Sunday Morning Worship Service November 8, 2020

Well, good morning to see you on this Lord's Day. Thank the Lord for these beautiful days He's given us and given us a bit of a reprieve, I think, from what we would normally expect in November. And the nice weather, it kind of helps make other things not seem so bad, you know, like politics and all of those things.

Well, anyway, we're glad we can gather together and worship together this morning. A few things from your bulletin, just let me point them out to you on the, well, of course, the point about no service this evening, we've got this regional COVID spike.

And so we're trying to be careful and responsible about that. And that note on the top side of the right page gives some more information about that, just how to be careful while we're here. You've done a good job today of avoiding the blocked pews and so forth, and that's great, that's wonderful.

And then just a reminder, when we leave the service today, be careful about blocking aisles so people can get through and so on and so forth. The midweek service, and you notice it says it's tentative, everything's tentative when we announce things these days, but we will plan this week to have the teen-young adult group meet as well as the children's club and the Bible study at seven o 'clock here in the auditorium.

You feel comfortable with that, you're welcome to attend for those things. Next Sunday, a couple of things on the agenda. One, after the morning service, we'll have our quarterly business meeting, was supposed to happen the end of October.

We'll have that after the morning service next Sunday. And then in the evening at six o 'clock, it's just a drop-in reception for Nathan and Carissa Hemmon. So come, as you will, between, say, six and seven, be some light refreshments, an opportunity to greet and congratulate the honeymooners.

And it is within a year, so it is still officially the honeymoon period, right? And all of you married couples know that that lasts at least four or five years beyond that, sometimes 40 years. I mean, right?

Yes, okay, my wife said yes, that's right. Okay, so anyway, come next Sunday evening. We were not able to do that earlier in the year because of the COVID and so forth. And then let me say a word about the missionary offering.

You see that there as well. We have designated the last several years, the Sunday school offering would be used as a Christmas gift funds for our missionaries. Well, we've missed so much Sunday school and therefore those offerings this year that hardly any funds have come in for that purpose.

So what we're gonna do is, through this month, receive Christmas gift offerings for our missionaries other ways. So two options for giving to that. One of them, on the table in the foyer by that offering box, there's a little basket with some envelopes.

You can use that envelope and that envelope sends the message that it's for the missionary offering Christmas gift. The other option is you can give online. And if you're in the habit of doing that already, you can just go to the online giving portal and there's now an option for, I think it's designated Christmas missions.

So you choose that option, you choose your amount that you wanna give and it will automatically go to that offering. So we wanna be a blessing to our missionaries as we have every year at Christmastime and hope that you'll have the opportunity and to give in that way.

Worshiping the Lord Together

We've gathered together to worship the Lord and Psalm 94 or Psalm 95 verse six encourages us to that. It says, oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. We'll not do that literally, that is bowing down, but we will do that figuratively.

We'll bend the knee in our hearts to the Lord as we stand together and sing. Jim's gonna come and lead us in our opening hymn, hymn number six, I sing the mighty power of God, Jim.

Thank you, pastor. And again, it's number six and let's all stand together please and sing all three verses, I sing the mighty power of God.

Our father, again, we thank you for your grace and your mercy this past week. And father, we thank you for the word of God, which gives us hope, peace, joy, no matter what's going on in our world, father.

May we sing these praises unto your name, give you the glory that you're due, father. Help us to be open and attentive to the message that pastor brings today. May the spirit of God work in our hearts and our lives.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

Back of the bulletin is our psalm reading for today, Psalm 97, notice the psalm begins with a startling assertion that calls for a humble response. So follow along in your bulletin as I read this 12 verses of the 97th psalm.

The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about.

His lightnings enlighten the world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory.

Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship him, all ye gods. Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord.

For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. He preserveth the souls of his saints. He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of this psalm together today.

And let's lift our voices again in song to our Lord who is the King, Jim.

Next hymn is number one in your hymnals. Number one, Rejoice the Lord is King. Rejoice the Lord is King. We'll sing all four verses together.

