I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—the fall of sear leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.
(Charles Spurgeon, ‘God’s Providence’, sermon on Ezekiel 1:15-19, 1908.)
In one of his sermons, John Piper tells the story of a couple who approached him one day and shared that they had learned more about God’s sovereignty during six months at his church than in their whole Christian lives previously. Some time later, their family went through a time of terrible suffering. The mother thanked Pastor John with tears in her eyes, saying that they could never have made it through this time without the conviction of God’s sovereignty.1
I find God’s sovereignty immensely comforting. It enables me to face the future with courage, bear small trials with patience, and entrust my family to God. But when I was at university, an older Christian shared the view that God controls the big history events, not the small, everyday occurrences of life. In other words, God is sovereign, but perhaps not sovereign over the day my son has no friends to play with in the playground, or the day my daughter struggles with an unknown sickness, or the day my car runs out of fuel and I’m stuck miles from a petrol station with four young children. God is sovereign, but not entirely sovereign.
I’m uncomfortable with this idea
- theologically: It seems to me that God is either sovereign, or he isn’t. If God is only half sovereign, his power and glory are vastly diminished: “For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Ps 135:5-6).
- philosophically: Since big occurrences are a collection of small ones, I’m not sure it’s possible to control a tsunami without controlling every drop of water within it, or ordain all the days of a life, but not the small happenings (Ps 135:6-7, 139:16). It seems unlikely to me that there’s a certain point at which God’s sovereign control comes to an end.
- biblically. When the Bible says ‘everything’, I assume it means everything (Eph 1:11, Dan 4:35, Ps 115:3). Jesus tells us that not even a tiny sparrow will “fall to the ground apart from your Father“ (Matt 10:29).
- pastorally: I need to be assured of God’s loving providence when I catch a cold, not just when I get cancer. If not, how can I respond with patience, joy and confidence that God is bringing good out of my suffering (Rom 8:28, Heb 11:5-11)? How can I encourage my fellow believers to endure faithfully, trust God, and hope in him during their trials?
So I give thanks to God that when I meet him in the Bible, he not only sustains the universe, but counts every hair on my head (Heb 1:3, Luke 12:7, 21:18); that he directs not only the hearts of kings, but the outcome of every roll of dice (Prov 21:1, 16:33); that he determines not only the fate of nations, but every one of my days (Job 12:23, Ps 139:16).
Every atom, every electron, every quark and undiscovered subatomic particle, every unseen thought and feeling of the human heart is under God’s sovereign command. I can face every moment of every day, and every moment of every future day with confidence, knowing that my loving Father guides every circumstance for his glory, my good and the good of the gospel.
1 I am sorry, but I have lost the reference: if anyone knows it, please share it with me!
Beautifully put Jean. Our extraordinary God is also the God of the ordinary.
Thanks for this post! It’s a solid and gracious reminder of Who’s truly in control over all things, even if things don’t always look “good” from our finite perspective. This is particularly the case as many of us Christians here in the US see our election winding down to a close, the ballots being counted, and the shape of the new President, his Cabinet, and the Congress beginning to form.
Loved the article… a great refreshing reminder of something that first struck me in 1st year at college.
I don’t want to be controversial, and I am completely on board with our Diocese re women not heading up congregations, but can someone help me understand why it is OK for me to read Jean’s article here and be blessed, if it would have been wrong for her to present this at my church? I understand completely the arguments re women not teaching mixed congregations – that is not my question. It’s a question re application.
This is a really difficult inconsistency for me in the ‘women must never teach men’ issue. Why can I READ Jean, but not LISTEN to Jean?
(From time to time at St Andrew’s Roseville – once in the last year – on mothers’ day – we have a woman share… ‘prophesy’ as in 1 Cor 11.)
Hi Mark
Thanks for the question—a relevant one for this blog, but also for Matthias Media as a publisher. It’s a question we’ve been asked more than once in the past: “How is it that you can take a strong stand against women’s ordination, and yet still publish women authors (both in The Briefing, and in books)?”
The answer lies in the nature of Scripture’s teachings about male congregational leadership. The Bible doesn’t say that females can never teach males anything, as if it is a matter of inherent intellectual or moral superiority. It’s not the fragile male ego God is trying to protect, but the order of relationships that he has set up in creation.
What we need to avoid, according to Paul in 1 Tim, is the situation where the headship of a husband in the family is subverted or overthrown by female authority within the household of God. It’s about the relationships involved, and what a woman being in the position of teacher/elder does to those relationships.
This is why there is nothing wrong with a female Sunday School teacher teaching young male children or teenagers. It’s to do with the relationships involved, and the nature of the ‘teaching’.
It’s also why there’s nothing wrong with women ‘prophesying’ in church (according to 1 Cor 11). Whatever prophesying was, it obviously didn’t carry the same connotations of teaching-authority. (The congregation I’m part of regularly invites members to share encouragement and lessons from their lives with the rest of the congregation—women as well as men. I think it’s close to what Paul called ‘prophecy’.)
In the particular case you raise, the relationship we have with the author of a book or a blogpost is largely impersonal and indirect. It’s not an authority relationship—a teacher-student relationship.
This is why we’ve always been comfortable with publishing the excellent contributions of Kirsten Birkett, Claire Smith and others through Matthias Media and The Briefing over the years.
Hope this necessarily brief response helps.
Regards, Tony
Wonderful post. My family and I recently left our church of 7yrs. When speaking with my pastor about some of my reasons for wanting to leave, God’s sovereignty came up (and the fact that it was not taught). He said to me that God is, in his opinion, 99.9% sovereign. My point was, if that’s true, then He’s not.
Many thanks for the post. It was so encouraging to read it and the comments. It gets weird when people in one’s own church start looking at you funny for being so “obsessed” with God’s Sovereignty.
I once heard someone speak at my previous church who said in effect, “Yes, God is Sovereign. God IS in control. The only time God is not in control is when we don’t let Him be in control.”
It just didn’t sit well with me.
When later asked how this could be, he said, “Well, God gave each of us this beautiful gift called Free Will… that even God won’t interfere with…”
That’s when I started getting nauseous.
So, can man’s free will really trump Gods Sovereignty?
I’m sure there are lots of opinions out there, but what does Scripture say? What does Scripture teach explicitly as opposed to merely implicitly regarding this? Where in the Bible does it explicitly say that God gave us a “free” will that even He cannot tamper with?
Some may point to Joshua 24:14-15 where he says “choose now.” But the more I read the passage, the more it becomes apparent that Joshua was quite adamant in commanding people to follow the LORD. He never presented following the LORD as a free choice.
And if there were anyone there who was foolish enough to think that the command to follow the LORD was a merely a choice, Joshua then presented the only choices there really were: serving false gods or worthless idols.
I pray that all those who profess to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, truly recognize His authority over all flesh, and acknowledge Him in all our ways… that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him and that no one can thwart our God’s perfect will-the least of those being ourselves and our so called “free” will. May we all humble ourselves before Him, He will lift us up in due time… in His time.
To Christ be the Glory!