The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,  nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.  From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we, too, are his offspring.’

“Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.  While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 

Acts 17:24-31

As we continue digging into God’s holy word, we see God’s amazing awesomeness in new ways.  He is truly sovereign, and He carries out His will, sometimes through ordinary means and sometimes through remarkable turns.  We know that no matter what we are going through, God is in control.  He desired nations, national boundaries and diversity of language so that people would search for Him, and He caused all that to happen because it was His will.  Through Christ Jesus, we discover unity.  We return to Eden.

We are familiar with God acting in and through individuals.  The gospels present Jesus healing individuals, casting demons out of individuals, and transforming souls of individuals.  We see ourselves and everyone as sinners in need of redemption through Christ Jesus, and we know the world is transformed one soul at a time.  But God’s holy word also shows His designation of nations and national boundaries, His concern for nations, His influence enacted on a national scale, and spiritual battles swaying national events.  Today I am struck by passages revealing the national scope of God’s movement and events taking place across our nation.

As a general matter, how does the thought of God’s influence on a national scale alter your view of current events in our country?  Do you see God’s holy hand at work?  Perhaps you see the opposite – evidence of God’s judgement and His decision to release our nation to its desires?  Or perhaps you see evidence of both or something else entirely.  Questions and thoughts like these swirled in my mind as I read about Paul’s missionary journey to Athens.

Paul arrived in Athens before Silas and Timothy.  While he waited on them, he toured the city and was saddened to see it filled with idols.  In response, he presented the gospel to everyone everywhere he went.  Day after day, he talked to everyone who would listen in the synagogue, in the marketplace, everywhere.  After a while he gained enough attention to be invited to formally present his teaching at the Areopagus. 

Paul began by complimenting his audience on their attention to spiritual matters.  He then mentioned an object of worship he had seen inscribed “to an unknown god” (Acts 17:23), and he used that inscription to introduce them to the God they had not previously known, God the Father, the Most High, the sovereign One, the Creator of heaven and earth who “gives to all mortals life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25), and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As part of his presentation of God’s sovereignty, Paul says,

 From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.  Acts 17:26-27

Paul says that God created all people, He decided where each people group would live, and He “allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live.”  Certainly creating, breathing the breath of life and taking away life are within the purview of the sovereign One, but when did He cause people to populate the entire planet and when did He establish geographical boundaries for various groups of people?  The statement takes us back to Genesis.

In Genesis 1, God instructed humans to fill the earth and seize dominion over it.  The passage says,

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”  Genesis 1:28

Genesis 2 describes a second account of creation.  Chapter 3 describes the fall, and chapters 4-6 describe people becoming so bad that God decides to destroy everything on earth.  Chapters 7-9 describe the great flood of God’s wrath, eight human survivors and their lineage that populated the earth.  Genesis 10 says that during the life of Noah’s great, great, great grandson, Eber, God divided the earth and set boundaries for various groups of people (see Genesis 10:25).  The next chapter describes the events of Babel. At that time everyone spoke the same language.  They gathered at one place and started building a city with a tower that would reach the heavens so that they would not be scattered across the earth, but this was contrary to God’s plan (see Genesis 11:4).  In response, God stopped them from building the city and tower, divided them into different nations, gave them different languages and scattered them across the earth (see Genesis 11:7-9). 

Sovereign God had the authority, power and desire to change peoples’ languages and cause them to relocate, and He set geographical boundaries for them.  Scripture does not say how long it took God to accomplish the changes, but it must have happened quickly, otherwise construction would have continued during the transition.  Regardless of the timeline, God caused it to happen.  He accomplished a seemingly impossible feat because it was His will to do so.

As Moses gives his farewell speech recorded as Deuteronomy, he recites a song in chapter 32.  The song describes God as faithful, just and upright, the Rock whose work is perfect whose “degenerate children have dealt falsely with him” (Deuteronomy 32:5).  The song continues reminding listeners how God divided the nations, fixed boundaries for each nation, and chose His people, Israel, as His own saying,

When the Most High apportioned the nations,
    when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
    according to the number of the gods;
the Lord’s own portion was his people,
    Jacob his allotted share.  Deuteronomy 32:8

God not only chose Israel, He miraculously created the nation through two people who were too old to have babies.  Discussing Abraham’s faith, Paul writes,

 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So shall your descendants be.”  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was alreadyas good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.  Romans 4:18-19

We often think in individualistic terms, and while Jesus Christ transforms hearts of individuals and responds to prayers of individuals, God’s holy word shows that He also acts nationally and globally.  In Daniel 10, Daniel encounters an angel who explains that he was delayed visiting Daniel because he had been battling an angel of Persia, suggesting angelic battles in the heavens influence national events here on earth (see Daniel 10:10-14 and 20-21).  Similarly, in Deuteronomy 32 we see sovereign God orchestrating events on national and global scales according to His pleasure.  He chose Israel as His own, cares for His people, watches over them and provides for them, but they abandoned God, scoffed at Him, worshiped other gods, and “sacrificed to demons” (see Deuteronomy 32:15-18).

While describing God’s sovereignty to his audience in Athens, Paul explains that God made everyone, that He scattered people around the globe, He set the time for their existence and set national geographical boundaries, and He did all this “so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).  God’s judgment on Babel involved scattering people and confusing their language, and He did this so they would search for Him, suggesting that when nations join in unholy alliances, they stop seeking Him.

Given the opportunity to speak as an expert teacher presenting unique thoughts at the Areopagus, why did Paul evoke the account of Babel to describe God’s sovereignty?  The gentiles in Athens were descendants of the ones scattered. Sovereign God had determined where they would live, their national boundaries and their time of existence, and through Christ Jesus they had the opportunity to be adopted as heirs, as members of God’s chosen.  And they had been searching for the one true God as evidenced by the idol inscribed to “unknown god.”

I pause for a moment to allow that to sink in.  God wanted nations, He established boundaries for each nation, and He wanted diversity of language.  And this was all so humans would search for God.  Pondering this scattering and division, I think of Jesus’ prayer for unity.  Jesus prays for unity within the body of Christ – He prays that they may be one together and one with God the Father and Himself (see John 17).  At that Pentecost celebration when the Holy Spirit was unleashed, everyone heard Peter speak in his or her own language (see Acts 2).  And Paul explains that distinctions like nationality, race and gender are erased through Christ Jesus writing,

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:27-29

God separated humanity so they would search for Him, and through Christ Jesus He rebuilds unity.  Through Christ Jesus we return to Eden.

He is truly sovereign, and He carries out His will, sometimes through ordinary means and sometimes through remarkable turns.  We know that no matter what we are going through, God is in control.  May God keep you, may He shine His light on and through you, may He give you His peace.  Amen.