Question

What are your thoughts on this verse?

The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil (Prov 16:4).

Answer

I think of that verse in light of God’s foreknowledge and His providence over creation.

As you probably know, Christians disagree over those subjects, and I’ve written about what I believe here and here and here and here.

However, on any view of God’s foreknowledge, He would have known there would be sin and sinners in His creation. And so, He would have had to account for them in His providential care of creation.

That is certainly the case given the absolute predestination view, or the simple foreknowledge view, or the middle knowledge view, or the “eternal now” view. But even on open theism or process theology—both of which claim God does not know the future because it does not exist to be known—God would have had a high degree of certainty that creatures with free will would sin. So even they would say God had to account for the presence of sin and sinners in His plans for creation.

And I think that is all this Proverb is saying, i.e., God is not surprised or caught off guard by sin. Instead, He has incorporated its presence into His just plans for creation.

What difference does that make?

When you suffer evil at the hands of wicked people, you might cry out in despair to God and ask, “Why?” It can feel like God is absent. Or that things have gone out of control. At those moments, it may not seem like God is exercising care over His creatures.

But Proverbs assures you that, even if you do not have a specific answer to your “Why?” wicked people and evil days both have their role to play.

Trust the Answerer, even if He does not give you an answer.