Chapter Seven: God’s Sovereignty and Our Responsibility
GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AND OUR RESPONSIBILITY
But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
NEHEMIAH 4:9
As we have examined the Scriptures to see what they teach us about the sovereignty of God, I have occasionally injected a word of caution about the dangers of misusing or abusing the teaching of His sovereignty. In this chapter, we want to address that problem in greater detail lest we unconsciously begin to think that God’s sovereignty negates any responsibility of ours to live responsible and prudent lives.
There is an old story about a man who carried the doctrine of God’s sovereignty to such an extreme that he drifted into a sort of divine fatalism. One day, walking down a flight of stairs, he carelessly stumbled and fell headlong to the bottom of the staircase. Picking himself up, he gingerly felt his bruises and said to himself, “Well, I’m glad that one is over.”
You and I, if we are not careful, can, like the foolish man in the story, drift into a fatalistic attitude about the sovereignty of God. A student who fails an important exam tries to excuse himself by saying, “Well, God is sovereign, and He determined that I should fail that exam.” A driver can cause an auto accident and, in his own mind, evade his carelessness by attributing the accident to the sovereignty of God. Obviously both attitudes are unbiblical and foolish, yet we can easily drift into them.
SOVEREIGNTY AND PRAYER
In the last chapter we looked at God’s sovereign control over the weather and other forces of nature. As a frequent air traveler, I have been affected many times by weather unsuitable for flying. One afternoon, driving home in a snowstorm, I was reflecting on the fact that our airport was closed because of the storm and that I was scheduled to leave the next morning to speak at a weekend conference. But I said to myself and to God, “God, I know that You are in control of this storm, and You are also in control of the conference I am to speak at. If you want me to be at that conference tomorrow night, You will move this storm out so our airport can reopen tomorrow morning. I’m not going to be anxious about it.”
Now, I have to admit that such an attitude of refusing to be anxious was progress for me in coping with adverse flying weather. After arriving home, I announced to my wife my decision not to be anxious about whether I would be able to leave on schedule the following morning. She looked at me with a smile and said, “Don’t be anxious, but pray about it.”
I thought to myself, How foolish I was. I had been concentrating so strongly on God’s sovereignty over the weather that I completely neglected His express command to pray. He does indeed say to us, “Do not be anxious about anything,” but then immediately follows that with, “but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).
God was certainly in sovereign control of the snowstorm that had closed our airport. But the knowledge of His sovereignty is meant to be an encouragement to pray, not an excuse to lapse into a sort of pious fatalism.
The fourth chapter of Acts tells about Peter and John being threatened by the Jewish Sanhedrin and commanded not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. When Peter and John reported this to the other believers, they raised their voices together in prayer:
“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. . . . They [Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and Jews] did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”
ACTS 4:24, 28-29
The disciples believed in the sovereignty of God. But God’s sovereignty to them was a reason and an encouragement to pray. They believed because God was sovereign He was able to answer their prayers. They acknowledged God’s sovereign purpose in events past (for example, the Crucifixion), but they did not presume to know the divine decree about future events. They only knew Christ had commanded them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So they prayed, confident that the sovereign God, who had commanded them to be witnesses, was able to clear away the obstacles to their obedience.
Prayer assumes the sovereignty of God. If God is not sovereign, we have no assurance that He is able to answer our prayers. Our prayers would become nothing more than wishes. But while God’s sovereignty, along with His wisdom and love, is the foundation of our trust in Him, prayer is the expression of that trust.
The Puritan preacher Thomas Lye, in a sermon entitled “How Are We to Live by Faith on Divine Providence?” said, “As prayer without faith is but a beating of the air, so trust without prayer [is] but a presumptuous bravado. He that promises to give, and bids us trust his promises, commands us to pray, and expects obedience to his commands. He will give, but not without our asking.”[1]
The apostle Paul, while imprisoned in Rome, wrote to his friend Philemon, “Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers” (Philemon 1:22). Paul did not presume to know God’s secret will. He hoped to be restored. He did not say, “I will be restored.” But he did know that God in His sovereignty was well able to effect his release, so he asked Philemon to pray. Prayer was the expression of his confidence in the sovereignty of God.
John Flavel was another Puritan preacher and a prolific writer (six volumes of collected works). He wrote a classic treatise entitled The Mystery of Providence, first published in 1678.[2] It is instructive to note that Flavel begins this treatise on the sovereign providence of God with a discourse on Psalm 57:2, “I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me.” That is, Flavel says to us, because God is sovereign, we should pray. God’s sovereignty does not negate our responsibility to pray, but rather makes it possible to pray with confidence.
SOVEREIGNTY AND PRUDENCE
Just as God’s sovereignty does not set aside our responsibility to pray, it also does not negate our responsibility to act prudently. To act prudently, in this context, means to use all legitimate, biblical means at our disposal to avoid harm to ourselves or others and to bring about what we believe to be the right course of events.
