MasterTruth

What Does it Mean That God is Sovereign?

I’ve asked myself many times throughout my life what it means that God is sovereign. I mean, I’ve gathered that it means He is in control, but how is that demonstrated in life? I see a super example in the life of David beginning with three intriguing verses.

As Israel’s king, David came up with the noble desire to build a house (a temple) for the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant had been moved hither and yon and was housed in the tent of the tabernacle. It occurred to David that he had a better dwelling place than did the ark that represented God. That just seemed wrong to David. God deserved better than that. Let’s read this.

David didn’t even have to finish his thought before the prophet Nathan started tracking with him. He assured David that his idea was great and honorable to God. “Yes,” was Nathan’s no-brainer response to David’s desire.

If you get curious and read on in verses 4-17, you will learn that this plan of David’s to build God a house was not approved by God. Here’s where I see the sovereignty of God. Let’s approach it with these verses:

(Isa 55:8-9) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

• David’s high thoughts: “I have a house. But God doesn’t have a house. I will build Him one.”
• God’s higher thoughts: “I’ve never had a house and never asked for one, and I don’t need one now.”

God chose this occasion and this conversation to actually lay out His grand plan that David did not know, nor could he have known had the sovereign one who reigns over all not chosen to reveal the bigger picture right then and there. God announced the establishment of an eternal kingdom from David’s seed. In the near term, that was Solomon who was assigned the task of building the temple and beginning this promised kingdom. And because we see Jesus in every page of the Bible, we note that Solomon was a proxy for Jesus who would be of David’s seed on down the road, and His kingdom would and will last forever.

Life is a tapestry, and we live on the underside unable to see the pattern and beauty that’s visible from above. The master weaver has a grand plan that He is threading together.

God’s sovereignty is not simply His foreknowledge. He knows what will happen, yes, but He’s also in control of it. He brings about events for His purposes and His glory.

What do we learn about God from David’s story?

There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand. (Prov 19:21)

The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: (Isa. 14:24)

David was allowed to hear God’s ultimate plan in response to his own little plan. In our age, we are allowed to hear God’s decisive plan too… from reading His word:

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: (Eph. 1:9)

By the way, the top of that tapestry is more complete now than it was in David’s day. It’s still the same one. God described His final design and purpose in the next verses.

That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. (Eph 1:10-11)

Jody

A Fresh Look at the Tower of Babel

There’s one place and one miracle in the Bible about which I’ve never heard an in-depth “what does that mean prophetically” discussion. It’s the tower of Babel. God scattered all the peeps and gave them different languages, which ended the dispensation of human government. It happened in Gen 11:1-9, and here’s the general thinking of the time: And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Gen. 11:4)

Remember, after the flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth (Gen 9:1). Like, spread out. Now, later, they decide they want to create and unite within a super city with a super tower reaching heaven. They focused on making a name for themselves.

Well, they kind of did. Hello Babylon. God’s goal was not a one-world government at this time in this way. How do we know that? Because He tells us. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech (Gen 11:6-7).

I’m pushing pause. Do you see that miracle? In a matter of seconds, God put all kinds of different languages in their mouths and moved them into language-centered people groups, each developing its own culture. We could say that in that instant, God ended a dispensation and began a new one. And we know why. They aimed to build a global empire. In Babylon. 

Only that split-second miracle prevented the prominence of Babylon in that era. I’m cutting to the chase. Here’s a truth to wrap your mind around. All of Biblical history serves as a pattern for the future.

In the case of the tower of Babel and the city of Babylon, that was a stab at a one-world government. But we know the whole book, and a one-world government isn’t in God’s plan under any other leader than Jesus Christ at the right time and from the right place. (Remember, the government shall be upon His shoulder Isa. 9:6.)

In the end, Babylon is mentioned 6 times in the book of Revelation… and none of the references are flattering. They are all about the city falling and being thrown down. Kind of like at the tower of Babel.

If you’re reading the alternative news (because the mainstream news isn’t showing the whole picture), you see that another global one-world everything is in the making. Will it succeed? Did the tower of Babel? It was the pattern for what’s going to happen. God hated this concept back then, and He’s got His eye on it again this time.

What’s going to prevent it this time? Another phenomenal miracle that will happen in a moment. Back then, it was a confusion of languages in a single moment. This time, us believers will be taken up in the rapture, and the tribulation will commence. All this one-world stuff you see shaping up will continue to shape up while we’re in heaven getting geared up to return with Jesus at the end of the tribulation to finish off the devil’s schemes that he’s been working on since before the days of Adam and Eve.

Let the story of the Tower of Babel encourage you that the one-world governance you see developing now is under the watchful eye of God, and He will end it. And you will be part of His solution. We read the back of the book, and He wins!

Tell me what you think!

Jody