The Sovereign God of Blessing and Calamity

If God is God, then He is sovereign over all things. I have frequently taught a seminary course on the theology of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The third chapter of the confession always provokes a strong response from students. It begins with these words: “God, from all eternity, did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.”

People are often aghast when they see or hear these words. They often dismiss them as merely the harsh teachings of Calvinism or Reformed theology. But nothing in the statement is unique to Calvinism. Indeed, the affirmation is not even unique to Christianity. It is an affirmation found in the tenets of Judaism and also in Islam. All three of these world religions would affirm that (at least in some sense) God ordains whatever comes to pass.

If God did not ordain all things, He would not be sovereign over all things. And if He is not sovereign over all things, then He is not God at all. Theologians argue endlessly over how God ordains all things. But even if this ordination is by mere “permission,” for God to let things happen that do happen He must choose to allow them to take place. Insofar as He lets things happen that He has the power and authority to prevent from happening, He is “ordaining” them.

Divine Sovereignty, Human Agency

The quote above from the Westminster Confession goes on to say that “nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away.” God’s ordination of all things does not annihilate human decisions or the forces of nature. Yet at the same time, the sovereignty of God stands over every human event. If I am asked whether God ordained various calamities, I answer,

“Yes, He did.” Now, if I am asked why He ordained them, I cannot be glib in my reply. In reality, I do not know why God ordains all the calamities that take place. But I know that He does ordain them, because if He did not ordain them, they would not happen. Whenever something happens, I know for certain that God ordained it in some sense. That is one of the most difficult concepts for even devout Christians to deal with. Yet the concept is found on almost every page of sacred Scripture. It is at the very heart of the Christian faith.

Let us examine a passage from the second chapter of the book of Acts, where we have a record of Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost:

Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you have crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. (Acts 2:22–24)

Peter is giving a severe rebuke to his contemporaries for doing what? For executing Jesus. Even though God had confirmed Christ’s identity as the Messiah through His miracles, the people put Him to death. Peter by no means absolves these people of their responsibility for the death of Christ. It was by human hands that Jesus was delivered to Pilate, it was by human hands that He was sentenced to death, and it was by human hands that He was crucified. Yet all these things, Peter said, did not take place through accidents of human history; rather, they took place according to the “definite plan and foreknowledge” of almighty God. Before anyone raised a finger against Jesus, when He went to the garden of Gethsemane, He was completely aware of what was going to happen. He knew it was God’s will, not the mere will of mortals, that He must carry out.

Jesus had told His disciples only a few days earlier that He had to go to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of wicked men, and that He would be beaten and killed (Matt. 16:21; Luke 24:7). When Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane and sweated drops of blood in prayer, He begged God to change that plan (Luke 22:41–44), because Jesus knew that these things had been appointed by His Father. From the time of His birth, Jesus’ destiny was set out. When Jesus was brought to the temple for dedication, the prophecy was announced that this One would be a sign for the rise and fall of many, and that a sword would pierce Mary’s soul (Luke 2:34–35).

Years before Jesus was put to death, the Word of God revealed that it was God’s plan that Jesus should die, and that this would happen through the actions of wicked men. Here is God directing His counsel, bringing His will to pass through a divine providence that works through human agency in such a way as not to cancel out the will or the responsibility of the participants.

The clearest example of this combination of divine providence and human agency is in the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Because of his brothers’ jealousy and envy toward him, Joseph was sold into slavery. On the slave block, Joseph was purchased by Potiphar, whose wife then falsely accused him of assault, for which Joseph was thrown into prison, where he languished for many years. Eventually, God brought a famine to the land, and because the people were starving, Jacob sent his sons down to Egypt to seek relief from the Egyptian storehouses, which ironically had been prepared through the supervision of Joseph, who had been freed from prison and elevated to the office of prime minister of Egypt.

In that poignant moment of the encounter between Joseph and his brothers, when the brothers suddenly recognized Joseph, they were terrified. They feared his vengeance upon them. Joseph, however, shocked them with his mercy. He understood that their intent had been evil. They had had a purpose in mind when they acted. They had sinfully chosen to deliver Joseph into the hands of those Midianite traders, and they were responsible for that. But beyond their decision, beyond their choice stood the sovereignty of God and His providence. As Joseph explained to them, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). Even in the wicked choices of Joseph’s brothers, God was at work to bring His perfect counsel to pass in human history.

That is what we believe if we are Christians. Our world view affirms a divine Providence who governs human history. He doesn’t just govern the orbits of the planets. He is sovereign over everything. That’s the idea that defines our whole understanding of human life, our whole understanding of economics, our whole understanding of government, our whole understanding of education. That concept is on a collision course with every philosophy in human history that would deny the sovereignty of God over human life.