Deuteronomy 7.17, 18
“If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’ – you shall not be afraid of them, butyou shall remember what the LORDyour God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt…”

That God was sovereign must have been clear to the people of Israel. The Law of God reveals the sovereign power and might of God in three ways.

First, God is sovereign in that He created the world and all things in it according to His purposes and for His pleasure. God by His mighty power spoke the creation into being. He did not need the creation in order to fill up some lacuna in His own being or existence; rather, He freely chose to create it, and He created it according to His design and power.

He is sovereign over everything, and He is sovereign over nothing. Nothing existed when God began to create. Yet God obliterated nothing by filling it with everything that was good according to His purposes and plan. God’s people should not be discouraged when “nothing” exists which seem desirable or possible according to God’s purposes or plan. God is sovereign over “nothing.”

Second, the people of Israel would have observed the sovereignty of God in His ability to command the creation to accomplish His pleasure. The sea parted, rocks gave forth water, poisoned wells were cleansed, food fell from heaven, plagues of creatures descended, the river divided, the hearts of men melted – all at the command of God. Doubtless, thoughtful Israelites would have seen in such displays a power that commands the creation at all times and in all its creatures and powers.

God is sovereign in creating and commanding and sustaining what He has made. The world and everything in it are the possession and servants of the One-in-Three eternal and holy God (Ps. 24.1; 119.89-91).

Third, God is sovereign in delivering His people. Not even the greatest nation of its time could stand against God when He determined to call His people unto Himself. And no nation would be able to resist this God, or His people, as they undertook His holy plan and covenant to create a new nation and to bring into being a new worldview before the pagan peoples of the earth.

The Three-in-One, eternal, holy God of the covenant is sovereign over everything. And we can believe that He stands ready to exercise His sovereignty in the outworking of that worldview He has promulgated, beginning in His Law.

Act: Since God is sovereign, what does this suggest about how important it is for us to try to understand His purposes and will? How would you assess your present approach to doing so? Talk with a Christian friend about this.

T. M. Moore

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. Follow T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes by downloading the free, weekly studies available in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click hereto see the weekly studies available thus far.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.