Just get the picture here of God’s sovereign rule over the nations. Thus, the Lord said to me, Jeremiah says, make yourself straps and yoke bars and put them on your neck. Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah, give them this charge for their masters. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. This is what you shall say to your masters. It is I who buy my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth with the men and animals that are on the earth and I give it to whoever it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.
– Jeremiah 27:2–7
All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes, then many nations and great Kings shall make him their slave. So the reason I read that whole passage is to give us a picture, a reminder in Jeremiah chapter 27, that God, the God, to whom we are about to pray, God alone knows the future and God ordains the future.
Jeremiah 27:2–7 God Rules and Reigns Over Us
Oh, be reminded that the God to whom we are about to pray is ruling and reigning over everything in all the universe. And he holds the future of every nation, of every leader and every person in the palm of his hand. Did you hear what God said in the middle of this passage? I am the Lord. And it is by my great power and my outstretched arm that the earth has been made with everyone and everything that’s on it.
And I do whatever seems right to me. Oh God, we bow in awe of you, in fear of you, in worship of you. God, you are the one who made each of us. You are the one who sustains each of us right now and all seven billion other people on the planet. God, everything belongs to you. Everything depends on your great power and your outstretched arm.
Jeremiah 27:2–7 Tells Us God Reigns Over Us
We don’t have another breath. This world does not stay in existence apart from you. You alone our God over all and you hold all things in your hand. And God, when we read that you give and do whatever seems right to you, we are so thankful that you are a loving God, a merciful and gracious God slow to anger, abounding, and steadfast love. That you are faithful to all your promises that we see in your word. We cannot imagine a God.
We don’t want to imagine. And we cannot imagine and we don’t want to imagine a God who’s ruling and reigning over the world who is not loving and just, and merciful and abounding and faithfulness. So God, we pray that you would help us to trust in you today with all of our heart, lean not on our own understanding with all the details and things that are going on in our lives. You who reign and rule over everything in the world. We say today, we trust you with everything in the world, including everything in our lives right now.
Jesus is the King over the Nations
You are king over the nations and you are king over us and you are good, loving, wise, all powerful, merciful, just God. And we praise you. And we pray that you would help us to have a proper fear and awe and right understanding of who you are in your greatness, that we would not be trite before you or trite about you. That we would live in humble fear, awe, reverence, and worship of you.
Oh, God, help us to worship you with all our hearts to, trust you with all our hearts. To obey you in every facet of our lives as the one. True God who holds our lives and holds this world in the palm of your hand. We pray all of this in light of Jeremiah 27:2–7 in Jesus name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
