365 Reflections

The sovereignty of God is one of the most profound mysteries we will ever encounter in the life of faith. That God reigns over all things, even the evil and deadly things, troubles every armchair theologian, as well as many serious scholars. You've wrestled with it as well. If you've ever wondered why evil exists if God is all good, you're actually asking about His sovereignty. If you wonder why bad things happen to good people, you've wrestled with His sovereignty. If you wonder how God can elect some to salvation and demand people respond in repentance for their sins, you've wrestled with His sovereignty.  And yet Biblical writers have absolutely no problem talking about God's sovereignty over the affairs of the world - even the affairs that trouble us. Consider the agent of God's judgment against Israel, the nation of Assyria. They decimated Syria and stood poised to bring trouble upon the Northern kingdom of Israel. Here's how Isaiah describes that n...

Exodus 2:24–25 (ESV)   And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. Exodus 2 ends on a strange phrase: "and God knew." We understand God knew things, but what does this text mean that He knew? It doesn't seem to finish the thought. We'd like to know what it is that God knew at that moment. But that's just the point of the passage. God knew! That's all there is to it. And because God knows, it really doesn't matter what we think of it. It's going to end up being the perfect plan. Think about this story from this phrase onward. Immediate the attention shifts from the Israelites suffering to Moses in the wilderness about to meet God. From this phrase, God will call a reluctant Moses into the midst of their pain. Moses will first seem make things worse and the Israelites will question him and reject him once more. Then God will start sendi...