As a kid, I watched The Emperor’s New Groove enough times to know every line by heart. I could quote you the movie, always with laughter. Despite seeing the same movie over and over, I never lost enjoyment in the film. I also thoroughly enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. I could watch that movie again and again without losing interest. And that’s a thriller, the type of movie whose potency resides in the audience not knowing how it will end. And yet, even though I now know how The Prestige ends even before I hit play, I remain intrigued and in awe.
God revealed himself through the prophet Isaiah as the one who knows the end even before the beginning. “Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish” (Isaiah 46:9-10, NLT). Isaiah saw, understood, and declared God to be the only sovereign.
What is God’s sovereignty like? We’re told he can tell the future before it even happens. But we ought not liken God’s knowledge of the future to my knowledge of The Emperor’s New Groove or The Prestige. I know how those movies go, start to finish, because I’ve watched them over and over again. I know the end of those movies before I hit play because I previously experienced them as a viewer. But that does not make me sovereign. Even though I know how those movies end, I did not determine their ending. The movie script writer and director decided that.
We should not think God knows the future as a passive observer who, not bound by time, has seen the film before. God knows the end of human history before the beginning because he sovereignly writes and directs human history. Therefore, as author and director, God calls sinners to repent, trust in him, and be saved. “Listen to me, you stubborn people who are so far from doing right. For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now! I am read to save Jerusalem and show my glory to Israel” (Isaiah 46:12-13, NLT).
Oh, and though he knows the end from the beginning as the author and director of human history, I suspect he thoroughly enjoys watching his plan of redemption play out in real time.
Sound Teaching, Sound Living 