The sovereignty of God

The sovereignty of God is that golden sceptre in his hand by which he will make all bow, either by his word or by his works, by his mercies or by his judgements "Spurgen"

Many Christians can attest to the earth-shattering impact of understanding God's sovereignty. Similar testimony may be found throughout the Bible, with possibly the most significant being the prophet Isaiah's recounting of his transformational meeting with the Lord God. If Paul in the New Testament is most often linked with the doctrine of God's sovereignty, then Isaiah in the Old Testament must be Paul's Old Testament equivalent. How did Isaiah come to believe in God's absolute power, and how did that belief shape the rest of his life? What does Isaiah say in response to the query, "What's so great about God's sovereignty?"
Does God's absolute power change anything? It was crucially important to Isaiah. We may learn four lessons from his reaction to God's sovereign lordship that will shape our own faith as it is rooted in the biblical picture of God's sovereign grace.

Isaiah's life began to alter the moment he saw the Lord enthroned. A willingness to serve was the first sign that he understood God was in control: "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?'" Isaiah 6:8 recounts how I responded, "Here am I; send me." We don't know what Isaiah was thinking before he had this vision, but we do know what he was thinking just after he had it. After beholding the majesty of God, he shouted, "Here I am!" Just send it my way.
Since God is the ultimate ruler, serving Him is the highest honour possible. When we stand in awe of God, our interest in everything else fades. The prophetic calling is not given to everyone. Carpenters, attorneys, surgeons, sound engineers, and even trash guys are among the professions God invites individuals to serve in. But for those who have experienced God's absolute rule, every task becomes a chance to further His kingdom. When we consider the magnitude of our God, the extent of His absolute authority over all things, and the splendour of His kingdom, we are motivated to live for His glory. The freshly anointed Isaiah heard God ask, "Whom shall I send?" and responded, "Here am I!" Isaiah did not yet know what work God had in mind for him. Let me go. If we could just see a fraction of what Jesus did, we too would serve this wonderful Lord despite the challenges we would face.
Despite their lack of faith in God's absolute sovereignty, many people remain devoted Christians. However, a significant distinction exists. Those who behold the Lord in His majesty are compelled by a deep sense of duty to serve Him. Their greatest joy comes from serving God. The glory of the God they serve is more important than any accomplishments they may make or make possible. Getting selected to participate on this squad is the greatest thrill conceivable, especially for those who are so undeserving, like when small boys divide up into teams on the playground. This is me! Those who behold God's majesty with their own eyes not only respond with the words "Send me," but they also pleasure in doing so. They desire to be counted among those who bring praise to God because they know that praise to God is inevitable.
Another indicator of God-awareness in this verse is a meek and trusting submission to God's will. The awestruck prophet Isaiah recoiled from God's shocking depiction of what God desired Isaiah to undertake at the end of chapter 6:
And he replied, "Go, and tell those people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not comprehend; keep on seeing, but do not see.' Don't let these people see what needs to be seen, hear what needs to be heard, comprehend what needs to be understood, turn around, and be cured; instead, make their hearts dull, their ears heavy, and their eyes blind. The question then arose: "How long, O Lord?" (Isa. 6:9-11)
The purpose of Isaiah's mission was to harden attitudes in the city of Jerusalem. Because God initially wanted to cleanse and only then to deliver His people, his ministry would create calluses before judgement. Isaiah seems to swallow a cry at this order, yet he does so without grumbling or disputing his Sovereign's wisdom. His only request was a simple, "How long, O Lord?" The prophet must have been stunned by the response:
And he answered, "Until towns lay barren without inhabitant, and dwellings without inhabitants, and the country is a desolate waste, and the Lord drives people from it a great distance, and the abandoned areas are many in the middle of it. And despite a tenth remain in it, it will be burnt once again like the stump of a terebinth or oak that has been cut down. Its base represents the sacred seed. (Isa. 6:11-13)
Surely Isaiah's worry for the city of Jerusalem after Uzziah's death prompted him to visit the temple. After talking to the real Sovereign, he discovered even more terrifying things to be afraid of. However, Isaiah stands out among the other prominent prophets because he never grumbled. A savior-God who is completely in charge of everything had appeared to him. It would be a hardening ministry if that was what God had in mind for him. Isaiah didn't think for a second that he could outsmart the Lord of Hosts. If the Lord, through a faithful ministry, were to prune His church down to a mere holy seed's stump, then Isaiah would devote his life to that remnant.
