SOVEREIGNTY

In the Jewish calendar, today is Tishrei 1, 5770, or Rosh Hashanah. For many engaged in synagogue observance, Rosh Hashanah carries with it the overtone of God's Sovereignty, the time of year to overtly recognize that God is the King of kings (Rev 19:16).

Sovereignty is not talked about much in today's world, expect perhaps in the political area where national sovereignty is hotly debated. Those debates show that step-by-step, sovereignty is growing out of fashion. Even the British monarchy experiences resurgent movements to dethrone the Queen.

We as a people, particularly in the United States, are used to a degree of independent freedom. And yet even in our Declaration of Independence, when we asserted ourselves as a free people, there was — and continues to be — an acknowledgement of a higher authority:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God . . . .

This is no attempt to preach on politics, or the nation's founding documents. But it does serve to draw our attention that even when declaring freedom, there was and is an acknowledgment that there is yet a higher, Sovereign Power.

Drawing once again on the religious wisdom of our Jewish friends, countless of their prayers open with the eloquence, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe . . ." There is, within their community, a ceaseless reminder through their words and traditions of the Sovereignty of God.

So today, on this God-ordained day, let us too be reminded that our noble plans must yield to the Will of our Sovereign King.

"Kings will bring gifts to Thee" (Psalms 68:29b).





"A noble man devises noble plans; and by noble plans he stands."
– Isaiah 32:8