I think I will try this one more time.

“For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.  I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me, there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.  I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:4-5 ESV).

Isaiah writes of the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign over all things. God designed creation, and it should be evident that he is sovereign because He created it Ex Nihilo from nothing, so everything is His. Nothing has happened or will happen that God does not control.

This truth of sovereignty often causes confusion or doubt in the minds of all people. I often hear, “If God is good, how come there is evil in the world?” or, “How come God lets bad things happen to Good people?”

God gave man limited decision-making. I want to underline limited. God gave Adam and Eve limited decision-making, giving them rules to live and thrive in Eden. They chose evil. Adam’s failure and sin of the fall were passed on to all of us; our essence is sinful.

Secondly, Bad things do not happen to good people. Paul put it this way, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:22-23 ESV.) What we should be asking is, why do good things happen to bad people? Paul tells us none are good. We are a sinful people, and we should be thankful God has patience, or we would all be experiencing a permanent heat wave in the dark, in pain, alone. God only allowed a bad thing to happen to a good person once, and that occurred on Calvary.

So, how do we reconcile sovereignty and human freedom? We reconcile it with God being Supreme, and we are His creation. Through the doctrine of concurrence, we make our decisions in our lives, and God works through those decisions without interrupting our freedom. Joseph’s brothers made a decision to sell Joseph into slavery. God did not influence them; He did not coerce them; it was their free decision to treat their brother with evil. God worked through Joseph’s brothers’ decision and used that decision for good.

We must remember that unless God enables us, we cannot choose holy things; we will select the wicked. Unless God enables us, we do not have the ability to choose Christ. But when we are enabled by God and understand the Gospel, we can choose Christ and all things holy. All the while, we will still trip and fall and sin. But because we have chosen a Savior, Christ Jesus, we have assurances of everlasting life. God is sovereign, and I am thankful.

Peace and grace!