shown him several miraculous signs that would prove to Pharaoh and the people of Israel that he was a messenger of Yahweh(see Exodus 4: 2-7). The Lord purposefully in that instance showed His power to Moses as a proof of what He can do and will do as he goes to meet Pharaoh.
Now comes our question: Couldn’t the Lord God Heal and grant a clear, eloquent speech to Moses right there on the spot so that he might with ease approach Pharaoh ? Yes! He could absolutely do that – His next answer to Moses proved that He could:
So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” What?
This here among many others, is a shocking statement from the mouth of God the almighty, that proves His sovereignty over His creation: He not only decided not to heal Moses, but He declared that He made the mouth, He made the mute, the seeing or the blind… and it would not be wrong for me to say that the list goes on and on…. Dear reader, the Lord God does not make mistakes. There is nothing that can either happen in the womb or in the universe out of His control or His will (Isaiah 44:24). He declares it and it happens. He says it and it comes to pass. He allows it and it is done. Yet it simply was not God\’s will to grant Moses what he is Supposedly asking for (Lam 3:37-39). Again remember: This is Moses with a minor problem like stuttering lips in the very presence of the Lord God of Israel. The creator of Heaven and earth. Yet it was not His will to heal him.
This is one of so many other illustrations in scriptures that shows that God is sovereign and he does not always work according to our expectations. The fact that God does not heal his children or his suffering servants, while He possesses all the power to do so, does not mean He is unable. The fact that God the almighty does not stop or remedy certain situations does not mean he had lost control of it. The Lord is God! He works according to His own plans and thoughts. Not ours.(Isaiah 55:8). In other words He is absolutely sovereign over His whole creation. That includes the holy angels, Satan and the fallen angels, Nations and government, Men on the earth and the creatures of the ocean, the worms in the ground, the wind and the trees, the rain and the clouds… and everything else that has been created. (Proverbs 21:1; Isaiah 46: 9-11; Psalms 24: 1-2; Isaiah 10: 5-7; Jonah 1:17; Jonah 4: 6-7).
We are not!
This is one of our greatest concerns: people nowadays have in their minds an imaginary God, and thier hands something like a remote control device with which they command and demand whatever they want in the name of faith. As if God must react to it and will respond if you do this or that. Not at all dear friends! Let us repent from such an attitude, then get our thinking about God biblically right!
God is not bound to anyone\’s will but His own. Even when He graciously blesses and answers the fervent prayer of the righteous, or uses us like He did with Moses, in life or death, it will be done according to His holy will, not ours. For He is sovereign – we are not.
