Incomprehensible Sovereignty

“The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:” (Isa 14:24 AV)

No doubt this verse has been written about more than many others.  No doubt it has been used in many a debate.  There are confrontations over the extent of the ability of man to determine his own choices in the light of God’s absolute sovereignty.  Much is made about it because, quite frankly, man believes he can understand something which he cannot understand.  Let us not waste any more space to debate something that cannot be understood and simply accept what is so plainly stated above.  What God has promised and thought will surely come to pass.  What He has determined will be, will be.  We do not have to understand the intricacies of how it all works to accept that it works.  This is faith.  Faith based on reasonable reason and not blind faith.  Faith that understands its limits but has faith anyway.

Lack of knowledge is my greatest contributor to fear.  If I know things, even if I cannot control them, puts my mind at ease.  I do not fear the known.  I fear the unknown.  A little while back, we had some work done on our heating system.  It is an older boiler style heating system with radiators.  The technician had to rebuilt a few things and as he was, I was asking him questions. I wanted to know how the system worked and what safety features were installed.  Back flow valves, high pressure release valves, etc.  I asked because I wanted to put my mind at ease to a possible hazardous failure in the system.  The more I knew, the more comfortable I became.  I may not know how to build or maintain and heating system, but I know the basic principles behind it.  I may not know how to sweat joints, how to measure pressures, or how the low current signals from the thermostat to the control system works that calls for the burner to fire.  I may not know how the basic principles of physics are specifically applied.  But I do not have to.  The furnace will work whether I understand all of it in detail, or I do not.

Our God is far and away more complicated than anything man can build, including a boiler.  I can only understand so much.  At some point, He will be much greater than my finite mind can comprehend.  At that point, I must accept what is clearly stated.  God is in control and there is nothing mankind can do to stop that which God has purposed.  He may choose, but the LORD has already incorporated those choices as part of His plan.  He is in control whether I understand it or not.  I don’t have to understand it.  I cannot understand it.  I merely have to accept it.