Who is the owner of the Philippines?
The Hebrew word used for the English word Lord is Adonai, which means owner. Therefore it won’t need much of your common sense in figuring out what is ultimately meant by the statement “Jesus is the Lord of the Philippines.”
When I hear the song God of this City by Chris Tomlin, I’m always reminded of the fact that God is the owner of the heaven and the earth. By this, I mean, no man ever owned anything on earth. When I read the account of Noah in Genesis, at the time when he offered his thanksgiving sacrifice to the Owner of the earth, a phrase in the following passages shook my mindset.
But first of all we should know what right has man over earth. Genesis 1:28 states the entirety of the dominion that was given to man. God didn’t give Adam the ownership over the earth he just gave the rulership over the fish, the birds, and anything that moves along the ground. Therefore anyone who wants to rule over the things that were not included in the list is guilty of insubordination. Anyone who wants to rule the things that are not mentioned should first ask the Lord for his permission. Especially when ruling a people or a nation.
Back to where we left off. The phrase that brought God’s revelation to me was “I have set my rainbow in the clouds.” The word “my” was emphasized, because it was the word that changed my point of view. It is like “wait a minute, who is this that claims the rainbow in the sky as His possession?” Well, He is God. As I was stunned by the insight I pondered on the fact, and remembered Psalm 24:1.
When we expound on the proposition on Psalm 24:1 (The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;), we can arrive at some conclusions that is very coherent to God’s Word, biblical in short.
When we say that the earth is the Lord’s possession and everything in it, the world, which signifies the affairs of men and all who live in it; we can only imagine God pointing at the creation and hear Him saying:
That’s my earth.
That’s my sky.
That’s my rainbow.
That’s my ocean.
That’s my mountain.
That’s my oil.
That’s my gold.
That’s my field.
That’s my river.
or even
That’s my Juan Dela Cruz
That’s my people.
That’s my nation.
That’s my government.
That’s my Philippines.
Unless we recognize the rightful owner of our nation, our nation will never rise up from its destitute state. The Philippines is God’s Philippines. The Filipinos are God’s Filipinos.
Not everyone has the right to ask permission from God to rule a people. Only those who are born of God are qualified for the task of governing the land. We can see different candidates all over the Philippines and some of them are seemingly better than others. But even though they seem to be promising politicians to us, they still may never have God’s approval and our land would still suffer from its worsening desperate state despite their diligent efforts. Only the man after God’s own heart was anointed by the Prophet Samuel to replace King Saul. King David, after ruling the flock of sheep, ruled God’s People in the Golden Age of Israel. Today, this scenario strikes a similar resemblance to current politics, amidst a host of unqualified presidentiables a “David” is about to emerge as the President of the Philippines. Bro. Eddie Villanueva, after shepherding God’s sheep (the Church) will shepherd God’s people into its glorious rising, just like what King David did.
