Owned

God told Moses, "All the earth is mine." (Exo 19:5) God says, "Every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine." (Psa 50:10-12) Paul says, "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." (Rom 11:36) God starts to sound like a kid who hasn't learned to share ... except that it is all His. A fundamental difference.

Authority seems to be a problem with us. It's largely us Americans, of course, beginning with "No sovereign" back in the Revolutionary War, receiving a huge boost in the "question authority" crowd of the '60's, and continuing to this extreme version today. We just don't like authority. But ownership is something else. We despise that concept. I remember being in a Sunday School class reading the very first verse in Philippians where Paul refers to himself and Timothy as "slaves of Jesus Christ". Members of this class--good Christians, one and all--looked up and said, "We're not slaves." Because "slave" suggests "ownership" and if there is anything we are it's free. But God says, "All the earth is mine." How do we fit these together?

Well, we don't. The simple truth is we are all slaves. We might be slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin (Rom 6:16), but we're all slaves. And the truth is that we're all owned. That is offensive to people in general and Americans in particular, but that doesn't make it any less true. "The world and its fullness are Mine."

The thing is if you get this into your head and realize that it's true and right (Doesn't the Creator have the rights to ownership?), it answers some very sticky questions. Like, "How could God allow unpleasant things to happen to people?" Well, He's the owner. He can do with His property what He pleases. Or, "Why does God save some and not others?" Same answer. "How could God create billions of people whom He knows will be going to Hell?" Same answer. But Paul says, "Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?" (Rom 9:20-21) Don't gloss over the question. Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

No, of course we don't like that. We are, after all, prone to serve the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25). Defy His authority? You bet. Kick against His ownership? Absolutely! Because "I will be like the Most High." Not a wise position to take. If we are truly His followers, we would rejoice in the notion that "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever." Do you?