Does God create or plan bad things? What do Isaiah 45:7, Lamentations 3:38 and Amos 3:6 say about this?
Answer:
These verses speak about God bringing bad things to pass (the King James version from the 17th century translates some words as “evil” where modern translations use “calamity”, “disaster” or “ill”). They talk of God bringing disaster on people as His righteous judgement for their evil ways, or using a “bad circumstance” from someone’s perspective for ultimate good. It is God’s nature, role and right to punish those who sin.
God is not an evil God, nor does He delight in punishing us for our sin, but because He is righteous and just, a penalty must be paid for sin.
Isaiah 45 verse 7 says, “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.” (NIV). In verse 1, God makes it clear that He is addressing King Cyrus. He lets Cyrus know that his position as king and conqueror is given to him by God, who is sovereign over every thing that happens to man. This is who God is.
Lamentations 3 verse 38 says, “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” (NIV) This is followed by verse 39 that makes our attitude towards this clear: “Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?” Lamentations then urges us to repent and return to the Lord.
Amos 3 verse 6 says, “When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?” (NIV) This is in specific reference to the punishment that God is going to inflict on Israel for its sins, as clearly spelt out in verse 2.
In other words, the exception is not that bad things happen to people that deserve good things, but rather that good things still happen to people that deserve God’s punishment! The Bible is clear that we have all turned away from God, and are hence are deserving His judgement (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23). God would be completely just if he were to punish everyone in the world. Yet, God in His grace punishes Christ in our place, and gives us a way of escape by turning from our sin and believing in Jesus for our salvation (Romans 6:23, John 3:16).
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