Chapter 2
THE
SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN CREATION
"Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory, and honor, and power: for Thou hast created
all things, and
for Thy pleasure they are and
were created"
Revelation 4:11
Having shown that sovereignty
characterizes the whole Being of God, let us now observe how it marks all His
ways and dealings.
In the
great expanse of eternity, which stretches behind Genesis 1:1, the universe was
unborn and creation existed only in the mind of the great Creator. In His
sovereign majesty God dwelt all alone. We refer to that far distant period
before the heavens and the earth were created. There were then no angels to
hymn God’s praises, no creatures to occupy His notice, no rebels to be brought
into subjection. The great God was all alone amid the awful
silence of His own vast universe. But even at that time, if time it could be
called, God was sovereign. He might create or not create according to His own
good pleasure. He might create this way or that way; He might create one world
or one million worlds, and who was there to resist His will? He might call into
existence a million different creatures and place them on absolute
equality, endowing them with the same faculties and placing them in the same
environment; or, He might create a million creatures each differing from the
others, and possessing nothing in common save their creaturehood, and who was
there to challenge His right? If He so pleased, He might call into existence a
world so immense that its dimensions were utterly beyond finite computation;
and were He so disposed, He might create an organism so
small that nothing but the most powerful microscope could reveal its existence
to human eyes. It was His sovereign right to create, on the one hand, the
exalted seraphim to burn around His throne, and on the other hand, the tiny
insect which dies the same hour that it is born. If the mighty God chose to
have one vast gradation in His universe, from loftiest seraph to creeping reptile, from revolving worlds to floating atoms, from
macrocosm to microcosm, instead of making everything uniform, who was there to
question His sovereign pleasure?
Behold then the exercise of
Divine sovereignty long before man ever saw the light. With
whom took God counsel in the creation and disposition of His creatures. See the
birds as they fly through the air, the beasts as they roam the earth, the
fishes as they swim in the sea, and then ask, Who was it that made them to
differ? Was it not their Creator who sovereignly assigned their various
locations and adaptations to them!
Turn your eye to the heavens
and observe the mysteries of Divine sovereignty which there confront the
thoughtful beholder: "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of
the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another
star in glory" (1 Cor. 15:41). But why should they? Why should the sun be more glorious than all the other planets? Why should there be
stars of the first magnitude and others of the tenth? Why such amazing
inequalities? Why should some of the heavenly bodies be more favorably placed
than others in their relation to the sun? And why should there be
"shooting stars," "falling stars," "wandering
stars" (Jude 13), in a word, ruined stars? And the only possible answer
is, "For Thy pleasure they are and were created"
(Rev. 4:11).
Come now to our own planet.
Why should two thirds of its surface be covered with water, and why should so
much of its remaining third be unfit for human cultivation or habitation? Why
should there be vast stretches of marshes, deserts and ice-fields? Why should one country be so inferior, topographically, from
another? Why should one be fertile, and another almost barren? Why should one
be rich in minerals and another own none? Why should the climate of one be
congenial and healthy, and another uncongenial and unhealthy? Why should one
abound in rivers and lakes, and another be almost devoid of them? Why should
one be constantly troubled with earthquakes, and another be
almost entirely free from them? Why? Because thus it pleased the Creator and
Upholder of all things.
Look at the animal kingdom and
note the wondrous variety. What comparison is possible between the lion and the
lamb, the bear and the kid, the elephant and the mouse?
Some, like the horse and the dog, are gifted with great intelligence; while
others, like sheep and swine, are almost devoid of it. Why? Some are designed
to be beasts of burden, while others enjoy a life of freedom. But why should
the mule and the donkey be shackled to a life of drudgery, while the lion and
tiger are allowed to roam the jungle at their pleasure? Some are fit for food,
others unfit; some are beautiful, others ugly; some are
endowed with great strength, others are quite helpless; some are fleet of foot,
others can scarcely crawl—contrast the hare and the tortoise; some are of use
to man, others appear to be quite valueless; some live for centuries, others a
few months at most; some are tame, others fierce. But why all these variations
and differences?
What is true of the animals is
equally true of the birds and fishes. But consider now the vegetable kingdom.
Why should roses have thorns, and lilies grow without them? Why should one
flower emit a fragrant aroma and another have none? Why should one tree bear
fruit which is wholesome and another that which is poisonous? Why
should one vegetable be capable of enduring frost and another wither under it?
Why should one apple tree be loaded with fruit, and another tree of the same
age and in the same orchard be almost barren? Why should one plant flower a
dozen times in a year and another bear blossoms but once a century? Truly,
"whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in the earth, in
the seas, and all deep places" (Ps. 135:6).
Consider the angelic hosts.
Surely we shall find uniformity here. But no; there, as elsewhere, the same
sovereign pleasure of the Creator is displayed. Some are higher in rank than
others; some are more powerful than others; some are nearer to God than others. Scripture reveals a definite and well-defined
gradation in the angelic orders. From arch-angel, past seraphim and cherubim,
we come to "principalities and powers" (Eph. 3:10), and from
principalities and powers to "rulers" (Eph. 6:12), and then to the
angels themselves, and even among them we read of "the elect angels"
(1 Tim. 5:21). Again we ask, Why this inequality, this difference in rank and order? And all we can say is "Our God is in the heavens,
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased" (Ps. 115:3).
If then we see the sovereignty
of God displayed throughout all creation why should it be thought a strange
thing if we behold it operating in the midst of the human family?
Why should it be thought strange if to one God is pleased to give five talents
and to another only one? Why should it be thought strange if one is born with a
robust constitution and another of the same parents is frail and sickly? Why
should it be thought strange if Abel is cut off in his prime, while Cain is
suffered to live on for many years? Why should it be thought strange that some
should be born black and others white; some be born idiots
and others with high intellectual endowments; some be born constitutionally
lethargic and others full of energy; some be born with a temperament that is
selfish, fiery, egotistical, others who are naturally self-sacrificing,
submissive and meek? Why should it be thought strange if some are qualified by
nature to lead and rule, while others are only fitted to follow and serve? Heredity and environment cannot account for all these
variations and inequalities. No; it is God who maketh one to differ from
another. Why should He? "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy
sight" must be our reply.
Learn then this basic truth,
that the Creator is absolute Sovereign, executing His own
will, performing His own pleasure, and considering nought but His own glory.
"The Lord hath made all things for Himself" (Prov. 16:4). And had He
not a perfect right to? Since God is God, who dare challenge His prerogative?
To murmur against Him is rank rebellion. To question His ways is to impugn His
wisdom. To criticize Him is sin of the deepest dye. Have we forgotten who He
is? Behold, "All nations before Him are as nothing;
and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye
liken God ?" (Isa. 40:17, 18).