Thanking Faithful Servants and Praying for Missionaries

One of the things that we don't do as often as we should is express gratitude to those who serve in some faithful and consistent ways and do so at great personal sacrifice. And every year about this time, we take a moment to just express our thanks as a congregation to the McCanns for their faithful labor outside on the yard all spring and summer and fall, coming every week to cut the grass.

That's a big yard out there, you know, big lawn. And it takes a few of them to do it. Lynn comes and rides the riding mower, and Mitchell comes and rides the zero turn and takes care of that. Dan comes later and does the weed whacking, the trimming.

And they do that every week all through the summer. And it's kind of interesting to see the development. When they first come, they're all bundled up in coats and gloves. And then, you know, before long, it's hot and they're sweating and all the rest of that out there.

And then before the season is over, they're back in the coats and gloves and so forth. And what great sacrifice. And they do it without pay, without asking for anything. They just do it out of service to the Lord.

And I'm grateful for that kind of faithful, committed, dedicated labor. We do give them a love gift at the season of the year. Well, we don't have that ready to do so today, but we will be giving them that.

And so Dan and Lynn and Mitchell, thank you so much for your faithfulness every week in doing that. As we pray together today, we want to remember the Williquettes, our missionaries of the week. Scott Williquette in that pastoral enrichment program ministry going to third world countries, pretty much on hold right now because of COVID, but want to pray for him.

Also leads the school of church planters, which is designed to bring men together to train them how to plant churches. Also want to pray for the Shedders and thank the Lord for how he has blessed them.

Larry and Emily, of course, you know, came home from the field of Bolivia earlier this year. We continued our support of them through October, which was actually a little longer, a month longer than they asked just because we knew they weren't quite settled yet.

But I got word from them this week. They are settled. They're doing well. Larry has a decent job. They've got a home and they've joined a church. So they're doing well. And we thank the Lord for that.

Rejoice in his blessing upon the Shedders. We also, of course, want to pray for the election crisis and just the continued strife in our nation over all of that. If there's anything that this election showed us is just how utterly split our nation is along ideological lines and not just political Democrat-Republican lines.

Then we also want to pray for our shut-ins, our shut-ins Jeanne Ludwig and Sue Cherry, Dean Kinnaman, and one I haven't mentioned. He's not technically a shut-in normally, but Jed Hunsberger, he normally comes, but he lives in one of those homes where they're closed, they're locked down.

He's not allowed to get out, not able to go anywhere. And so he's pretty much isolated there. So I want to pray for these folks. God would just give them grace during these times of isolation and loneliness.

Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? And so our Father and our God, we do rejoice that you are the King. And truly, Lord, when we look at our world, it sometimes doesn't seem like anything rules except chaos and evil and wicked people.

And we can easily lose heart. We can easily lose our way. And we can easily lose sight of who you are and what we know is true beyond what our eyes can see. We thank you, Father, for your revealed word, which teaches us these truths that our eyes could not take in.

I pray that our heart would take in that which our eyes cannot see. We thank you, Father, that you are our gracious and merciful Heavenly Father. We thank you for the abundance of your steadfast love, that you are faithful to your people, you're faithful to your covenant.

We thank you, Father, that you are a God who forgives iniquity. We thank you that you cast our sins as far away from you as the East is from the West. And there's not a person in this room who would be able to look back over this past week and not confess how desperately we need your forgiveness.

We are a needy people. And we thank you that you meet the needs of your needy people. We thank you for the work of Christ, our Savior, on the cross of Calvary, for his blood that cleanses from all iniquity.

And we thank you that he is our advocate. We thank you that he is our intercessor, that even now he is interceding for his people. He ever lives to make intercession for us. And we are so grateful for that intercessory work of our Savior.

We praise you today, Father, for the work of the Holy Spirit who dwells within your people, who meets with the gathered people. And even as we pray right now together, he makes intercession for us. He groans with the perfection of our prayers.

And we thank you for that work of the Spirit. We thank you for how he moves us to pray and brings us to our knees and brings us to the place of expressing the needs of our heart. And so, Father, we pray today for our nation.

