Bible Studies in The Sovereignty of God

The Sovereignty of God in Creation

Before time there was eternity. Before creation there was God. I wouldn’t particularly expect or necessarily presume an unregenerate person to accept or acknowledge the sovereignty of God … not least in creation. It is an alien concept for the unsaved to acknowledge the process of God at work in any sphere; Paul said, I Cor. 2:14 the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. It is far more natural, - in keeping with human nature, - to change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things (Rom. 1:23). The psalmist wrote, Ps. 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. 

On the other hand, I would expect every believer who is born-again of the Holy Spirit to accept without question what God’s Word plainly says on this subject. As far as God is concerned, this truth is not up for discussion, - this truth is non-negotiable … the Sovereignty of God in creation.

Try to imagine a timeless expanse. Try to imagine an empty nothingness where God alone dwelt. Without any fear of contradiction, it is not possible for you or me or any of God’s creation to grasp hold of such a reality that existed before time began. We are confined by time, - the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the years, the seasons; but eternity has no such restrictions. For ever and ever there has always been God, - God is eternal, He is everlasting, He is outside of time, - time itself has not always been. Time is not eternal.

He was before anything that was ever created. Nothing existed alongside Him. He craved no other company. He was none the lesser Being for being alone. It doesn’t take away from His Sovereignty that He was alone. The absence of company did not negate any of His sovereignty. He didn’t need to be surrounded by anything other than His own majesty. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit lived in absolute ‘perfectness’ as three separate Persons within the unity of the Godhead.

In that state of absolute perfection God dwelt in total happiness and total contentment. Even at that time, - before the creation of absolutely anything, - God was sovereign.

Look up at the clear sky at night. Imagine there were no stars, or moon, planets, or light of any kind, … imagine there was no darkness. Before even the darkness was created God was!

Then, in His sovereign will our God set His mind upon a work of creation. How He saw fit to put into operation the plan He had for the ages was all His own doing; He consulted none, He asked none for their advice … for even before anything was created there was only God.

He could have drawn up the plans whatever way He liked and none could appeal against His command … for there was no-one there … except God!

When He began to create, if He wanted to He could have created a frog that spoke, He could have created anything He liked for He is sovereign. This time in eternity, - before anything was created, - God planned all things down to the minutest detail. He left nothing to chance. He left nothing to any of His future creation to decide. His plan covered every and all aspects of the creation He was about to begin. (Just a little comment here: some people mistakenly believe God saw who was going to choose to be saved and then He chose to save them. That is a damnable error, concocted by fallen man in an attempt to take away some of the glory from God in the planning of the wonderful salvation by grace alone. Such an erroneous doctrine is Biblically contemptible and flies in the face of the Sovereignty of God at work in eternity.) God drew up the plans before any of them ever came to be!

If God so pleased He could have made a world the size of all the universes put together. If God had pleased, He could have chosen to make every person on this earth the same colour, with the same bank balance, with the same faith in Him … with all things in common. God could have done that … if that was what He wanted to do.

There is absolutely nothing to hinder or hold back in any way, shape or form that which the Sovereign God had determined to do.

Take a look at what the Bible teaches us about Heaven to see how God planned it. He gave the heavens different grades of light, - the sun is brighter than the moon, and the moon is large and dwarfs the distant stars; the Bible says, I Cor. 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. It was God that gave them there glory. It was God that planned the planets would circle the sun. He planned Jupiter and Saturn to be larger than Earth and Mars … but He planned too where they would be placed so that Earth would be a living creation in the form we know it to be. Why did He choose to populate earth and no other planet in the galaxy? Did He think less of those other planets? No, here is why He did what He did, Rev. 4:11 thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

The evolutionist and the unbelieving astronomer try to rob Him of the fact that He made it all … but their stupidity and foolishness is all the more evident in the amazing stories and theories they dreamed up, - simply because they do not want to believe in the Biblical fact that teaches us God is sovereign in creation.

If the beautiful princess kisses a frog and it instantly turns into a handsome prince we would call it a fairy tale. But if the frog takes 40 million years to turn into a prince we call it evolution. No, Job got it right, 21:14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

The reason the seas and the oceans do not flood the land is that God holds them back; the Bible says, Ps. 65:5 O God of our salvation; … 6 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power: 7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, … 9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Again the Psalmist declared, Ps. 135:6 Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. 

In Heaven, His dwelling-place, He made the various degrees of angels. There were different ‘ranks’ even among them. There was the arch-angel, the seraphim, the cherubim and I Tim. 5:21 speaks about the elect angels. Is it right God should make such a difference as this, - that He has made some higher in Heaven than others? All we can humbly say is “Why not?! Ps. 115:3 our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”

He has made two-thirds of this world water and other vast areas He has made uninhabitable to man (the deserts and the polar caps). Why should He do that? Why should He have some people living in dire poverty when He could do something about it? Keep on asking the question … and if you take your eyes off God’s Word … you will begin to think He is unfair and He does all sorts of unjustifiable acts.

… Why did God create me and give me the privilege of being born into a family in a part of the world where I would never go hungry or thirsty … where, if I am feeling unwell, I can visit the doctor or the hospital! God has had millions and billions of people born into poverty and degradation that we couldn’t even begin to imagine, - children born into families in Africa where the AIDS virus will kill them in a very short space of time. Why did God plan that? You would dare to tell me He didn’t! … I tell you what He told Moses, Ex. 4:11 Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?

That little baby born with a terrible disability … blindness, brain damaged, etc. … who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?

His sovereignty in creation is away beyond our understanding. I was born into a family in a country where I would hear the Gospel and be saved, - that’s how God planned it. He planned it so that He would elect unto Himself the nation of Israel alone and He rejected every other peoples on the face of the earth … how could He do that? I don’t know but this is what He said, Dt. 7:6 the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 7  The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8  But because the LORD loved you. Can you understand that … for I freely confess, I can’t – but it is what the Bible plainly says.

There are different degrees within God’s creation. Out my back garden I have two rabbits; the cat comes in and the rabbits know to watch out. I used to have a dog … the cats knew to watch out! God made them all different and He gave each of them different purposes for living. My German Shepherd would have kept you out of my back garden … but my rabbits wouldn’t!

There are some of the plants my rabbits would eat, - the plants with the flowers and the nice smell. Similarly with us, we eat the fruit of the apple tree or the blackberry but we wouldn’t eat the flower of the foxglove. That was the way God planned it.

Why did God make a nettle, - that nobody wants in their garden … or the briers or the weeds? The mind of God is far too fantastic to understand, the prophet told his people, Is. 40: 26  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Here is the underlying truth of it all: God the Creator is absolutely Sovereign and He executes His own will and plan in whatever way He has chosen and intended. There are no hindrances to the operation of His will, Prov. 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. He is God and who dare challenge Him! He has a right to do whatever He pleases. To argue against Him or to doubt His goodness in all that He does or to question one single aspect of His plan is rebellion because He sees it as a doubting and a questioning of His sovereignty. He is not beholden to us for our permission or for our approval for anything He does.

One of the greatest servants of God in the Old Testament , - if not, the greatest, - called out to Him, Ex. 15: 11  Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? … Remember … Moses saw Him inflict the punishment of the plagues upon the Egyptians; Moses saw Him part the waters of the Red Sea ... and still He marvels at the Sovereignty of God!

The Psalmist who saw his nation established by God cried out to Him in praise, Ps. 71: 19  Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!

Nothing less would also do for Isaiah as He considered the matter, 40:17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. 18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?