Good morning. Today we are going to take a look at one last children’s song. Then next week, Dr. Fiensy will be here to share with you while we are out of town, and then the following week, Dusty Dellafield will be here to share in our Revival.
So far, we have looked at the songs, Be Careful Little Eyes What You See, and then last week, we looked at I’m In The Lord’s Army. This week, we are taking a look at one last song. I would encourage you to join the little ones this morning in singing this song, this one is a little tougher for them. There are many different versions of this song, so it may be a little different than what you are used to. The song is, He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands.
He’s got the whole world in His hands (Repeat 4X)
He’s got the wind and the rain in His hands (Repeat 3X)
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the Sun and the Moon in His hands (Repeat 3X)
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the little bitty baby in His Hands (Repeat 3X)
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got you and me Brother in His hands (Repeat 3X)
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got everybody here in His hands (Repeat 3X)
He’s got the whole world in His hands
Well, that’s a great little children’s song. It was originally written by Obie Philpot, a Native American. He is full-blooded Cherokee Indian. He was in the midst of World War II when his song was released. He had left the lyrics to the song in his locker and upon his deployment it was cleaned out. The parchment upon which it was written was found and began airing on the radio. This is what he has to say about the meaning behind his thoughts.
This song, most obviously, refers to God. “He” is God. “The wind and the rain” is referring to fate. “The sun and moon” refers to the time that he lost with his family while at war. “The little bitty baby” is referring to his newborn son, whom he had not yet seen. “You and me brother” is meaning his brother that had recently passed away while also serving in the war. And “everybody here” was referring to his army friends and his family, plus every one in the world. Today, Obie enjoys life in the southern comforts of Louisiana at the ripe young age of 86 (In 2008). He has been through 3 wars and has served in the Army and Air Force. He had 12 brothers and sisters. He has 5 children, several grandchildren , and 2 great grandchildren.
Since that day, it has been sung by a number of individuals. And it’s been sung in its various forms for decades by countless children in Sunday Schools and at church camps.
It’s a great little song. And it’s a great song, because it is a comforting song.
- He’s got the whole world in His hands
- He’s got the wind and the rain in His hands
- He’s got the Sun and the Moon in His hands
- He’s got itty bitty babies in His hands
- He’s got you and me brother in His hands
- He’s got everybody here in his hands
In other words, He’s got EVERYTHING in His hands. He’s a majestic and caring God who can protect us from all kinds of difficulties and hardships. And the song echoes a powerful promise from Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
In Isaiah chapter 40, God’s power is painted with broad strokes. In verse 12 it says, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the Heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?”
The answer, nobody except for God Himself. Nobody is as all powerful as God is.
In verse 14 it goes on to say, “Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way? Who was it that taught Him knowledge or showed Him the path of understanding?”
Again, the answer is, nobody. God is all knowing and there is no one who is wise enough to teach Him something He doesn’t already know.
Looking at verse 15, it says, “Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.”
And in verse 17 it tells us that, “Before Him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing.”
Listen to what verse 26 has to say. “Lift your eyes and look to the Heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
And then, in verses 22-23 it says, “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the Heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.”
God is God, and there is nothing like Him. God is God, and you can’t even begin to understand how powerful and majestic He is. God is God, and “…if He’s for us, then who can be against us?” He truly does have the whole world in His hands.
I have a Bible program on my computer, and just for fun, I did a word search of the phrase, “hand of the Lord.” And I found a number of times where that phrase appeared. For example:
- It was the hand of the Lord that brought the plagues upon Egypt.
- It was the hand of the Lord that parted the Jordan River so that Israel could enter the Promised Land on dry ground.
- And during the days of Samuel, it was the hand of the Lord that helped Israel defeat the Philistines.
In fact, something is happening the first Tuesday of November. Does anybody know what that is?
That’s right, Election Day. And while there are a number of people running for state offices as well as Congress, we’ve been exposed to the Presidential race for more than a year now. But now that the 2 main parties have selected their candidates you can’t help but hear people talk about how much concern and fear they have about what would happen if one or the other of these men became our President.
Now, as American citizens, we have the privilege of having our own opinion as t who we would like to see elected. Now, I am not going to go into a political debate about the candidates, that is not my style, and I think that it should be avoided by me. What I am going to say about the election, is that as Christians, we should never be afraid.
Why, because in Proverbs 21:1 it says that, “The king’s heart (or the heart of any politician) is in THE HAND OF the LORD; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases.”
Whoever gets elected, whether I like them or not, whether you like them or not, when you and I pray, God holds their heart in His hands, and He will direct them according to His desires. He’s got the whole world in His hands.
But, does He? Does God really have “the whole world” in His hands?
There’s an old adage, “God is in His Heavens and all is right with the world.” But that’s not true, is it?
God IS in Heaven, but not all is right with the world.
- There are thieves, and rapists, and murderers in our world today.
- There are terrorists, and tyrants, and drug lords out there in the streets.
- There’s hunger, and poverty, and all kinds of pain and sorrow in this world.
God IS in Heaven, but not EVERYTHING is “right in the world.”
It’s called “The Problem of Pain and Suffering,” and it causes many theologians a great deal of pain and suffering because, how can we say we serve an all-mighty God if He can’t stop human suffering.
Religions of the East, like Hinduism, have a solution to the dilemma of human suffering. They teach that human suffering is the result of the sins of the person who is suffering. They suffer because they’re getting what they deserve. They have offended one of their gods in a past life, or they have done some wickedness in a previous life, and so they need to come back again and again, what they call reincarnation, and hopefully they will be able to work off their guilt.
For the Muslim, the solution is even simpler. They deal with human suffering by saying, “Allah has willed it, and you must learn to accept his will without question.” In other words, you can’t know, so don’t ask.
