El Elyon - The God Most High

Right now for my morning devotion time, I am using a book by Kay Arthur called, LORD, I Want to Know You. It is a study on the Names of God. It spends several days focusing on a name of God. Right now the focus is on El Elyon, the God Most High. Today it had me read several passages of scripture and then write down my thoughts on each of them, and then at the end write what I could take and apply to my life.

Isaiah 5:5-7: "And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting;and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!"

Deuteronomy 32:39: "'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."

1 Samuel 1:5-6: "But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb."

1 Samuel 2:6-10: "The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed."

Isaiah 45:6-7: "that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things."

John 19:10-11: "Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above."

Here's what I wrote in my journal:
God is Sovereign. He created the universe and controls everything that happens in it. I cannot possibly grasp this. That's why preachers, scholars, professors, and theologians argue so much about what this means.

What I think--and I know that I am likely to be very wrong about all of this--is that God is in control over everything that happens on this earth. He created it, so it is His to do with as He pleases. Who am I to question the "whys" of anything I see around me? It is by grace that God does not completely destroy this sinful world.

But, God allows me to ask why. He does things/allows them to happen so that I will ask why. And often these ways seem very cruel or unfair to my eyes. But I do not see as God sees. I think that He does this so that my image of Him is not put in this limited box of my understanding. But the breaking of my box is usually a painful process

And it is comforting to know that God's Sovereignty does not hinge on my understand--It just is. Whether or not I "agree with" or understand an aspect of God does not make it any less true.