God] does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Dan. 4:35 NIV). He “sustains all things” (Heb. 1:3 NRSV). He can “whistle for the fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt” (Isa. 7:18). He names the stars and knows the sparrows. Great and small, from the People’s Liberation Army of China to the army ants in my backyard, everything is under his control. “Who can act against you without the Lord’s permission? It is the Lord who helps one and harms another” (Lam. 3:37–38 TLB).
