day no. 15,481: no side outs for sovereignty

Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
He shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise His heel.

There is opposition between good and evil. It is placed there by God. But it is not a ying and yang type opposition with the powers being equally matched and occupying exactly half of the one circle of life. It is not a zero sum opposition. It is also not a situation in which good is in danger of losing. Evil is pushing against good, but evil cannot win.

John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

It is easy to imagine good and evil across the line of scrimmage pushing each other back and forth. Both running plays and attempting to gain yardage and score points. The game is a matter of field position, but only for the sake of scoring points. You don't play merely for the best position on the field. If the position does not produce fruit in the form of points, "better" field position becomes a meaningless proposition. There is no benefit to being in a better position if that position doesn't manifest itself on the scoreboard. That said, in football, if you score, the other team gets the ball back. Or if you gain yards, but go out on downs, the other team gets the ball. This metaphor fits in part, but not perfectly.

Volleyball would be, perhaps, a better image. In volleyball, a team serves and the other team volleys the ball back, attempting to damage the adversary. But it is not rally scoring, it is side out. In rally scoring, every play is an opportunity for either team to score. But that is not the game God has designed. The game is side out and God is serving. He is the sovereign and is always serving up something. In other words, the opposition may do their best to hit the ball back and may put us on our heels on occasion with a smashing blow, but we always are able to recover and continue the play. In the meantime, the only points possible are ours. Since our side is serving, ours is the only one capable of capturing points. So evil can volley the ball back at best, but it cannot score. It can fight back, but it cannot win. It cannot even score because it can never side out God and control the possession. It is always reacting and always trying to do damage, but it cannot register on the scoreboard.

God cannot be sided out. He is always in charge. He will always be serving. He is the initiator. He acts. He is in control and always will be. God never fails. His kingdom come, His will be done... on earth as it is in heaven. Forever and ever. World without end. Amen!