9781433573606-epdf

The God Who Reigns over the Coronavirus
ALL-PERVASIVE SOVEREIGNTY
Isaiah teaches that this is part of the very essence of what
it means to be God:
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose.” (Isa. 46:9–10)
To be God is to cause his own counsel to stand—always.
God does not just declare which future events will happen;
he makes them happen. He speaks his word, and then he
adds, “I am watching over my word to perform it” (Jer. 1:12).
Which means, as Job learned from hard experience, “I
know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of
yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Or as Nebuchadnezzar
learned from his merciful humiliation:
All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of
heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
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