"God is able to do what He pleases with whomever He chooses whenever He wishes." (Chuck Swindoll) And I would add, no matter how much they whine. Satan attacked Job’s health, wealth and family, using sickness, human atrocities and natural disasters, but could do absolutely nothing without preapproval from God. Job knew it was God who had loosened the leash of satan, and looked past the delivery truck to the one who owns the truck: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away…Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not accept evil…Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” Although satan is referred to as the ruler or god of this world, prince of the air and cosmic power over darkness, he is a pretender to an imagined throne where God establishes the scope and limits of all his activity; he cannot even sneeze without permission. During our Saviors’ temptation satan offered to give Him authority over all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would worship him. Strictly speaking this is true for sovereignty putting them self into subjection to someone transfers their sovereignty. But the “old liar” is lying here. He did not have the authority to give authority over the kingdoms of the world to anyone, only to take this authority from Jesus if Jesus chose to relinquish it in submission. For scripture repeatedly tells us God rules and controls the kings and kingdoms of man who are like grasshoppers to Him, and predetermines the times and boundaries of nations. Satan is real and full of hate, but he is not sovereign over anything.
God is sovereign over all satan’s power including his delegated world rule, angels/demons/evil spirits, sickness and disease causing power, life-taking power, mind-blinding power, persecution, temptations to sin, strongholds and spiritual bondage, hand in natural disasters, and use of nature and the earth. Satan was decommissioned as an archangel, cursed as a serpent and imprisoned on earth as the pseudo-prince of a temporary world system, powerlessly awaiting eternal doom. His domain is the air, the polluted atmosphere surrounding the earth, and his greatest defeat was at his own hands when he crucified the Lord exactly in accordance with God’s pre-creation predestined plans. The idea satan has dominion over the earth is wrong. “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein”: All power, dominion and authority have been given to the Son, who is, even now, seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies, “far above all principality and power and might and dominion … in this age … God having put all things under His feet.” It’s a completed fact! The roaring lion is still walking about “seeking whom he may devour.” He has to “seek whom he may” attack for he cannot attack without God’s permission, the divine “hedge” is still in place. God is sovereign over all that was, is, and is to come. Nothing escapes His sovereignty, nothing is left to chance, and nothing is left to satan! Failure to recognize God’s sovereignty creates a dichotomous quagmire as we attempt to rationalize responsibility for God’s speed bumps, ignoring the simple truth that God allows both good and evil. God has the ball, no one can steal it, and He never fumbles.
SOVEREIGNTY DEFINES GOD
AND CONFRONTS OUR SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY
Scripture References: Job 1:21-22, 2:10, 1:8-12; Lk. 4:5-7; Dan. 2:20-21, 4:17; Proverbs 21:1, 16:33; Ps. 2:2-4, 33:10-11; Acts 17:25-26; Rev. 1:5; Matt. 8:29-32; Mk. 1:27; Lk. 13:16; Ex. 4:11; Job 2:4-10; Deut. 32:39; 1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Cor. 4:4-6; 1 Peter 3:17; Lk. 22:52-53; Jn. 10:17-18; Lk. 22:3-4; Acts 1:16, 2:23; Lk. 22:31-32, 2 Tim. 2:24-26; 2 Cor. 10:4-5; Job 1:12,16,18-19, 21; Mk.4:9; James 5:11; Ps. 135:5-7; John 1:17, 2:10, 4:6-7; Ex. 7-10; Ps. 24:1; Job 42:11; 1Sam. 2:8b; 1 Peter 3:22; 1 Peter 5:11; Lk. 22:31; Dan. 4:34b-35; Isa. 46:10; Lam. 3:37-38; Amos 3:6b; Proverbs 19:21, 16:33; Ps. 135:6; Eph. 1:11, 20-23; 1 Peter 5:8-9; Rom. 16:20; Acts 2:36; Ps. 139:16b; 1 Peter 4:11; Jude 24-25; Rev. 1:6; Heb. 1:3, 10-12; Matt. 28:18; Rev.13:8; 1 Tim. 6:15; 1 Chron. 29:12; Job 23:13;; Acts 4:27-28; Jn. 19: 10-11; Is. 40:22-24, 43:13, 45:6-7; Ps. 103:19; Job 42:2; ( Ps. 8:4-6; 1 Cor. 15:24-28; Eph. 1:20-23; Heb. 2:5-10, 14 taken together) Is. 45:6-7; Ecc. 7:13-14
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