It is I who by 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 whomever it seems right to me.
– Jeremiah 27:5
What a statement this is God speaking about his sovereign power and authority over everything in all the Earth. And specifically, he’s talking about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. And God is saying, Nebuchadnezzar only has power because I have let him have power.
Now, this brings all kinds of questions to the surface. Including questions we see God’s people asking in the Old Testament. Why would God let Babylon have power? Why would God let Assyrians have power at different points? And those questions become all the more heavy when we think about how the Babylonians and Assyrians and nations and leaders today do things with their power that are evil.
Jeremiah 27:5 reminds us that God is sovereign over all nations and powers of the Earth.
I don’t presume to dive into all those questions with answers in a couple of minutes of a prayer podcast, but I do want to remind us when we look at the nations of the world when we look at leaders of the nations in the world, it is good to remember Jeremiah 27:5. Ultimately God has power over all of them. That all of their power is limited, that God alone is unlimited in power, unlimited in authority, and God is just, and in the end, his justice will be clear. That’s where this first ends. I give it to whomever it seems right to me.
So we may not understand a variety of things when we see evil and suffering in the world, in light of the sovereignty of God over the world, but we do know that God is perfectly good, perfectly righteous, perfectly just. And as a result, no matter what happens in this world, no matter who is leading what nation, we can trust in God who is the king of all the nations, and God who is the one who holds all the leaders of the nations in the palm of his hand.
Jeremiah 27:5 encourages us to rest in God’s Sovereignty.
And so we pray to him and our prayers just go in different directions. Oh God, we praise you as the Sovereign King of the nations, as the Almighty Ruler of everyone and everything. We praise you that you are ultimately in control, that this world is not out of control, that you are in control and we praise you, that you are good and holy, and just and righteous. All of our trust is in you, not in the leaders of this world.
We put all of our trust in you. Jesus, you have all authority in heaven and on earth, and we praise you as our Lord and King, the Lord and King over all. And we pray, oh God, for the leaders you have entrusted with power, that you have given power to God. We pray for their salvation. We pray for your favor, your grace upon them, your mercy on them, please, oh God, help leaders in our countries to lead well, to lead justly in ways that bring about good for those they lead.
God, we pray for them, their families, and their leadership for their wisdom, for your help, for them. And God, we pray all this toward the end, that your name and your word might spread among all the nations, that all the countries and peoples of the world would know that Jesus is King and God, we pray that as your church, as citizens of a heavenly kingdom, you would help us to be wise, bold, humble, compassionate citizens on this earth proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom to people around us today and to people around the world.
Prayer for the Meskhetian Turk People
God, we pray specifically today for the Meskhetian Turk people out of Turkey, Kazakhstan, and other parts of Central Asia. God for the MeskhetianTurks to be reached. We pray with the good news of your grace. In Jesus, may they know you Jesus as the king of the nations. We pray that for all the people groups of the world, let all the nations praise you as king, bring it about God, and use our lives however you desire for the spread of the gospel of your kingdom. Lord, we pray all of this with confidence and peace and rest and trust in you as the Almighty God. We pray all of this according to your Word in Jeremiah 27:5. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
