Acts 17:26

24 ^a“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is ^bLord of heaven and earth, ^cdoes not dwell in temples made with hands.

25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He ^agives to all life, breath, and all things.

26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and ^athe boundaries of their dwellings,

27 ^aso that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, ^bthough He is not far from each one of us;

28 for ^ain Him we live and move and have our being, ^bas also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, ^awe ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

30 Truly, ^athese times of ignorance God overlooked, but ^bnow commands all men everywhere to repent,

31 because He has appointed a day on which ^aHe will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by ^braising Him from the dead.”

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
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What Does Acts 17:26 Mean?

Acts 17:26-28

Notice that in Deuteronomy the focus is Israel, but in Acts it is on the Gentiles. We almost automatically accept that God is working among the descendants of Abraham, but Acts 17 extends the concept far beyond that. The natural and correct conclusion from this is that God exercises His will and purpose among unconverted heathens. He may not call them to salvation at this time, but He is certainly manipulating events to His own ends in their world as well as ours.

Paul says that God determines their preappointed times as well as where they will live. This means that He has predestined when they will rise to power, prosperity, and dominance, and when they will fade into weakness, poverty, and subjection. Many more billions of Gentiles than Israelites have lived during the 6,000 years of man's history.

God, then, has overseen the mighty angelic kingdom, the demons, the Israelite nations, the Gentiles, and the church over millennia and has kept all of them moving toward the successful conclusion of His purpose! What kind of God is this we serve? How awesome His mind, purpose, wisdom, and love!

Man does not merely owe His life to God's creative acts, but his movements across time are to some extent programmed by our Sovereign God—even down to the personal, individual level, as He sees fit. Almighty God works in this manner to the end that all might seek and find Him.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Five

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What Does Acts 17:26 Mean?

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