Understanding God - 16

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus. We thank God for another opportunity to communicate with you, as we send you another instalment of our series on "Understanding God". Thus far, we have explored the Person and attributes of God, the make-up of the Godhead and the resultant distribution of roles. This led to a focus on "The Sovereignty of God" which, in turn, has brought us to a consideration of the place of creation.

UNDERSTANDING GOD 16

In continuation of our focus on “Understanding God” and "The Sovereignty of God”, we have been 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”, after which we began to consider the place of creation.

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 non-living things.

The Place of Creation (Continued)
Concerning the rest of creation, we will highlight some basic truths that will help us to consider God’s sovereign role:

· Every animal acts according to the wisdom and strength that God has given it (see Jb.39:1-17, 40:15-24, 41:1-34).
· The fate of plants and animals is dependent on the purposes God has ordained concerning them, to serve as food, clothing, decoration, labour force, security and a means of preservation for man (see Gen.1:29, 9:3, 3:21, Deu.25:4, Jb.39:13).
· The animals (especially the non-domestic variety) cry unto God for their food (and He feeds them). Yet some of them must in, turn, end up being the food of man or fellow animals (Jb.38:39-41, Mat.6:23).
· Even though, as a consequence of sin, animals are not always submissive to man (at least, not willingly), during Christ’s Millennial Reign, all animals will be tamed and submissive. This is consistent with the purposes of God for that period (Isa.11:6-9).
· By fixed, natural laws, God determines the state of the soil, trees, vegetation and elements (Gen.1:14-16, 8:22).
· In addition, there are acts of God’s intervention by which even the natural course of things on the earth is affected (Jos.12:10-14, 1 Sam.12:16-18, Jam.5:17-18).

On this note, we move on to consider the pillars of God’s sovereignty.