Daniel Week 2 - Day 4

Week 2 - A Dream and A Kingdom

Day 4 - From "He" to "You"

The homework states that "the highest theme of the Book of Daniel is undoubtedly the sovereignty of God."

The "sovereignty of God" is a term that we often hear, but do we really understand it?  The definition given in the homework is this... "God's sovereignty means that He has supremacy over all things and does whatever He desires with whomever or whatever He pleases.

I thought that I would check this definition with scripture and discovered something very interesting!  I went to http://www.blueletterbible.org/ to do a search for the phrase "sovereignty of God".  This phrase does not exist in any of the translations I searched - KJV, NKJV, NLT and NIV!!

If fact the word "sovereignty" is only found twice in the whole Bible in the NIV translation and both of those are in Daniel.  Daniel 5:18 and 7:27.  I thought that was very interesting. 

Of course God then provided me some wisdom and knowledge and I immediately thought I better do a search for "sovereign".  Well that certainly provided an even more interesting result!
- it does not occur in KJV or the NKJV!
- it occurs 292 times in the NLT and 303 times in the NIV

So what in the world does that mean?  Well, in both NLT and NIV one of the first verses to use the word "sovereign" is Exodus 23:17 Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.
(NIV). 

So now I am curious to read the verse in KJV! Exodus 23:17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD. Well that didn't help much did it!  Except that I did a Kay Arthur study a few years ago on the Names of God.  In that study I learned how the names of God in Hebrew were translated in different ways into English.  hmmm time to pull out my Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible which happens to be for the KJV.

The Hebrew word used in Exodus 23:17 for Lord is adon which according to the concordance means lord, master, one who has authority over another.  It is also used most often with the next Hebrew word...

The Hebrew word used in Exodus 23:17 for GOD is yhwh or as we often say yahweh, which according to the concordance means the proper name of the one true God; knowledge and use of the name implies personal or covenant relationship; the name pictures God as the one who exists and/or causes existence.

Ok, so basically the term "Lord GOD" in the KJV or NKJV was then translated to "Sovereign Lord" in the NLT and NIV. Do you get it yet?  Let's do another one so you can see how words and even how words are written are so important.  Let's look at this verse in the KJV...

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Of course it is verse we all know, even my kids have this one memorized.  But what you may not know is that the Hebrew word used in this verse for God is elohim, which according to the concordance means God but in the plural (plural of majesty; plural in form but singular in meaning,with a focus on great power).  Are you as amazed as I am right now? Plural! Right there in the very first verse of the Bible is the trinity and we did not even know it was there.  Kind of makes me want to study Hebrew!

Wow, that's what you call being led down a path, digging deep, and finding treasure!  Fun isn't it?!  This has truly been an example of the sovereignty of God.  He does whatever He desires with whomever or whatever He pleases. Today He decided to use some Bible reference tools for us to gain a better understanding of who He is.