"The Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people." Daniel 4:17
The sovereignty of God is hard for us to understand as God’s supreme rule relates to our individual freedom and to evil and suffering. What is not hard to understand from a Biblical perspective is the clear doctrine that God is sovereign.
The whole message of the Bible is that The LORD is God. The covenant God of Israel revealed Himself as The LORD (Yahweh, a play on the Hebrew expression “I am”). The personal name of God means Sovereign Ruler. This is true in the Hebrew Old Testament and in the Greek New Testament where the gospel is expressed in the phrase “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
"The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who... was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 1:1-4
The essence of our faith is the proclamation that our God rules and reigns over all things. The sovereignty of God, therefore, is not a secondary or uncertain doctrine – but is a clear, definitive essential of Christianity. Human freedom is a matter for another time. For now let’s focus on how God’s sovereignty relates to evil and suffering.
On the one hand we know that God is perfectly good.
"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone... Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:13.17
There is no evil in God. He is never responsible for evil. Everything good in this world comes from God. Everything evil in this world comes from the devil or from us. As we will see this Fall (2021) in our series Foundations – the fall of man (Genesis 3) is the reason for all of the evil and suffering in the world. God’s original creation was completely free from sin and evil, suffering and death. All of that came in because of Adam and Eve’s rebellion. And all of that will be completely removed when Jesus comes back and restores all things in the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21-22).
On the other hand, the Bible does not shy away from speaking of God’s sovereignty over certain things we would – in human terms – consider evil. In 2 Samuel 24 it says that God “incited David” to number Israel, then punished Israel with a pestilence that killed 70,000 men. Earlier, when Saul had broken faith with the Lord, 1 Samuel 16 says “an evil Spirit from the Lord tormented him.” In another place, during the ministry of Elijah, it is clear that three years of drought and famine were planned by God and enacted by God.
I wrote last year comparing this kind of suffering to the scalpel of a surgeon. What would be evil for you or me is actually good in the hands of God just as it is good for a heart surgeon to crack open your chest for bypass surgery. It is all a question of knowledge and skill. The surgeon has more knowledge and skill, so we trust him or her to do things we would not trust others to do. Since God has infinite knowledge and power, even things like hurricanes and earthquakes are simply instruments in His Almighty, All-loving hands to do us good.
This Sunday (July 4, 2021) we will study Acts 24-25 and see how God, in His sovereign wisdom and mercy, protected the life of Paul. Luke is intentional to document the many miraculous interventions of God to protect His servants in Acts – and ensure Paul’s safe arrival in Rome. But we know from church history that Paul only lived a few more years beyond what is documented in Acts. So did God’s protection wear off? Did God take His eye off the ball? Of course not. Like each one of us, Paul had a role to play, and when his part was finished, the Lord called him home.
I hope that the doctrine of God’s sovereignty is one of great comfort to you. Our God not only knows every detail of your life; He not only cares about your every emotion and experience; He is also able to protect and bless you and is committed to caring for you right through your final breath and into eternity. He is not just the God of major events – He is the God of every detail.
So trust Him. Completely.
"Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2