“And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” -Jonah 1.17
“Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’” -Jonah 4.5-8
God is sovereign. Honestly, I don’t think there are nearly as many people who believe this as there are that say it. Ask any ol’ Baptist biddy why it is that she is maintaining faith even though her health is failing and her husband died and she will say with a sigh, “God is sovereign.” Ask her if she believes that God has chosen for himself a people unconditionally from the foundation of the earth though and prepare to be chastised. “God is sovereign,” as I’ve learned in Southern Baptist vernacular, does not mean that ‘God is sovereign,’ as much as it means ‘I’m doing alright, or at least I’m pretending like I am because I don’t know what else to say.’
But what if we recovered the true meaning of this phrase? What if, instead of saying “God is sovereign” as a default comfort in times of trial we really grasped it as the supreme comfort in all situations, how much impact would that have on how we relate to God?
Looking at the book of Jonah, there are many adjectives that we can associate to the story. At first it is glorious, how God worked the miracle of changing Jonah’s heart in the belly of a fish and then saw the hearts changed of thousands of Ninevites. But it is also tragic in that even after all he has seen Jonah is still angry at God and jaded over the conversion of the people of Nineveh. A third adjective I would attach to this story is to say that it is a tale of sovereignty. The book is four chapters, 48 verses, and yet in it we see God’s sovereignty on display at least 7 times. If you just sat down and read Jonah all at once, I have little doubt that God’s sovereignty in every action and man’s subjection to it would not be seared into your mind.
I think the most comical of these examples of God’s sovereignty is what we find in chapter 4 verse 7 where it says, “God appointed a worm.” Read that in isolation. “God appointed a worm.” Here we have a lowly invertebrate creature, inching its way through the earth, up to the plant that God had placed over Jonah’s head, with the sole intention of having lunch. And yet, what we read is that God appointed that. It is not, as some may argue with men, that God had seen that the worm would be coming to that location and would choose to eat the plant and thus appointed him to do so by foreknowledge. That’s ridiculous. No, it is that God worked to make sure that worm was in the right place at the right time and was hungry enough to teach Jonah a lesson. “God is sovereign.” He did not happen upon a worm that just willed to do what he wanted and so said, “Lucky day God, this worm’s here to do what you want.” No, God had appointed from before time began that this would be the events of that day and so it happened.
Sure, we say “God is sovereign,” but our theology, and our pride, overrule our words and display what we really think of God: that he is subservient to our “free will” and impotent to do anything unless we open the door for him first. That little seems like a God who is worthy of worship, and even less like the great God we read of in the Bible, who loved us so much that he appointed a worm to demonstrate just how sovereign he really is!
Posted by Todd Burus 
