“Make this announcement to Israel, and say this to Judah: Listen, you foolish and senseless people, with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.” Jeremiah 5:20-22
Through Jeremiah, God spoke to Judah and Jerusalem, exposing their spiritual and moral foolishness in resisting and rejecting Him. Jeremiah used the illustration of the ocean and the sand. The waters of the sea continually pound upon the sand, yet the sand remains, and the sea remains within its bounds. The analogy is clear: if the ocean cannot prevail against the sand, God’s people will never prevail in their rebellion against Him. God’s people did not learn the lesson that nature clearly teaches – that it is foolish to fight against God. “God here contrasts the obedience of the strong, the mighty the untamed sea, with the rebellious character of his own people. ‘The sea,’ saith he, ‘obeys me; it never breaks its boundary; it never leaps from its channel; it obeys me in all its movements. But man, poor puny man, the little creature whom I could crush as the moth, will not be obedient to me.’” (Spurgeon)
Sovereignty is God’s control over His creation, dealing with His governance over it: Sovereignty is God’s rule over all reality. The sovereignty of God means that He has total control of all things past, present and future. Nothing happens that is out of His knowledge and control. All things are either caused by Him or allowed by Him for His own purposes and through His perfect will and timing. “For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:36). He is the only absolute and omnipotent ruler of the universe and is sovereign in creation, providence and redemption. “If there is any element of the universe that is outside of his authority, then he no longer is God over all. In other words, sovereignty belongs to deity. Sovereignty is a natural attribute of the Creator. God owns what he makes, and he rules what he owns.” – R.C. Sproul