We pray for the crisis of leadership. Father, our hearts are heavy and are burdened by the division of this land. And it is truly an ideological, philosophical division, but it's also a moral division.

There are those who would continue to lead our country into paths of unrighteousness, and Father, how we need to be delivered from that. And we pray that this crisis over the election would be resolved soon and would be resolved in a way that's favorable to your people and favorable to your righteous and just rule.

Father, we pray for the current outbreak of COVID and the number of people in the hospital, even right now, who are suffering from this. We pray for mercy and grace to them. We pray for protection for your people, that you might grant us health and strength.

Thank you, Father, for those who have experienced this sickness, that they have recovered and did not experience some of the degree of suffering that others have. Thank you, Father, for that kindness and grace.

We pray for the Willikwits today, for Scott and Victoria. We pray that you'd give Scott wisdom in working toward the future and the teaching and instruction that he needs to offer in the organization of classes and so forth.

Give him skill in that. We pray for Victoria's health as she's battling with some cancer. I pray that you would rid her body of that and she would be well. Thank you, Father, for the good report from the Shedders.

And we continue to pray for Larry and Emily and their family, that you would be continually faithful to them, providing their needs, helping them to be at peace with where you have led them and how you have led them to this point.

Grant them grace, we pray. And now, oh, Father, we pray, continue to meet with us in this hour as we worship you and serve you. This we ask in Jesus' name, Jim.

Singing Praise to God

Once again, take your hymnals and turn to page 55, 55 in your hymnals, sing praise to God. Just a reminder that on the last verse, the children's church, those ages four through eight, if you have children, four through eight, you want to send them to junior church, it would certainly be a blessing to them and to you.

So let's all stand together and sing, sing praise to God, number 55.

Jeremiah 27 and the Yoke of Babylon

Take your Bibles, turn to Jeremiah chapter 27 for our scripture reading this morning. Jeremiah, the 27th chapter. And wanna read for our message today, verses one through 11. Jeremiah 27 and the first 11 verses.

Let me point out, some of you have maybe an ESV or a New American Standard, some of the other translations begin the chapter with a different king's name. So it says in the King James version, it says, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, probably correctly should be in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah.

I'll say more about that in just a few minutes. And if you look at the whole context, you could understand that. But verses one through 11. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord saying, thus saith the Lord to me, make thee bonds and yokes and put them upon thy neck and send them to the king of Edom and to the king of Moab and to the king of the Ammonites and to the king of Tyre and the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah, king of Judah, and command them to say unto their masters, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, thus shall you say unto your masters, I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched arm and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.

And now I have given all these lands under the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beast of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son until the very time of his land come.

And then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hand.

Therefore, hearken not ye to your prophets nor to your diviners nor to your dreamers nor to your enchanters nor to your sorcerers which speak unto you saying, you shall not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy a lie unto you to remove you far from your land and that I should drive you out and you should perish.

But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord, and they shall till it and dwell therein.". Brief prayer.

Our Father, I pray that as you have opened a crack to the door of the inner workings behind the throne, in the throne room of God, you would give us eyes to see. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So I'm currently reading a brief biography of Nathan Hale.

Nathan Hale was the first spy of our nation in its infancy. He was a young man when he was called by his colony to serve in the War of Independence. Before the Declaration of Independence was actually made, and you may remember your American history, how the shots rang out and then the forces were mustered.

Then the colonial states, the colonies, they gathered together men to fight and declare independence from Britain and so forth. Well, Nathan Hale was one of those men who was chosen to lead a company of men.

And I was reading that the other day, and it struck me with the question, how in the world did we ever win that War of Independence? Nathan Hale was looking over his men in late 1775 and the early month or two of 1776, in those winter months in New England.

Bitterly cold, unusually high snowfall that particular year. And he's looking at the conditions in which his men are trying to survive. They had few clothes that gave them any warmth, few blankets, living in tents, struggling just to stay some measure of warm.

