Does God control evil as well as good?
Scripture answers yes, and it never makes God the author of sin. God rules over evil the way a king rules over rebels: nothing escapes His decree or His limits, and yet the guilt stays wholly with the one who does it. The cross is the proof. The worst deed in history was also the most certainly planned, and there God meant for good what men meant for evil.
This question arose from studying What does it mean that God is sovereign? and Why does God allow suffering and evil?.
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What the Scripture says
One deed, two intentions
Joseph names both causes in a single sentence: 'you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.' The brothers were not puppets; their envy was their own, and Joseph still calls it evil. Nor was the outcome an accident God salvaged afterward, because God meant it, and the good He meant was the saving of many lives. Years before, Joseph had said it plainly: 'So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God.' Scripture does not choose between the brothers' guilt and God's purpose. It states both, about the same deed, in one breath.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.
Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.
The cross: the worst deed, most certainly planned
This is where the question stops being abstract. Peter tells the crowd in Jerusalem that Jesus was 'delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God,' and in the same sentence says, 'you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed.' The church's prayer later said the same: Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and Israel 'were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.' Isaiah goes further back and calls it God's own pleasure: 'Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.' Jesus holds both truths at once. His betrayal 'has been determined, but woe to that man through whom he is betrayed!' A plan that certain, and a guilt that real. And He tells Pilate, 'You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above.'
him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
“For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it has been determined, but woe to that man through whom he is betrayed!”
Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”
God claims the darkness as well as the light
Scripture is not embarrassed to say that disaster is under God's hand. 'I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.' Amos asks a question whose answer is built into it: 'Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn't done it?' Lamentations asks, 'Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?' And God says of Himself, 'I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal.' These texts speak of calamity and death, the ruin that comes on a city or a life, and they tell us that nothing here simply happens. It all lies inside the counsel of the One who works all things after the counsel of His will.
I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it? Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will;
And yet God is not the author of sin
Here is the guardrail that keeps all of this from becoming blasphemy. James allows no one to blame God for temptation: 'Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God can't be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.' He traces temptation to its real source: 'each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.' John states it flatly: 'God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.' Habakkuk appeals to God's own purity: 'You who have purer eyes than to see evil.' And God says of the worst idolatry in Judah, 'which I didn't command them, neither did it come into my mind.' So Scripture never says that God sins, approves of sin, or delights in it. He decrees that it will happen, sets its limits, and turns it to His purpose, while the doing of it remains the creature's own and the creature is answerable for it.
Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech; which I didn’t command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
How Scripture holds the two together
Scripture gives us a pattern rather than a formula. God permits, and He limits: Satan may touch Job's possessions, then Job's body, but never one step past the line God draws, 'only spare his life.' God moves even where a creature acts: one account says 'Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel,' and another says of the same event that 'he moved David against them,' naming God. God sends the deception that a rebellious heart has already chosen: 'I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets,' and in the next verse, 'Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets.' And when people insist on refusing Him, His judgment is to give them what they wanted: 'God gave them up to a reprobate mind,' and 'God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie.' Permission, limits, direction, judgment: through all of it the sin stays the sinner's own, and God stays holy.
Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh.
Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
Again Yahweh’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’ Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.”
Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
What this does not mean, and why it is comfort
It does not mean evil is not evil: 'Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.' It does not excuse the guilty: Peter says God planned the cross, and then tells the same crowd, 'you have taken by the hand of lawless men.' It does not promise we will be shown the reason now: 'the secret things belong to Yahweh our God,' and His judgments are 'past tracing out.' What it does mean is that no betrayal, no cruelty, and no loss is loose in the universe. Joseph's sentence is the whole answer, because what was meant to destroy became the means of rescue. Paul's promise stands on the same foundation: 'all things work together for good for those who love God,' and nothing, 'neither death, nor life… nor any other created thing,' can separate us from the One who rules it all. God controls evil, and evil does not control Him.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As you read, you may wonder…
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Who is Satan, and what does he do?→The Unseen Realm trail“Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”Why does God harden hearts?→God the Father trail“but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;”We haven't written this one yet. Take it to your church or small group: the Word answers it wherever it is asked. If we study it here later, all the better.
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Verses to meditate on
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.
him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
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