Religion struggles with this concept because many people have endured such tragedies in their lives that their faith has been shaken. They’ve been so overwhelmed by the unfairness of what they’ve seen that they turn against God. They shake their fists toward Heaven and say, “God, if you allow such things to happen, then I reject you. I curse you, and I don’t ever want to have anything to do with you.”
Several years ago, a Rabbi by the name of Harold Kushner, wrote a book entitled, “Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?” It became a best-seller. But, in that book, Kushner gives a different kind of answer to the question of pain and suffering.
He says that, “God is limited in His power, and therefore He is not a participant in our lives. Instead, He is a spectator watching us with interest.” He goes on to say, “God wants to see good things happen to His people, but He is not always able to arrange it.”
His conclusion is that God is not all-powerful, and that we should understand that and love God anyway and forgive Him for His shortcomings.
Obviously, that isn’t the picture we get out of Scripture. In the Bible, God is all-powerful. He has no shortcomings. God is God. But the Bible also deals with the problem of pain and suffering. Some of the great men and women of Scripture faced terrible hardships and pain in their lives.
All you have to do is read the story about Job. All you have to do is read in the book of Genesis about a young man named Joseph whose brothers hated him, sold him into slavery, and ended up in prison. All you have to do is read in the book of Ruth about a woman named Naomi whose husband and sons died while she was living in a foreign land. These were real people who faced real tragedies and suffering.
In John 16:33 Jesus warned us, “… In this world you WILL have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
The 11th chapter of Hebrews tells us about the faith of some of the great saints of God. It talks about Noah, and Moses, and David, but then in verses 35-38 it says this, “… Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated, the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”
So, the Bible doesn’t ignore pain. But if it doesn’t ignore it, then how does it explain it?
Well, first of all, it doesn’t trivialize it. The Bible never gives a simplified answer to all suffering. There’s no “one size fits all” to explain why people experience tragedy and loss in life.
Sometimes, as in the case of Joseph, suffering is a tool God uses to shape our character.
Sometimes, as Jesus taught us, it is the result of persecution and opposition by others.
But most often, suffering is shown in Scripture as the result of sin.
Notice what Isaiah tells Israel. Isaiah 40:2 says, “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
Sin is the core of a lot of our suffering. Sin is the rebellion of men and women who have sought to do life their own way. God created the world. He owns the world. It’s His possession, but because of sin, there is pain and suffering. When we sin, there is an absence of God, and that causes some major problems. Many people fail to understand this, and because they don’t understand it, they can slip away from God into unbelief.
The story is told of a philosophy professor who had always challenged his students with this question, “Did God create everything that exists?” A student would usually bravely reply, “Yes, He did!” “God created everything?” the professor asked. “Yes sir, He certainly did,” the student replied. The professor answered, “If God created everything,
then God created evil. And since evil exists, and according the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume that God is evil.”
The professor had used this argument for years to undermine the Christian teachings some of his students had. But this time, one of his students challenged him. The student stood and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?” “What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Absolute zero is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have less heat.”
The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?” The professor laughed, “Of course it does.” “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally, the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?” Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”
To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist either sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of something. It is the absence of God. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
Well, pain and suffering is what happens when people refuses to be in God’s hands. And, as the Bible teaches us, suffering in this world comes both from our own sin, and from the sin of others.
But, if God is so all-powerful, then why doesn’t He just sweep down and remove all the sin from this world?
If the sinfulness of mankind lies at the heart of our suffering and pain in this world, why not, with one powerful stroke, annihilate every sinful person on the face of the earth. Why doesn’t God do that?
Well, if He did that, there wouldn’t be any of us left! Romans 3:23 tells us that, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” None of us could survive if God simply decided to wipe the world clean of every sinner.
The beauty of Isaiah chapter 40 is that it contrasts the suffering of God’s people with the power and majesty of their God. And it points at sin as the root cause of His people’s pain. But right in the middle of this chapter. Right in the middle of the discussion of the suffering of Israel and the majesty of their God. Right there, is a prophecy about the coming of Jesus.
In John 1:23, when John the Baptist was baptizing people at the Jordan, he quoted verse 3. “…I am the voice of one calling in the desert, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”” John the Baptist had been sent to prepare the way for Jesus. Look with me at Isaiah 40:3-5 as it speaks of John’s ministry by saying, “A voice of one calling, “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.””
And then, in verses 9 and 10 it declares, “You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “HERE IS YOUR GOD!” See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and His arm rules for Him...”
From the time of Adam and Eve, men and women have sinned, and sinned again. And their sins have brought a lot of pain and suffering into this world. They put things into their own hands, rather than allowing God to take control of them.
You know, things are a lot better when they are in the right hands. A basketball in my hands, and I have a little fun shooting hoops. But a basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands, and you have several championships. A golf club in my hands, and you have a long day of chasing after golf balls. But a golf club in the hands of Tiger Woods, and you have tournament winning talent. A knife in my hands, and it gets dangerous. But a knife in the hands of a surgeon, and you have the ability to save life.
Let’s look at the Bible. A sling shot in my hands, you will probably end up with a broken window. A sling shot in David’s hands, and you have the giant Goliath defeated. A jaw bone in my hand, is kind of weird. But a jaw bone in Samson’s hands has the power to kill a thousand men. Nails in my hands, and I can build a lob-sided bird house. But nails in Jesus’ hands were able to re-build a relationship with God.
It’s all about who’s hands things are in? Our lives in our own hands, you have a mess. Pain and suffering is everywhere. But our lives in God’s hands, and He can do so much more.
When God created the world, it was designed for good. It was damaged by sin. But God wasn’t satisfied to leave us that way. His desire was to put our lives in His hands.
So, the question is, “Will you put your life in the hands of this loving and merciful God?”
Let’s Pray!
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