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He’s Got the Whole World in
His Hands
Daniel 4
Newscaster Paul Harvey tells
a remarkable story of God's providential care over thousands of allied prisoners
during World War II, many of whom were Christians. One of America's
mighty bombers took off from the island of Guam
headed for Kokura, Japan, with a deadly cargo.
Because clouds covered the target area, the sleek B-29 circled for nearly
an hour until its fuel supply reached the danger point. The captain and
his crew, frustrated because they were right over the primary target yet
not able to fulfill their mission, finally decided they had better go for
the secondary target. Changing course, they found that the sky was clear.
The command was given, "Bombs away!" and the B-29 headed for
its home base. Some time later an officer received some startling
information from military intelligence. Just one week before that bombing
mission, the Japanese had transferred one of their largest concentrations
of captured Americans to the city of Kokura. Upon reading this, the officer
exclaimed, "Thank God for that protecting cloud! If the city hadn't
been hidden from the bomber, it would have been destroyed and thousands
of American boys would have died."
Vi
rtually all Christians give at least
verbal assent to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God…that God
rules over all and is in control of all.
There are simply too many texts which teach this truth to deny it:
"
The LORD has established His throne in the heavens; And His sovereignty
rules over all." (Psalm 103:19).
"But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He
pleases" (Psalm 115:3).
" 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" (Psalm 135:5-6).
The
meaning of sovereignty could be summed up in this way: To be sovereign is to possess supreme
power and authority so that one is in complete control and can accomplish
whatever he pleases.
And so when the scripture says God is sovereign it
means that God is subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely
independent; God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He
pleases. None can thwart Him, none
can hinder Him. God's own Word
expressly declares:
‘My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all My pleasure’ (Isa. 46:10);
Divine sovereignty means that God is God in fact, as
well as in name, that He is on the Throne of the universe, directing all
things, working all things ‘after the counsel of His own
will’ (Eph. 1:11).”
“God’s supremacy over the works of His
hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. At His pleasure the Red Sea
divided and its waters stood up as walls (Ex. 14); When He so
ordered, the sun stood still (Josh. 10); lions to be tame
when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the
three Hebrews were flung into its flames. So Psalm 135 testifies: ‘Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep
places’ (Psa. 135:6).”
Charles
Spurgeon when commenting on the Sovereignty of God said:
"There is no attribute more comforting to His
children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse
circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty
has ordained their afflictions,
that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will
sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ( of God)
ought to more earnestly contend to - than the doctrine of their Master
over all creation--the Kingship of God over all the works of His own
hands--the Throne of God...for it is God upon the Throne whom we
trust."
Wow!
regardless of our trials, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of
our afflictions…God is in control!
Well, here is a biblical doctrine that is practical. So lets look
to the Word of God and the Spirit of God to teach us what we need to know
about God’s sovereignty.
As I searched the Scriptures
for the most concise definition of divine sovereignty, I was surprised to
learn where the definition was found. It was not in the New Testament,
not from the pen of the apostle Paul, not from Moses in the Law, and not
from one of the great prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah. The clearest
definition of God’s sovereignty comes from the lips of Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon.
There we find not a begrudging acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty,
but an expression of worship and praise: and so lets look briefly at
Daniel 4.
Daniel 4 tells the amazing story
of a pagan king who learned the truth about God’s sovereignty the
hard way. In order to fully grasp the message, we need to go back some 25
centuries to the ancient city of Babylon.
There we meet the most powerful man in the world, a man with a very imposing
name—Nebuchadnezzar. One night while he was sleeping in his palace,
he had a very strange dream. He dreamed of a vast tree that stretched to
the sky. Its branches were large and strong so that all kinds birds
nested in the tree and all manner of animals found shade beneath the
limbs. Suddenly the tree was cut down, its branches stripped, its fruit
scattered. Nothing was left but a stump bound in iron and bronze. He also
dreamed of a man who lost his mind and began to live among the
animals.
None
of the king’s advisors knew the meaning. So the king asked Daniel
if he could interpret the dream. The meaning was all too clear to him. "You, O king, are the tree" (Daniel 4:23). Nebuchadnezzar had
become so great in his kingdom that people from all the earth flocked to
him. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the king would lose
his mind and would eat grass like the cattle for seven years, "until you acknowledge that the Most High is
sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes"
(v. 25). Daniel then implored this pagan king to repent and show kindness
to the oppressed.