A comparable faith in God's salvific sovereignty would lead us to obey God's Word with awe and confidence. When we endure adversity without straying from God's law, we may look to God's sovereignty and trust that underlying every event is a decree of wonderful grace. We are not going to let the opposition we experience in the world or inside the church deter us from our mission. A God who rules over all and causes everything to happen as He wants it to is wise and worthy of our confidence and obedience. I will wait for the Lord, who has hidden his face from the children of Israel," Isaiah would later proclaim. I shall rely on him (NIV: Isaiah 8:17).
Even though the events of chapters 6 and 7 are separated by over a decade, a third distinguishing feature of Isaiah's mission emerges in the next paragraph. The rule of Jotham, Uzziah's son and successor, came to an end. It was the beginning of a period of decline. Ahaz, Jotham's successor, however, ushered in a time of open rebellion against God.
The immediate precipitating event was an invasion of Judah by Israel and its northern neighbour, Aram. Ahaz, who didn't believe, started looking for an earthly friend to save the day, even if it meant bringing his people into idolatry. Assyria, a rising force to his opponents' north, was his top pick. But God dispatched Isaiah to stand before this king and preach a message:
Tell him, "Be careful, be tranquil, worry not, and don't let your heart be faint because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands, at the intense rage of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. For this reason the Lord God says, "It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass, that Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, "Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it." (Isa. 7:4-7)
The vision Isaiah had seen was applied to Ahaz in God's message to him: the powerful kings of Israel and Aram were not the true rulers of their respective countries. The Lord, who rules over all, is the actual Sovereign. According to Isaiah, who was speaking to King Ahaz, "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all" (Isa. 7:9) is a classic appeal to faith.
To King Ahaz, a ruler endowed with all the power of earth, God sent Isaiah with this message.
You're fooling yourself if you don't think this was a terrifying experience. The idea of bringing up God at work amongst friends is enough to make most of us quake in our boots, let alone presenting an ultimatum to a monarch. But that's the difference that being witness to God's absolute dominion creates. Whatever apprehension Isaiah may have had of King Ahaz was outweighed by his awe of the Almighty God.
Knowing that God is in control gives us a holy confidence to face the world and its authorities. Isaiah's value was in his ability to deliver the Lord's Word, even the word of judgement, to a corrupt and potentially violent culture. "Ah, guilty country," he cried in the prologue, "a people loaded with iniquity, progeny of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They are completely alienated from God because they have rejected the Lord and mocked the Holy One of Israel (Isa. I realise that this topic probably wouldn't attract many listeners in a modern stadium. It might not put a church on the list of fast-growing churches. Preaching God's judgement on an age as corrupt as ours, however, is a definite indicator that the one speaking has witnessed God's sovereignty.
Last but not least, a definite sign that Isaiah had seen the Lord in His sovereign grandeur is his complete dependence on God's sovereign, rescuing grace.
The prophecy Isaiah made to King Ahaz demonstrates this. To revive Ahaz's faith, Isaiah recommended this sign. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14) was a sign that was stupid to the world but wonderful in God's sight. The prophet Isaiah held up the virgin who would become pregnant as the greatest example of God's sovereign grace in the face of Ahaz's apostate disbelief.
Isaiah later interpreted the birth of a child from a barren woman as a symbol of God's mercy (Isa. 54:1). A bare womb is a symbol of futile human effort. A virgin's womb, on the other hand, suggests an uncultivated field. Jesus Christ, the Saviour, was born in that womb. It's easy to see how little value someone like Ahaz would have placed on the birth of a baby as a cause to put his confidence in God to solve his difficulties, just as many people today regard the preaching of the gospel to be "foolishness." However, the power of God is at work in the birth of the divinely incarnate infant and in the proclamation of His gospel to this day.
This serves as a reminder that only the birth of a son to a virgin can guarantee the success of a gospel mission. How naive of the rest of the world! However, she already has. And the grace miracle is still happening now. Nothing else will ever motivate us to work in the fields of prayer and straightforward Bible teaching, much alone the fields of humility, longsuffering, self-denial, and pure obedience to God, if this doesn't. Isaiah's symbol of the virgin birth cautions us against placing our faith in human knowledge while also warning us against giving up in the face of adversity or failure. For if we, like Isaiah, catch a glimpse of God's sovereign glory, especially in the salvation of sinners, we will consider it a great honour to serve the Lord who, by His sovereign grace, conceived and delivered the Saviour of the world from the womb of a virgin.