In my post titled "Create not Make" I made the point that God was the creator of everything and therefore has the right to rule over it. I want to build a little on that point here. God’s creation of the land as the basis for His
right to do with it as He pleases is apparent in Is. 44:1 and 24. In v. 1 God is the maker of Israel. Then in v.
24 God asserts He is Israel’s “Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the
womb, I the Lord, am the maker of all things”. His making of the nation and of
all things intrinsically carries the prerogative of sovereignty giving Him the
sole right to first chasten Israel, then restore them to the land that He made.
Similarly in Is. 45:12—18 God who “made
the earth, and created man upon it” (v. 12) has the intrinsic right to sovereignly
do as He wishes with all the nations. Therefore,
these verses assert, that because God has created the earth He has the intrinsic
right to sovereignly do what He will with the earth (Is. 44:3a, 7, 24, 26—28)
even the right to offer salvation throughout the earth (Is. 45:8, 49:6, 51:6,
52:10, 62:11).
The earth is at the center of God’s creation. Since God created the earth He is intrinsically and absolutely sovereign over it. He alone has the right to raise up nations and establish their borders and boundaries (Acts 17:26). Since he created the sun and moon to establish time He alone has the exclusive right to determine how long nations will exist in the boundaries assigned to them. Since He determines what is good and very good He alone has determined according to “His kind intention” (Eph. 1:5, 9) that the reason why nations are raised up, given power, then disappear from history is so that they “might grope for Him and find Him” (Acts 17:27). His original, sovereign creative work is the ground of His intrinsic right to rule the nations and give the earth to whatever nations He chooses whenever He chooses.
Being the ultimate sovereign ruler He has the right to allocate the earth to whom He pleases. Yet this does not mean that God is capricious or arbitrary. On the contrary from before creation God had an ultimate end in mind. All He does is purposeful and His actions are directed to His sovereignly determined ultimate end which is to glorify Himself. In order to achieve his ultimate end He has sovereignly and unilaterally bound Himself to a particular course of action through unconditional and eternal covenants.
The earth is at the center of God’s creation. Since God created the earth He is intrinsically and absolutely sovereign over it. He alone has the right to raise up nations and establish their borders and boundaries (Acts 17:26). Since he created the sun and moon to establish time He alone has the exclusive right to determine how long nations will exist in the boundaries assigned to them. Since He determines what is good and very good He alone has determined according to “His kind intention” (Eph. 1:5, 9) that the reason why nations are raised up, given power, then disappear from history is so that they “might grope for Him and find Him” (Acts 17:27). His original, sovereign creative work is the ground of His intrinsic right to rule the nations and give the earth to whatever nations He chooses whenever He chooses.
Being the ultimate sovereign ruler He has the right to allocate the earth to whom He pleases. Yet this does not mean that God is capricious or arbitrary. On the contrary from before creation God had an ultimate end in mind. All He does is purposeful and His actions are directed to His sovereignly determined ultimate end which is to glorify Himself. In order to achieve his ultimate end He has sovereignly and unilaterally bound Himself to a particular course of action through unconditional and eternal covenants.
Comments
Post a Comment