An illustration of using all proper means to avoid harm is seen in the life of David as he continually evaded Saul while Saul was determined to kill him. David had already been anointed to succeed Saul as king (see 1 Samuel 16:13). And as we have just seen in Psalm 57:2, David was confident that God would fulfill His purpose for him. Yet David took all the precautions he could to avoid being killed by Saul. He did not presume upon the sovereignty of God but rather acted prudently in dependence upon God to bless his efforts.
We see in Paul’s life an illustration of prudent action to bring about the right course of events. The story involves Paul’s trip to Rome and the shipwreck that occurred on the island of Malta, recorded in Acts 27. After many days of being battered by a storm of hurricane force, and when everyone had given up all hope of being saved, Paul stood before them and said:
But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.” So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island. ACTS 27:22-26
Paul not only trusted in the sovereignty of God, he had an express revelation from heaven that no life would be lost in the shipwreck. Yet some time later, when he saw the sailors trying to escape from the ship with the lifeboat, he said to the Roman centurion, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved” (Acts 27:31). Paul apparently realized that the presence of the skilled sailors was necessary for the safety of the passengers, even at that point. Therefore, he took prudent action to bring about that which God by divine revelation had already promised would certainly come to pass. He did not confuse God’s sovereignty with his responsibility to act prudently.
Paul did not consider God’s sovereign purpose a reason to neglect his duty even though, in that instance, God’s purpose had been revealed to him by an angel from heaven. In our circumstances today, we do not know what God’s sovereign purpose is in a specific situation. We should be even more aware not to use God’s sovereignty as an excuse to shirk the duties that He has commanded in the Scriptures. God usually works through means, and He intends that we use the means He has placed at our disposal.
When Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, he and his people faced the threat of an armed attack from their enemies (see Nehemiah 4:7-8). Nehemiah’s response was to pray and post a guard—prayer and prudence (see verse 9). In addition the text says, “From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor.” Not only that but, “Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked” (verses 16-18).
Nehemiah trusted in the sovereignty of God. He said, “Our God will fight for us!” (verse 20). But he also used all available means, believing that God in His sovereignty would bless those means.
One of the most basic means of prudence that God has given to us is prayer. We must not only pray for His overruling providence in our lives as David did (see Psalm 57:2), but we must also pray for wisdom to rightly understand our circumstances and use the means He has given us. When the Gibeonites sought to deceive Joshua and the men of Israel, they came with worn clothing and dried-out bread, pretending to have come from far away. The Scripture says, “The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD” (Joshua 9:14). As a result they were deceived by the Gibeonites and made a treaty with them, when they should have destroyed them. They were not prudent because they did not pray and ask God for wisdom and insight to understand the situation.
Another means of prudence God has given us is the opportunity to seek wise and godly counsel. Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” However, Proverbs 16:9 tells us that a person’s plans succeed only within the sovereign will of God. All the wise counsel in the world cannot enable our plans to succeed contrary to the sovereign will of God. But God uses the wise counsel of others to bring our plans into line with His sovereign will. Once again, we must not confuse duty—in this case, to seek wise counsel—with God’s sovereign will.
PRAYER AND PRUDENCE
Earlier, I referred briefly to Nehemiah’s use of prayer and prudence, “But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat” (Nehemiah 4:9). Prayer is the acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty and of our dependence upon Him to act on our behalf. Prudence is the acknowledgment of our responsibility to use all legitimate means. We must not separate these two. We see this beautifully illustrated for us in the following passage of Scripture:
The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh had 44,760 men ready for military service—able-bodied men who could handle shield and sword, who could use a bow, and who were trained for battle. They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.
1 CHRONICLES 5:18-20
The warriors described in this passage were able-bodied and well-trained. They were prudent; they had taken all precautions to be able to fight when they needed to. But they did not trust in their ability and training. They cried out to God, and He answered their prayers because they trusted in Him. God sovereignly intervened. He handed all their enemies over to them because they prayed.
All of our plans, all of our efforts, and all of our prudence are of no avail unless God prospers those means. Psalm 127:1 says,
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
In this passage there is the concept of both offensive and defensive efforts—of both building for progress and watching against destruction. In a sense, the verse sums up all of our responsibilities in life. Whether it be in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual, we should always be building and watching. And Psalm 127:1 says none of those efforts will prosper unless God intervenes in them.
Note how strongly the psalmist described the necessity of God’s intervention in our efforts. He does not say, “Unless God blesses or helps the builders and the watchmen, their efforts are in vain.” Rather he speaks in terms of God Himself building the house and watching over the city. At the same time, there is, of course, no suggestion in the text that God replaces the builders and the watchmen. The obvious meaning is that in every respect we are dependent upon God to enable us and prosper our efforts.
