Peace and the Sovereignty of God

Peace 3

          God is sovereign. God does what He wills with whomever He wills. Doctrinally, this concept is birthed in the omnipotence of God. God is all-powerful. There is nothing He cannot do and no one who can restrain Him. Ergo, He is sovereign.

          How does this relate to peace?

          There are two underlying causes for the lack of a peace in a person’s life, inward causes and external causes. The latter, the external, consists of circumstances outside of us, things entirely beyond our control.

For example, two weeks ago our church scheduled a Sunday evening service at Washington Square Park downtown. We wanted to use it as an outreach event. While the park does have a gazebo it does not have a shelter to rent. You can, however, rent the entire park. So we did. And spent hours working on permits and insurance and bad weather evacuation plans, etc. As the day drew nearer, the weather forecast got increasingly problematic. In actuality, the rain became a line of thunderstorms that birthed at least one tornado that touched down in Dubuque County that night. Obviously, we canceled the event downtown and met in our normal location indoors instead.

I am at peace with that cancellation. Yes, it was disappointing to our church, but the weather is entirely and only within the control of God. We could do nothing about it. It was only in the control of God. He chose to allow severe summer weather for His purposes. I rest in knowing that.

Before we go any further, let me stress this peace that comes by way of an understanding of the sovereignty of God is not fatalism. Fatalism says, “Well, there is nothing I can do about it so I might as well not worry about it.” Christianity is not a fatalistic religion, even though we have a God who can do anything He wills. Why? Because God is perfectly willing to be moved, and to move others, on the basis of our prayers.

The weather is an example of external circumstances entirely beyond our control, but a better example is the authority figures in our lives that often make life difficult. We cannot change another person’s heart, especially one that holds power and influence and one that harbors hostility toward us. But we can ask God to change it. He has that capability. The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it withersoever he will (Proverbs 21.1). I am not sovereign. I am powerless to change the heart of authorities set against me. But God can change any authority figure’s mind and heart He wishes to. And He often does as a result of our prayer.

We see this from one end of the Bible to the other. For example, Psalm 106 opens with a long litany of the crimes Israel had committed against God. They did not understand Him. They did not remember Him. They provoked Him. They forgot Him. Their lives were filled with envy and lust. They rebelled against their God-appointed rulers. They worshipped idols. They despised the land He gave them. They complained. They obeyed incompletely. They intermarried with the heathen around them. Their sacrificed their children. Consequently, God poured out His judgment upon them using the nations around them.

Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; And they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them; But they provoked him with their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity. (Psalm 106:40–43)

          Yet the same God that moved those heathen authorities to punish His people was affected by the cries of His people for mercy. And God turned right around and moved the heart of those authorities to be kind to His people.

Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, When he heard their cry: And he remembered for them his covenant, And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He made them also to be pitied Of all those that carried them captives. (Psalm 106:44–46)

          God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wills with whomever He wills, including with the king. Often, He does so in response to a request from me. Yes, I am powerless, but I am not fatalistic. It is not that nothing can be done about my situation. To the contrary, something can always be done – by God. So if God chooses not to do so and leave me powerless in uncomfortable circumstances I accept it. I am at peace with it.

          Perhaps the finest example of this in Scripture is how God changed Nebuchadnezzar, that proud heathen monarch. When we first meet in Daniel he is egotistical, vain, and mad with power. Yet we find Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4 humbly kneeling before Israel’s God, Jehovah.

Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. (Daniel 4:1–3)

          Nebuchadnezzar’s heart had been changed. Curious, is it not, that this life changing experience led this man of warfare to wish for peace to be multiplied? Whatever changed his life led him to peace and to value peace. So what changed him?

          Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. In that dream a great tree was unceremoniously cut down, and someone watching the tree fall made the following announcement:

Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. (Daniel 4:16–17)

          That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He chooses is a perfect expression of the sovereignty of God. God does what He wills with whomever He wills, and no one can say Him nay.

          Daniel, in much astonishment, takes an hour or so to consider this dream. He then reveals to Nebuchadnezzar its meaning. The king himself is this great and proud tree, and God will cut him down to size so he will learn that God alone is sovereign.

That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. (Daniel 4:25–27)

          Daniel begs Nebuchadnezzar to accept the sovereignty of God, and promises him that with that acceptance comes tranquility. Nebuchadnezzar refuses, and correspondingly pays the price of his refusal.

All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. (Daniel 4:28–33)

          Finally, with his reputation gone, his mind in tatters, and his kingdom ripped from him Nebuchadnezzar bows in the dust to the sovereign God of Israel.

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? (Daniel 4:34–35)

          I am not asking you to be fatalistic about events beyond your power. God can do anything, and He is often affected by our requests to change people and things outside our control. I am, though, asking you to rest content in the sovereignty of God. He can change it, no matter how big. He can change them, no matter how powerful. If you ask Him to and He chooses not to do so rest tranquil in the knowledge that He is in perfect control. He designed this, or at least designed for you to endure it.

          He is in control when we are not. Rest in Him and be at peace.