Perhaps the least loved truth in our day, is the one on which all existence hangs: the sovereignty of God. Our age embraces the so-called freedom of our own will. We are masters of our own destiny, sealers of our own fate, breakers of boundaries and people who are quick to question and pass judgement on past institutions and ideologies.
No wonder we take so many selfies and use them as the backdrop for our latest words of wisdom. Just make sure you don't forget to hash tag your name at the bottom so your unequalled knowledge and wit will be forever recorded in the expansive vault of internet ideology. One day someone might compile all you left behind and you may go down in history as being famous for your ability to write a book without ever having read one yourself.
For all the poets amongst us, I am sure if we were to write our own psalms like King David they would probably sound a little something like this; "What is God, that we are mindful of Him? Or the Son of God, that we should remember Him?"
Yes the last days will see an exponential increase of knowledge, and knowledge puffs up. We are bloated with pride. Forgive me for despising this new breed of preachers who openly label themselves as 'Atheistic Theists'. Professional doubters who love to write and teach on the liberating power of forsaking the Church and embracing your unbelief.
A self-absorbed culture
It is now hip for young parents to sit with their young children in a café on a Sunday morning, and as they watch the sunrise through designer sunglasses, they silently pray and thank God that they know Him well enough to shun church gatherings with those more ignorant and less satisfied than themselves.
One day your children will grow up and remember all the knowledge of God you passed on to them while silently meditating over your latte. I am sure when your son comes of age and marries his boyfriend he will remember to share that same knowledge with his pet cat.
You see, no matter what sort of theme you embrace for life, and whether churched or unchurched, Christian or pagan, any contention we have with God's absolute sovereignty exposes our belief in our own sovereignty, and there can only be one Sovereign!
The humbling examples from Scripture
Some of the most startling revelations in Scripture concern the moments when God reveals his sovereign glory to men. We see the humbling of great King Nebuchadnezzar who, at the very height of His kingdom and power, was driven out of his kingdom by God, given a spirit of insanity and made like a wild beast at His hand. All this so at the end he might know that 'The Most High rules over the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He pleases.' (Daniel chapter 4).
We can look at Job and his friends, who in the midst of Job's suffering went through every sermon, doctrine and revelation they (and we) had ever heard, looking for an explanation on what 'sovereign' Job had done to allow such suffering in his life! The assumption being that God does nothing without a humanly reasonable explanation.
Of course one visitation from God and Job immediately saw that God has every right to grind to dust those vessels which he made, whether they be His most prized or not! And what a wonderful revelation, that He whom God crushed, must—in his suffering—pray for and redeem those friends who began to despise their brother and esteemed him smitten by God! Sound familiar?
It is interesting that those who cling most tightly to their right to choose what they will, are those who refuse to believe in a God who allows suffering. Yet in the same way we see the height of love in the depths of tragedy, (do we ever ask movie makers and novelists why they allowed suffering in their creation?) So too there are aspects of God's sovereignty that cannot be known without deep suffering.
The day that Satan stood against David to make him number Israel, as if his kingship had something to do with the strength and number of God's people, is the day God wiped out seventy thousand of them. God gave each individual Israelite life, and He had the right to take away each individual's life. David was crushed. When God reveals His sovereign power there is no balanced or gentle way to do it. It crushes completely.
The crushing reality of God
As Christians, there is that place where we can rejoice in suffering, not because we are sadists, but because perhaps there is no other thing through which we gain more knowledge of God and union with His ways than the trials of intense suffering. In fact the anointing of the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord upon a man will flow all the more freely as he is crushed.
In all our pursuit of knowledge, and absorption of information, we have not yet achieved the true knowledge of God. Brother John who sits in the café on Sunday drinking six dollar lattes with his well paying job, has scorned his faithful but self-righteous ignorant friend still going to church and praising God in the midst of his cancer and financial woes. You modern atheistic theists are miserable comforters! Why can't you just go to church and sit in silence with your suffering brother rather than dish out another doctrine from your latte and laptop!
As for society, the more knowledgeable we have become, the more advanced, and the more proud of our own efforts and achievements has left us in a state of becoming more hateful and resentful of any being who is claimed to have greater power than us. This attitude will only serve to quicken our encounter with the sovereign rule and power of God over all. This will not happen without an utter crushing.
The greater the pride, the greater the fall. Society is in for a shock. Better to receive the pardon and intercession of the suffering servant, than throw your pebbles at the God who crushed Him.
Joshua Robbie is currently serving the Lord under Pastors Ronnie and Shirley Naidoo of KZN Celebration Centre in Tongaat South Africa. He and His wife Rene' moved from Australia to South Africa in April 2016. Their desire is to help in whatever way they can so that the Church can become all that God has purposed her to be. Josh also enjoys sports such as surfing, basketball and boxing.
Josh Robbie's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/josh-robbie.html