The Supremacy Of God # 2

 The Supremacy Of God # 2

"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!" (Revelation 19:6). note, "reigns" now, not "will do so in the millennium." O Lord God of our fathers, are not You God in Heaven? and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one (not even the devil himself) can stand against You!" (2 Chronicles 20:6). Before Him presidents and popes, kings and emperors, are less than grasshoppers.

But He stands alone, and who can oppose Him? He does whatever He pleases" (Job 23:13). Ah, my reader, the God of Scripture is no make-believe monarch, no mere imaginary sovereign, but King of kings, and Lord of lords! "I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:2): or, as another has translated it, "no purpose of Yours can be frustrated." All that He has designed He does. All that He has decreed He performs. "Our God is in Heaven; He does whatever He pleases." (Psalm 115:3). And why? Because "there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30).

God's supremacy over the works of His hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter and irrational creatures, all perform their Maker's bidding. At His pleasure the Red Sea divided and its waters stood up as walls (Exodus 14); the earth opened her mouth, and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit. (Numbers 16). When He so ordered, the sun stood still (Joshua verse 10); and on another occasion the sun went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (Isaiah 38:8). God made ravens carry food to Elijah, iron to float on top of the waters, lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames. Thus "the Lord does whatever He pleases in Heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths." (Psalm 135:6).

But, it may be objected, do we not read again and again in Scripture how that men defied God, resisted His will, broke His commandments, disregarded His warnings, and turned a deaf ear to all His exhortations? Certainly we do. And does this nullify all that we have said above? If it does, then the Bible plainly contradicts itself. But that cannot be. What the objector refers to, is simply the wickedness of man against the external Word of God; whereas what we have mentioned above is what God has purposed in Himself. The rule of conduct He has given us to walk by, is perfectly fulfilled by none of us. His own eternal "counsels" are accomplished to their minutest details.

The absolute and universal supremacy of God is affirmed with equal plainness and positiveness in the New Testament. There we are told that God "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11) - the Greek for "works" means "to work effectually." For this reason we read, "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever: Amen" (Romans 11:36). Men may boast that they are free agents, with a will of their own, and are at liberty to do as they please, but Scripture says to those who boast, "Now listen, you who say, "today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will - we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15).

Here then is a sure resting-place for the heart. Our lives are neither the product of blind fate, nor the result of capricious chance. Every detail of them was ordained from all eternity, and is now ordered by the living and reigning God. Not a hair of our heads can be touched without His permission. "A man's heart devises his way - but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). What assurance, what strength, what comfort this should give the real Christian! "My times are in Your hand" (Psalm 31:15). Then let me "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7).

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)