Their provisions were greatly lacking. They were hungry. They lacked materiel for any kind of serious battle. In other words, they didn't have enough guns and ammunition and powder that they needed. And their conditions were so bleak that the orders came that they were not to use their guns to kill ducks or geese, even though they were starving, because they needed to save their bullets for the soon to come war.

And in contrast to that, the British troops were well-equipped. They were living, they had confiscated houses to live in and so forth in Boston and surrounding areas. They had plenty to eat. They were well-supplied militarily.

And again, I read all of that and I wondered how in the world did we ever win that war of independence? To our finite perspective, it seems, doesn't it, that nations rise and fall due to military strength and prowess.

One nation has a stronger military and better leadership than another nation. And so when we look at things, it looks like that's how nations rise and fall. And rulers of those nations, they seem to rise and fall due to things like military coups or maybe by virtue of inheriting a position, because of their genealogy.

Maybe they're appointed by a tribunal in their country, or maybe as in our land, they're elected by the people. From our human perspective, it looks like the rulers of nations are put in their place by the work of men.

So to us, looking strictly at what we can see, it's all up to us whether a nation rises or falls, whether a ruler comes to power or not. It's all up to us. It's all up to mankind in some way or another.

But this text that we've read this morning tells us another story. As I indicated it, this text to kind of cracks the door open just a hair, just enough so that we can kind of squint and look in with one eye.

And even though it's all hazy in there, there is something that is revealed here that gives us another perspective on why nations rise and fall and why different people come to power. It gives us this crack in the door, a glimpse of the workings and the machinations that we could not otherwise know if God didn't crack that door.

So who's really in control? Who's really in control of the rise and fall of nations and the rise and fall of the leaders of those nations? Who's really in control of the outcome even of a national election?

Is it the electoral college? Is it the people who vote? Is it Democrats? Is it Republicans? Is it the courts? Is it election officials? Who's really in control? Our text makes it clear. Now, I want us to step back a minute and just get a historical perspective on this text, get the historical setting.

When we look at the historical setting of Jeremiah 27, that setting would suggest that man is in control. Here's what I mean by that. The background to the book of Jeremiah is that the book was written or finally completed in its final form in the mid-sixth century BC, so like 560-ish BC.

Now, the reason that's important is because of all that took place prior to that. Jeremiah, the prophet, is concerning himself with the nation of Israel, and the nation of Israel is a mess. I mean, it is a mess.

Now, you remember if you do from your biblical history, your Old Testament history, your history of the nation of Israel, that after Solomon was the king, his son came to the throne, and under Rehoboam's reign, the nation divided.

It split. There was no civil war, but it split. Two rival kings, and the king to the north was the king over the 10 tribes. We call them the tribes of Israel, and the king to the south, Rehoboam, is over Judah, the tribe of Judah primarily, and so you have this split kingdom, and it is this way for a number of years, until finally, and we're talking about the mess that is Israel as a nation, until finally, those northern tribes were destroyed, and the people, many of the people, taken into captivity by the Assyrian Empire.

That all happened more than 100 years before Jeremiah comes on the scene. Judah, the primary focus of Jeremiah's prophecy and his attention, Judah is in a downward spiral. He's in a downward spiral. Josiah, the last really good king, he enacted a bunch of reforms, and he was the king in place when Jeremiah began his ministry, but by the time of our text, those reforms of Josiah have pretty much been forgotten.

We could put it this way when it comes to Judah. The glory days are gone. The gilded age of the nation of Israel is over, and so Jeremiah is called to the ministry of the prophet in 627 BC. Josiah is still a king, and his opening salvo, if you will, in his prophecy is to prophesy of the doom of Judah.

Didn't begin to happen for a while yet. Babylon came finally and attacked the nation, the tribe of Judah, the nation of Judah, and there was a first wave of defeat by the Babylonians, and defeat and exile.

That happened in 605 BC, and then a few years later, another wave of attack by the Babylonians came, and another wave of captives were taken into exile in 597 BC, and then finally, Jeremiah would prophesy until the complete fall of Jerusalem in 586, and by that time, the nation of Israel is no more.

