Shaun Groves
I’m substitute teaching Genesis 15 this Sunday at my home church. When I study to teach I use quite a few sources and never know which ones God will use to get through my busy head and slow heart.
This week a sermon by John Piper, a commentary by Walter Brueggemann and a bible study by Beth Moore have provided me not only the greatest insight and understanding but have impacted me the most personally. For instance…
Chapter 15 of Genesis begins by saying “After this…”
So I backed up to see what “this” was and rediscovered a war, communion with bread and wine and a priest, and the naming of God – for the first time in scripture – God Most High. El Elyon.
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.And blessed be God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.” – Genesis 14:19-20
This name is also used in Daniel 4:17 & Psalm 21:7.
‘The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men.’ – Daniel 4:17
For the king trusts in the LORD;
through the unfailing love of the Most High
he will not be shaken.
Beth Moore does the best job of convincingly connecting the sovereignty of God over mankind with the love of God for mankind. Both God’s sovereignty and love, she argues, are wrapped up in the name Elyon – Most High.
You might consider asking [God] why His sovereignty scares or unsettles you. Perhaps the reason is a missing bookend on one side of the volumes you know about God Most High. Recall Psalm 21:7. God’s sovereignty can terrify us only to the extent that we are uncertain of His love. You and I are never childish or unwise to remind ourselves daily how much God loves us. Only to the extent that we abide in His love can we be comforted by His sovereignty. – Beth Moore, The Patriarchs
Chew on that a while. I have.
Howard Hendricks, a Texan and theologian (in that order), once said something like When someone seems to be balanced, they’re likely just passing through the middle on their way to the other extreme. That seems particularly relevant when I think about relating to God as either stoic sovereign or crownless lover.
I’ve had moments of balance between the two but most days I’ve basked in God’s love without submitting to his rule in my life or I’ve let him rule over me without loving me. I’ve seen God both as a parent who can’t say no and as a tyrant who has no lap. But rarely am I in the middle worshiping God Most High who can be trusted to rule over me because of His great love for me.
Is your view of God balanced or do you relate to him right now as more loving or sovereign?
Johanna says:
I love this. Yes. We must trust in His sovereignty because He loves us. It’s always been easier for me to accept that He loves me than it has been to trust that He knows best. It seems silly & backward when I write it out, but it’s true.
That Beth Moore. She’s a good one.
Lindsay @ Not2Us says:
I love this thought and revelation. I find myself pretty squarely balanced in this area of my worship/service, and I’m nearly certain it’s because my earthly Daddy gave me *such* a clear picture of this aspect of God’s character.
My Daddy loved me with all of his heart all of the time. He never, ever made me doubt that…ever. On the other hand? I knew better (WAY better) than to disobey what my Daddy has told me. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t test those boundaries a times. Each time I tested, I learned, in striking clarity, exactly how sovereign Daddy was over my life at that time. 🙂
As an adult, these experiences from my childhood have helped me understand my relationship with God in a profound way.
Kelly @ Love Well says:
Good stuff, Shaun. I think I’m most comfortable with his love, because that’s the first God I knew. My childhood was filled with flannelgraph and musty Sunday school rooms and graham cracker snacks. But I also absorbed that God loved me then. It’s foundational.
But as I’ve grown, I’ve come to appreciate and even cling to God’s sovereignty. It’s like an anchor for my soul when I’m hit by the tsumanis of life. If God isn’t in control, I have no security.
MainlineMom says:
Wow, great post. Very good question. I have never really seen myself choosing to sit with one extreme or the other, but since the quote about balance is probably correct I must have some preference. I think I tend towards God’s sovereignty…I dwell on that concept a LOT…so I am probably missing his love somehow. I’m a Calvinist and I am in love with God’s sovereignty, but it does not scare me, it comforts me. Greatly. Beth Moore does seem to mention it a lot, which may be why I like her so much.
Heather EV says:
To answer the question, I seem to jerk violently from one extreme to the other.
Rarely is it a balanced view of God because His sovereignty and love for me seem so impossible to reconcile.
He is sovereign, so He must hate it when I mess up and wish me gone.
He is loving, so He must not know everything bad or not be able to control the things that happen to me.
But every once in a while, I look and see the two come together and it’s a beautiful thing.
Shaun Groves says:
Thanks for your honesty, Heather. I’m right there with you…a little jerky. ; )
Shayne says:
If I’m really honest…I view Him mostly/purely on the sovereign side.
Pitifully few times in my life have I allowed myself to just bask in His love.
It’s something to ponder.
MJ says:
Judgemental and punishing…look out! I guess that makes Him sovereign and loving?
Jason says:
Right now I am unbalanced. Working through some life issues that involve my will vs His.
Ronne says:
How I long to see both sides of God equally, and how I miserably fail at it. I tend toward the “loving” side since that’s the piece I find so hard to comprehend. But I know that His love without His sovereignty reduces Him to a powerless powderpuff of a Creator. And I want to know Him as the Lord God ALL-Mighty who began a good work in me and is faithful – and fearless – to complete it, so I will glorify Him fully.
mom of M&MS says:
I am that grumbling, child, who loves to cling to the Father that loves me, and has no clue that the rest is for my own good??? But my faith is childlike too, does that count??? 🙂
Meredith Dunn says:
I really wish I was a better liar because then I could say “I’m confident of His love for me everyday.” Truth is, I’m convinced of His sovereignty everyday, but rarely correlate that to His love for me.
I once heard a preacher say that God’s soverignty, His ability to be glorified no matter the circumstance, can be summed up this way: “You will either be the object of His grace, or the subject of His wrath.” I believe this in large part. The thing is, I am so concerned with being the object of His grace, I forget that His grace is available because of His love– without His love, His grace would be void.
Vicki Small says:
My father told me, often, when I was young, that I must fear God…and boy, did I! That fear has influenced my response to Him so many times, even through mid-life and to very recent years.
Despite that, I did begin to learn and grasp the absolutely, totally, no-exceptions, unconditional nature of His love for me, in my late 20’s. But sovereignty has come much later, and with it have come bits of the fear, as if “sovereign” equates with anger and judgment. In the past year, though, I’ve been far more aware of and open to His discipline and His guidance as *expressions of His great love for me*.
I have prayed many times for Him to transform me into a woman with a quiet spirit and a love for whoever is in front of me. Neither comes naturally, so I know well that He has much work to do in me. I am finally ready to submit to Him…much as Edward had to submit to Aslan in Dawn Treader, to get that dragon skin off of him.