But
the king ignored Daniel’s advice. One year later, as the king took
a walk on the roof of the royal palace, he began to say, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as
the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my
majesty?" (v. 30). Even while the words were on his lips, the
voice of God spoke announcing his punishment. In that very moment the
mightiest man on earth lost his mind, began to run through the streets of
the capitol city, shedding his clothes as he went, bellowing like a cow.
He made his way outside and began to live with the cattle. His hair grew
long and his nails were like the claws of a bird.
Seven
long years passed while Nebuchadnezzar lived with the beasts of the
field. Verse 34 tells what happened next: "I,
Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored.
Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives
forever."
He looked up.
He woke up.
He spoke up.
Then
the king gives us the moral of the story in verse 35: "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as
nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples
of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What
have you done?’" You can search through all 66 books of
the Bible and you won’t find a better statement of what God’s
sovereignty really means.
Now go to the final verse of
Daniel 4. This is what the pagan king has to say about the God who has
humbled him: "Everything he does is right
and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to
humble." Did you get that? "Everything he does is
right." That’s a powerful statement. Can you say that?
The Practical Uses
of God’s Sovereignty
I
believe the doctrine of God’s sovereignty has many practical uses
in the life of the believer. Let me suggest five of them.
A. Confidence in God’s Ultimate Victory and
Satan’s Eventual Defeat.
Because
God is sovereign we know that he will eventually win the battle with
Satan. In fact, because God lives outside time the victory is already won
in eternity. But from our
perspective the battle rages all around us, and all too often the bad
guys seem to be winning. But
God’s sovereignty guarantees the ultimate victory of good over
evil.
B. Comfort in the Midst of Trials and Afflictions
I
submit to you that God uses hard times to teach us about his character.
He humbles us through difficulty so that, like Nebuchadnezzar, we will
come to the place where we can say, "Everything he does is right and
all his ways are just."
At
the Nicene Council, an important church meeting in the 4th century A.D.,
of the 318 delegates attending, fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or lost
a hand or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian
faith.
Someone
asked C.S. Lewis, "Why do the righteous suffer?" "Why
not?" he replied. "They're the only ones who can take it."
C. Encouragement in Evangelism
God’s
sovereignty gives us encouragement in evangelism because we know that
winning the lost is not our job. Our job is to spread the Good News,
share the gospel, tell the story, talk about Jesus, look for
opportunities, and pray for open doors. It’s God’s job to
lead us, to empower us, to give us those open doors, and then when we
share Christ, it is the work of a Sovereign God to convict sinners and
create in them a hunger for the Lord. We don’t save anyone. God
does that all by himself. We’re participants and also spectators of
God’s grace at work. That takes a ton of pressure off us.
D. Deep Sense of Security
A
friend of mine who went to serve in Central America,
during the late 70's when there was a lot of turmoil in that area,
struggled with God sending her family there to serve, but she later
wrote: "There is the calm assurance that this is where we’re
supposed to be (most days, that is).
She then becomes a little reflective and wonders, Is it worth it? Then
she ponders what Jesus said about losing your life for his sake and
gaining it in the end. Here is her conclusion: "That compels me to
recognize the joy I have in living where he wants me—even on the
days when I don’t feel happy to be here." How wonderfully
simple that statement is. Because she is where God wants her, she can
have joy even when she isn’t particularly happy to be there.
That’s
what I mean by a deep sense of security. If you know that God is
sovereign, then you can be content—and even find joy—in the
midst of circumstances that are less than ideal.
Here
is a correction in understanding the sovereignty of God as told by a
writer in Our Daily Bread: In "Our Daily Bread," I told how a
Christian providentially escaped death. An unexpected delay in New York
kept him from catching Flight 191 in Chicago, which crashed with all 254
aboard. That article brought this note from a reader: "I just had to
let you know about one of God's great saints who ran to make Flight
191--and made it!" His name was Edwards E. Elliott, beloved pastor
of the Garden Grove Orthodox Presbyterian Church in California. His plane
from Pennsylvania was late, and a friend who had accompanied him to
Chicago said he last saw him "dashing forward" in the terminal
to make his connection. As I read about Pastor Elliott's fruitful
ministry, the question I raised in that June devotional challenged me
with new urgency: "Was Divine providence operating only in New York
and not in Chicago?" Immediately the words of my correspondent came
alive: "At the time, Reverend Elliott didn't know he was indeed
running to Heaven...Mrs. Elliott and her four married children comforted
the entire church. Their Christian faith and testimony in sorrow was most
extraordinary." June 1980
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