The Sovereignty of God
By Arthur W. Pink
Chapter Two - 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" (Rev.
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 then? 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" (Psa. 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" (Psa. 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 as are nothing; and they are counted
to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God?" (Isa.
40:17, 18).