"sovereign of"

[Ohio]

Regarding the "sovereignty of God," my recent study of Job helped me to understand the problem of evil and suffering. My NIV Study Bible had a great commentary on the opening chapter of Job. Here is a segment ...

... The relationship between God and man is not exclusive and closed. A third party intrudes, the great adversary. Incapable of contending with God hand to hand, power pitted against power, he is bent on frustrating God's enterprise embodied in the creation and centered on the God-man relationship. As tempter he seeks to alienate man from God, as accuser he seeks to alienate God from man. His all-consuming purpose is to drive an irremovable wedge between God and man, to effect an alienation that cannot be reconciled.

In the story of Job, the author portrays the adversary in his boldest and most radical assault on God and the godly man in the special and intimate relationship that is dearest to them both. When God calls up the name of Job before the accuser and testifies to the righteousness of this one on the earth -- this man in whom God delights -- Satan attempts with one crafty thrust both to assail God's beloved and to show up God as a fool.

True to one of his modes of operation, he accuses Job before God. He charges that Job's godliness is evil. The very godliness in which God takes delight is void of all integrity. It is the worst of all sins. Job's godliness is self-serving; he is righteous only because it pays. If God will only let Satan tempt Job by breaking the link between righteousness and blessing, he will expose the righteous man for the sinner he is.

It is the adversary's ultimate challenge. For if the godliness of the righteous man in whom God delights can be shown to be the worst of all sins, then the chasm of alienation stands between them that cannot be bridged. Then even redemption is unthinkable, for the godliest of men will be shown to be the most ungodly. God's whole enterprise in creation and redemption will be shown to be radically flawed, and God can only sweep it all away in awful judgment.

Perhaps better than passing off all Christian difficulty to Lee's expression, "it must be sovereign of God," which phrase exists no where in the Bible, that I could find anyways, we should focus on actual concepts of encouragement from His word. For one, the scripture emphasizes the trials or difficulties which we all must pass thru. For example, James says count it all joy, that trials prove our faith. Peter says the proving of our faith is more precious than gold, and these trials are fiery ordeals, not to be considered strange to us. Paul considered these all to be a momentary lightness working an eternal weight of glory.

[awareness]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Perhaps better than passing off all Christian difficulty to Lee's expression, "it must be sovereign of God," which phrase exists no where in the Bible,

I search for the word sovereign in the Bible. It doesn't appear in the KJV, but does in the ESV.

Looking into the verses where sovereign appears I found the Koine Greek was despotace.

Which makes sense if God is sovereign.

And Job? Well it was a contest ; a contest between the omnipresent and omniscient, and the omnipotent, omnipresent, the omniscient. I call it, God's night out with the boys. Job didn't get invited. He was the center of the action ; the entertainment ; the victorious superman of God ; God's validation. The sons of God surely had skin in the game.

[ZNPaaneah]

Perhaps I can share an experience that I think illustrates both the failure of the term and the correctness of it as well.

My mom, who is 86, had a stroke this summer. I received a message around 9am, so I needed to drive to Albany, about 4 hours away. However, that morning I had noticed I had a flat tire so I needed to get that fixed first, which took me several hours. While on the highway the rain was very intense, so intense I could just barely make out the taillights of the car in front of me. I arrived at 4 pm. My brothers were there. They had done a CT scan which identified a blood clot in her brain. She was paralyzed on one side and couldn't speak. I think many would refer to these three events (the stroke, the rain and the flat) as "sovereign of the Lord".

However, while driving to Albany it occurred to me as I was praying "when is it ever not the Lord's will to heal?" (We can confuse the Lord being sovereign over something with this is His will.) In the gospels it says that "He takes our infirmities on Him and by His stripes we are healed", this is his job description as the messiah. So, I am a teacher, if someone came to me and said "if it is your will you can teach my son" that would be absurd. It better be my will or else I will get fired. So instead, in the gospels the Lord asks "do you believe that I am able to do this?" The person said yes. Then He said "as you have believed so let it be done unto you". That is the Lord's will, as we have believed it would be done unto us.

So the next morning we return to the hospital and my mom is better. She can talk, she is no longer paralyzed, and an MRI revealed the blood clot was gone. But my sister who is in Colorado calls, not realizing she is better and she asks me "when will I ever be able to talk to my mom normal again?" Well I thought to myself when I heard that "we have been asking that question for 30 years". But I didn't say that, instead I said "you can talk to her normal right now" and handed the phone to my mom.

So I would say that it was sovereign that my mom got sick, it was also sovereign that I could spend that time in the word to get the understanding, and it was sovereign that this helped the relationship between my mom and my sister.