Sovereignty and Goodness

Have you seen the view of God that Isaiah has? As we got to around chapter 40, the look at God's sovereignty really began to intensify. He is the One "declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that have not been done" (46:10). That section of Isaiah is one of the best in the Bible for displaying the sovereignness of God. He moves all things according to His plans and purposes.

And He is good.

Hard to believe in a world full of sin, isn't it sometimes? God being both fully good and kind, and yet fully in control and power-full. Does that challenge you? I know it challenges me. It seems easy to say it is one or the other, at least logically. If God is good, then certainly He cannot do anything He wants because sin exists, and He can't like sin. Or God is in full control, but doesn't really dislike sin all that much. The first one seems much more common in the modern U.S.

But Isaiah shows us that He is in fact completely sovereign. And at the same time, His constant pleadings with Israel and later with us display that He is good too. And since He does not sin nor can He, we must conclude that He is fully good. And fully in control. Whether that makes good sense to us logically--or not. I fall on the "or not" side. I don't understand, but I believe. I don't understand fully, at least. But I grow in grace and knowledge as you do, and so we get to know Him better.

It is really good He gave us a Bible to find Him out, isn't it?!