God's Sovereignty Over National Boundaries

God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

(Acts 17:24-26)

Not only does God decide when nations will be formed on earth, but He also determines what their national boundaries will be. We have already examined the above passage of scripture to confirm the truth that God forms nations, but in this passage, the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, also confirms that God predetermines the boundaries of the nations He forms. Therefore, whenever a new nation is formed on earth, the boundaries of that nation will always be dictated by God. Similarly, when a nation's borders change for any reason, you can be assured that their borders are being redrawn at God's direction—and this truth applies to every nation on earth.

Some may foolishly assert that men, not God, decide what a nation's borders will be. What they fail to realize, however, is that it is God who influences men to formulate a nation's boundaries in accordance with His will.

"And the Lord spoke to me, saying: 'You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward. And command the people, saying, "You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

(Deuteronomy 2:2-5)

The above passage illustrates very clearly the principle that God decides which parts of the earth each nation will inhabit, and He will not allow anyone to change the national borders He has preordained. We see that even God's chosen nation of Israel was not permitted to take lands from another nation unless God gave them permission to do so. God specifically instructed Israel to leave Edom's borders intact (as we have already mentioned, the Edomites were descended from Esau). If this principle applied to His chosen nation, then how much more does the same principle apply to the rest of the nations of the earth?

But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin. In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael conquered them in all the territory of Israel from the Jordan eastward: all the land of Gilead--Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh--from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, including Gilead and Bashan.

(2 Kings 10:31-33)

Just as God decides what a nation's boundaries will be when He forms that nation, so when a nation's borders are diminished in any way, we can be fully assured that God is directing that process. This particular truth is confirmed in the above passage of scripture, which declares that "the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel." In other words, through the mechanism of war, God caused Israel's enemies to invade parts of her territory and annex the conquered areas, thus reducing Israel's borders accordingly.

This passage of scripture also reveals why God reduces a nation's borders: because of its sin. In other words, God uses the process of reducing a nation's borders as an act of judgment pronounced upon that nation.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Church and the State

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