We must depend upon God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We must, to the same degree, depend on Him to enable us to do what we must do for ourselves. The farmer must use all of his skills, experience, and resources to produce a harvest. Yet he is utterly dependent upon forces outside of himself. Those forces of nature—moisture, insects, sun—are, as we have already seen, under the direct sovereign control of God. The farmer is dependent upon God to control nature so that his crop will grow. But he is just as dependent upon God to enable him to plow, plant, fertilize, and cultivate properly. From where did he get his skills, his ability to learn from his experience, the financial resources to buy the equipment and fertilizer he uses? Where does even his physical strength to do his tasks come from? Are not all these things from the hand of God who “gives all men life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25)? In every respect, we are utterly dependent upon God.
There are times when we can do nothing, and there are times when we must work. In both instances we are equally dependent upon God. When the Israelites were in the desert, they were consciously dependent upon God for both food and water. Moses said to them, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna . . . to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3). The Israelites had to learn that they could not simply dig into their food supplies to eat whenever they desired. God reduced them to a conscious dependence upon His daily provision.
The time would come, however, when they would be in “a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing” (Deuteronomy 8:9). Then, Moses warned them, they were not to trust in their own ability as farmers, saying to themselves, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” Rather he warned them to “remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Sometimes, God reduces us to a conscious, utter dependence upon Him. A loved one is desperately ill, beyond the expertise and skill of medical service. Unemployment has persisted to the point that the cupboard is bare and no job prospects are in sight. At such times we readily recognize our dependence and cry out to God for His intervention. But we are just as dependent on God when the physician diagnoses a routine illness and prescribes a successful medication. We are just as dependent when the paycheck comes regularly and all our material needs are met.
At the same time we are responsible. The Bible never allows us to use our utter dependence on God as an excuse for indolence. Ecclesiastes 10:18 says, “If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks.” And again, “A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing” (Proverbs 20:4). We are absolutely dependent upon God, but, at the same time, we are responsible to diligently use whatever means are appropriate for the occasion.
The man in our story at the beginning of the chapter should have been more careful walking down the stairs. He might have paid attention to the “please use the handrail” notice. He cannot blame a divine fatalism for his fall. Neither can the student who fails her exam, nor the worker who loses his job for lack of diligence, nor the person who becomes ill because of poor health habits. Our duty is found in the revealed will of God in the Scriptures. Our trust must be in the sovereign will of God, as He works in the ordinary circumstances of our daily lives for our good and His glory.
There is no conflict between trusting God and accepting our responsibility. Thomas Lye, the Puritan preacher quoted earlier in the chapter, said, “Trust . . . [uses] such means as God prescribes for the bringing about his appointed end. . . . God’s means are to be used, as well as God’s blessing to be expected.”[3]
And Alexander Carson made a similar observation when he said, “Let us learn . . . that as God has promised to protect us and provide for us, it is through the means of his appointment, vigilance, prudence, and industry, that we are to look for these blessings.”[4]
OUR FAILURES AND GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY
We have seen that God’s sovereignty does not do away with our duty to act responsibly and prudently on all occasions. But what about the other side of the question? Does failure on our part to act prudently frustrate the sovereign plan of God? The Scriptures never indicate that God is frustrated to any degree by our failure to act as we should. In His infinite wisdom, God’s sovereign plan includes our failures and even our sins.
When Mordecai asked Queen Esther to intercede with King Xerxes on behalf of the Jews, she demurred with the explanation that she could enter the king’s presence unbidden only on the threat of death (see Esther 4:10-11). However, Mordecai sent word back to her, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). The key phrase in Mordecai’s response is “relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.”
God, in His infinite wisdom and resources, was not limited to Esther’s response. The options available to God to bring about deliverance for the Jews were as infinite as His wisdom and power. He literally did not need Esther’s cooperation. But in this instance, He chose to use her. Mordecai’s closing argument to Esther, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” assumes that God uses people and means to accomplish His sovereign purpose.
As subsequent events proved, God had indeed raised up Esther to accomplish His purpose. But He could just as easily have raised up someone else or used an altogether different means. God usually works through ordinary events (as opposed to miracles) and the voluntary actions of people. But He always provides the means necessary and guides them by His unseen hand. He is sovereign, and He cannot be frustrated by our failure to act or by our actions, which in themselves are sinful. We must always remember, however, that God still holds us accountable for the very sins that He uses to accomplish His purpose.
As we conclude these studies on God’s sovereignty and turn our attention to His wisdom and love, we need to realize once again that there is no conflict in the Bible between His sovereignty and our responsibility. Both concepts are taught with equal force and with never an attempt to “reconcile” them. Let us hold equally to both, doing our duty as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures and trusting God to sovereignly work out His purpose in us and through us.