So again, when we look at this historical setting of our text this morning, it would indicate or suggest that man is in control, that the Assyrians have come and destroyed the 10 tribes of Israel, that the Babylonians have come and attacked and defeated Judah, and eventually completely destroyed it and taken them into captivity.

So from a purely human perspective, as we look at that historical setting, this mess that is the nation of Israel, this mess is due to political and economic and military weakness where the nations couldn't stand up to much stronger forces.

So when we look at the background to the book as a whole, it suggests, well, maybe man is in control, and then when we look at the background to this text itself here in chapter 27, it also could suggest that man is in control.

I mean, we said, I pointed out that verse one should read, in the beginning of Zedekiah, the king of Judah came this word to Jeremiah. That is an indicator, that's a timestamp at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, and what we know about the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah is it didn't come in a pretty way.

It came because in that second wave of the Babylonian attack and captivity, when that occurred, Zedekiah's predecessor, Jehoiakim had been the king, and the Babylonians took Jehoiakim the king. In fact, you can turn back to chapter 26, verse one, you read about the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah.

That king, Jehoiakim, was attacked by the Babylonians, and the Babylonians took Jehoiakim into captivity, into exile. That, of course, left a void on the throne, and that void was filled, very briefly, by Jehoiakin, ending with an N and not an M.

Well, that didn't last long, because what the Babylonians did, they said, no, we're not gonna let this descendant, we're not gonna let this guy, who would naturally become the king, we're not gonna let him sit on the throne and seek to overthrow us.

So they took him off the throne, and they took Zedekiah and put Zedekiah on the throne. Zedekiah was Jehoiakim's brother. Now, think about that in the framework of sibling rivalry. Okay, oh, yeah, Jehoiakim, my brother, he gets to be the king just because he's older.

That doesn't seem fair. This is what Zedekiah could think. Babylonians come along and say, yeah, we're not gonna let him be the king. We're gonna take you, Zedekiah, and we're gonna put you in his place.

Oh, okay, wow, okay, that's great, thank you. You see how this could give the sense that man is in control, Babylonians are in control? So this text comes at the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, and it comes, as we see in verse three, during a summit that's called to plan a revolt against the Babylonians.

It's a summit that involves six nations. And these are, it's an interesting kind of thing. And we've seen this dynamic happen over and over again through history, haven't we? When nations that are normally at odds with one another, they come together to fight a common foe.

We saw that in World War II, right? We had the Allied forces fighting against the Axis. Here's the United States joining forces with the Russians, the Communist Russians, to fight against the Germans.

And ever since, before that and ever since that, we have not been on exactly friendly terms with the Russians, but we come together to fight this common enemy. Well, this is what's going on in verse three.

You have these six small nations who are all threatened by the Babylonians. They come together and say, how can we throw off the yoke of the Babylonians? And look, this seems like a very reasonable, justifiable cause.

These Babylonians were ruthless. They were a violent people. In fact, let me just give you a little taste of that violence in 2 Kings 25, when eventually Zedekiah is going to end up himself being taken to Babylon.

We read this in 2 Kings 25, verses five through seven. It says, the army of the Chaldeans, that is the Babylonians, they pursued after the king, that is Zedekiah, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army were scattered from him.

That is all Zedekiah's army. So they took the king and they brought him up to the king of Babylon, to Riblah, and they gave judgment upon him. And this is what the Babylonians did. They slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes.

So here is dad standing in shackles before the king of the Babylonians. And the sentence is, the verdict is read, the sentence is executed. His sons, Zedekiah's sons, are to be put to death. And so they line up the sons of Zedekiah, and as Zedekiah is forced to watch, each one of them, one at a time, is being executed in front of his own eyes.

And if that weren't enough, that's going to be the last image that Zedekiah ever sees. Because then the Babylonians take Zedekiah's eyes and tear them out of his sockets. This is a cruel and ruthless people.

