Did God Lose Control?

21 Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand?
Are you deaf to the words of God—
the words he gave before the world began?
Are you so ignorant?
22 God sits above the circle of the earth.
The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!
He spreads out the heavens like a curtain
and makes his tent from them.
23 He judges the great people of the world
and brings them all to nothing.
24 They hardly get started, barely taking root,
when he blows on them and they wither.
The wind carries them off like chaff.

25 “To whom will you compare me?
Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

26 Look up into the heavens.
Who created all the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another,
calling each by its name.
Because of his great power and incomparable strength,
not a single one is missing.
27 O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?
O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?
28 Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.

In the play Requiem for a Nun, the author, William Faulkner, says through one of the characters that after God created everything, he lost control. Things simply got out of hand, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Did God lose control? Some­times we might wonder. We listen to the news and watch what’s happening around us, and we may wonder, “Is anyone in charge?” We read about violence and poverty, about wars without end, about natural disasters and personal tragedies, and we might ask, “Did Faulkner have it right when he said that God lost control?”

Let’s see what the Bible says in our reading for today. The prophet asks, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. . . .” God directs all the action in the universe—from the stars and planets in space to the rise and fall of rulers and nations in this world. We may not understand how, but God is firmly in control.

Our daily news doesn’t tell the whole story. Our God reigns; he is in charge. And until he comes again, there will be wars and rumors of wars and poverty and persecution. But until then, the Savior, whose birth we celebrate this month, also says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. . . . And . . . I am with you always” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Lord, help us always to remember that you are in charge. And give us eyes of faith to see the ways you are at work in our world each day. In Jesus, Amen.