In the area of Biblical prophecy, the sovereignty of God is the most fundamental of doctrines. Sovereignty is required in order for prophecy to come to pass. If God is not absolutely in control, then fulfilled prophecy is not prophecy at all, but rather chance. If God does not control history, then Biblical prophecy has no guarantee of fulfillment. It reduces prophecy from a sure thing to mere probability, and God from omnipotent to the impotent. If God does not work in individuals, in nations, in His created laws governing nature, then prophecy does not work! If God is not in control of even the little things then He is not the only True God, but merely a god, and a false God at that! No doctrine is more encouraging to the believer than the sovereignty of God, and in particular, prophecy. Teaching fulfilled prophecy builds the believer’s confidence in God, strengthening his or her faith that God will do what He says He will do, and He alone has the power to make it happen. Prophecy is the fundamental reinforcer of the doctrine of faith. One trusts and relies upon God in his or her daily walk because faith is backed up by history. Because God spoke in advance, and it came to pass.
Sovereignty has to do with God’s decrees and the manner in which they are accomplished. This set of articles will examine some critical aspects of the most comforting doctrine – the sovereignty of God as it relates to Biblical prophecy.
The Sovereignty of God in His Speech
When God speaks, everything about His communication speaks of absolute certainty and control. For example, the word ‘amen is the Hebrew meaning "so be it," its verb root means "to support" "be firm" or "stand firm." The word is often translated by the more modern words "truly" or "verily," or it just stands alone as the transliteration "amen." In Isaiah God is said to be the "God of truth" literally the "God of Amen:"
Once in the New Testament ‘amen’ is used as a title of Christ. He is "the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness" (Rev. 3:14). The title is used because the purposes of God are established through Him (2 Cor. 1:20). These purposes speak of a God who is in control every second of every hour.
Separate and apart from individual words that declare God’s sovereign control over what He says will come to pass, is the grammar used in prophecy. In the Hebrew there exists what grammarians call the "prophetic perfect." The perfect verb tense means the action or act is "completed," and so is often translated as a past tense. But the idea is that the act is completed. When the Lord gives future prophecy, he often speaks in the perfect tense and the translators translate it in the future tense because it has not occurred yet. It would be like saying "I went to the store tomorrow." That makes no since, so the translators would write "I will go to the store tomorrow." Even though that is not what the text says! This is called the prophetic perfect and occurs often in the Old Testament. When the Lord speaks "it will be done." It is like saying "it is done" even though the event has not occurred yet because He is the Amen!
Another example of His sovereign control over all things is in the way that His sovereign work is performed by His speech. He speaks and things are created! For example, He said let there be light, and there was light (Gen. 1:3). Nothing else is given about how the light came, the point is not in the how, but that He decreed it, and it was so. This control over creation extends to all creation, as He commands the laws of nature, the host of angles, and brings the nations of the earth up, then brings them down. The Psalmist said it best when he wrote,
This idea [speaking of Jn. 1:1 and the Word] develops itself in the Old Testament on three lines. (1) The Word, as embodying the divine will, is personified in Hebrew poetry. Consequently divine attributes are predicated of it as being the continuous revelation of God in law and prophecy (Psa 3:4; Isa 40:8; Psa 119:105). The Word is a healer in Psa 107:20; a messenger in Psa 147:15; the agent of the divine decrees in Isa 55:11.
(2) The personified wisdom (Job 28:12 sq.; Proverbs 8, 9). Here also is the idea of the revelation of that which is hidden. For wisdom is concealed from man: "he knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air" (Job 28). Even Death, which unlocks so many secrets, and the underworld, know it only as a rumor (Job 28:22). It is only God who knows its way and its place (Job 28:23). He made the world, made the winds and the waters, made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder (Job 28:25, Job 28:26). He who possessed wisdom in the beginning of his way, before His works of old, before the earth with its depths and springs and mountains, with whom was wisdom as one brought up with Him (Pro 8:26-31), declared it. "It became, as it were, objective, so that He beheld it" (Job 28:27) and embodied it in His creative work. This personification, therefore, is based on the thought that wisdom is not shut up at rest in God, but is active and manifest in the world. "She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors" (Pro_8:2, Pro_8:3). She builds a palace and prepares a banquet, and issues a general invitation to the simple and to him that wanteth understanding (Pro 9:1-6). It is viewed as the one guide to salvation, comprehending all revelations of God, and as an attribute embracing and combining all His other attributes.
(3) The Angel of Jehovah. The messenger of God who serves as His agent in the world of sense, and is sometimes distinguished from Jehovah and sometimes identical with him (Gen 16:7-13; Gen 32:24-28; Hos 12:4, Hos 12:5; Exo 23:20, Exo 23:21; Mal 3:1).
Finally, God uses language as the primary means of communication with mankind. So He has given us His word. He chooses to demonstrate His sovereignty over all creation by His word and through the use of prophecy. It is primarily through His word that we know Him, and trust Him. And it is by prophecy that we find His wonderful sovereignty, righteousness, love, and daily provisions. The believer is one who has faith in the one God who can and will perform His work and will deliver us on the last day. And it is by prophecy that the believer finds comfort in times of great distress.