So when this summit is called, and these nations, these other countries, they come together to seek, to try to devise a plot to overthrow the Babylonians, you and I would read about that. We would hear about that.

We'd say, yeah, I mean, of course, this is a good thing. This is a reasonable thing to do. But here's the question. Who will control the final outcome of all this? Will it be the violent, ferocious Babylonians, or will it be the brave and courageous allied forces?

So when we just look at the historical setting of this text, it would indicate to us, it would give us a sense that, you know what, it looks like man is in control of things. But the message that comes to Jeremiah tells us a completely different story.

And this message to the prophet, from the prophet, reveals a completely different source of control. And so he uses, the prophet does, he's given an object lesson that he's called upon to use, and it's an object lesson that is talked about in verses two and three.

In verse two, the Lord comes to Jeremiah, and he says, make bonds and yokes and put them upon your neck. And what he's talking about here is the yoke that would be put on an oxen's neck. And it would consist of two pieces of wood, an upper piece and a lower piece, and they'd go around the neck of the oxen and they would be strapped together.

And the Lord says, you take an oxen's yoke and you put it about your neck and the straps. And there may be here also the idea that he's supposed to use a smaller version of this to carry out the object lesson and the message that goes with it, because verse three goes on to say, send them to the kings, these different kings.

So it seems that he's to take like little models of the yoke and straps and send them to these different kings along with the message to follow and the interpretation of that object lesson in verses five through 11.

And what the Lord wants to communicate as he sends this message is that the message is coming from a very reliable source. In fact, the most reliable source. Verse four, look at verse four again. It says, command them to say unto their masters, thus saith the Lord, notice all caps, Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, and thus shall you say to them.

Most reliable source. A source whose position is extremely powerful. He is Yahweh of hosts. And that self-identifying moniker, Yahweh of hosts, communicates his power and his authority. Yahweh of hosts.

He sends this message and he tells these ambassadors from these different nations who are figuring out how to devise a plot where their different hosts of armies could come together and do battle against the Babylonian host.

Yahweh sends a message and he describes himself as Yahweh of hosts. I am the Lord of hosts. I am the one who is in a position of power and authority over all military hosts, he is saying. His identity here is indeed significant.

He calls himself Yahweh, God of Israel. And the significance of this is kind of lost on us because of our different cultural milieu, I guess. Here are six different nations that are sitting down together at a round table trying to figure out how we're going to cast off the yoke of Babylon.

And each one of those envoys at the table, the Ammonites, Tyre, Sidon, Moabites, et cetera, Edomites, each one of those envoys is looking back to his country that has its God, its territorial God. There is the God of the Moabites, there is the God of the Ammonites, there's the God of the Edomites, there's the God of Tyre, the God of Sidon, and there's the God of Israel.

So you've got these six envoys sitting at their table, each with their own God. And Yahweh of hosts comes and says, I am Yahweh, the God of Israel. And what he is doing here is asserting his authority as he identifies himself as the God of Israel.

His authority is asserted furthermore when he says, you command them, these different envoys. So this message is coming from the most reliable source. And now as we look at the message itself, the message itself we could say has four components to it.

There is first revelation, and then secondly, there are implications. Thirdly, there's a warning. And finally, there's a promise. The revelation is this, and here's what we want to grab onto today. The revelation in verse five, from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, is that he, God, is in complete control.

He is in complete control. And he is in complete control by rights of his ownership. God makes this clear when he says in verse five, he says, I have made the earth and the man and the beast that are upon the ground.

You get the significance of that? Who or what that you can see as you walk this planet, no matter where you go, has God not made? You see, and what God is communicating here is, I have made all of this.

I have made the earth. I have made all the animals that are walking upon the earth. I have made every man that is walking upon this earth. I am the creator of all. Therefore, I am the owner of all. So by rights of his ownership, the Lord is declaring his complete control over it all.

Not only by rights of ownership, but by virtue of his power and his might. He says, I have done this. He says, as he continues, by my great power and my outstretched arm. This is all accomplished by me alone.