Understanding God - 15

Dearly beloved,

We greet you in the Name of our Lord Jesus. With love and prayers, we send you another instalment of our series on “Understanding God”. So far, we have explored the Person and attributes of God, the make-up of the Godhead and the resultant distribution of roles. This led us to a focus on “The Sovereignty of God” which, in turn, has brought us to a consideration of the place of creation.

UNDERSTANDING GOD 15

In continuation of our focus on “Understanding God” and “The Sovereignty of God”, we are considering the place of creation. In pursuing our theme, “Understanding God”, we started a sub-series on “The
Sovereignty of God”. We explored the basis and extent of God’s sovereignty and moved on to consider the place of Satan in the scheme of things. This led us to a focus on “Understanding Tribulation”.
In considering the place of creation, we seek to establish that God’s rule extends, not only to His
children, angels and Satan, but also to unbelieving men, animals and inanimate (or non-living) things.

The Place of Creation (Continued) Again, the Bible teaches that “the creature was made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the
creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God” (Rom.8:20-21). This means that God has subjected men to vanity (or frustration, as rendered
in the New International Version of the Bible) in the hope that they will be drawn to Him and become His
children. In doing this, He neither subjected His decision to the choice of man nor did He seek man’s
permission. Thus, man is not willingly subjected to vanity or frustration. The implication of this is that
the unbeliever’s life is totally subject to the decrees of God. Neither him nor the Devil (his master)
can do anything about it. Again, Jesus says, “No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him” (Jn.6:44). The question arises: Who does the Father draw unto Jesus? Is it the believer or the unbeliever? Certainly the unbeliever! Likewise, we all acknowledge that “the king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD” and that “as the rivers of water: He turneth it withersoever He will” (Pro.21:1).

The combined implication of these Scriptures is that the LORD retains a great degree of authority and
influence over all men, irrespective of their choices. There are things that fall within the ambit of man’s
choice, while there are others that do not. For instance, God has not given any man the right to kill
himself. As a result, whether a man succeeds in killing himself or not, he is accountable to God for
every action in furtherance of such an objective. In addition, no man succeeds or fails in such a venture
without the permission of God (see 1 Sam.31:4-5, 2 Sam.17:23, Ac.1:16-20,16:27-31, Mat.10:29-31). There
are instances in which men, who seek an alternative to suicide, ask the LORD to take their lives. Men like
Jonah and Elijah fall into this category. In both instances, the LORD refused to grant their requests
(Jh.4:3, 8-9, 1 Ki.19:4). In Elijah’s case, death was ruled out, but not the benefit of entering Paradise.
The LORD informed him that Elisha would replace him, and subsequently (but not immediately) took him home (1 Ki.19:16, 2 Ki.2:11).

One implication of these truths is that when God gives a man an assignment, no man can oppose that man
without His sanction. And He, in turn, does not sanction such opposition unless He intends to use it
to establish His purpose, a purpose that brings glory to His Name and good to them that love Him.