Strange Sovereignty

Aim: To submit to God—especially when it is hard—knowing that good will follow.

Doctrine: Civil (and spiritual) ''bonds and yokes'' are inescapable in this world. Sinners tend to flatter themselves with notions of grandeur, but God only knows what is best for His church.

Exegesis: The dynamics of strange sovereignty: it is based on God's wisdom, not man's self-righteousness (vv. 1-6); submission under it is really faith in God (vv. 7-8); even zealous religious pretenders cannot thwart it (vv. 9-11).

Further application: The application to the contemporary church: chafing against civil authority is more rebellion than Godliness, and though submission is difficult, it is Christ-honoring.

Key verse: v. 5 ''I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to Me.''