Lamentations and the sovereignty of God

I’m rereading Ch16 (God’s Providence) of Grudem’s Systematic Theology and I noticed that he is saying that God does indeed “cause evil events to come about and evil deeds to be done.” I’ve always only talked about God “allowing” evil or sin but never “causing” it or “willing” it to occur. Do any of you guys have any clarifying thoughts or articles that speak on this? Also on Isaiah 45:7 which says that God created evil

I’ve been meaning to reply to this thread for weeks XD. Sorry for the late reply. I concur with Christian wholeheartedly and would like to add the following:

First, I have found Lamentations 3:22-40 to be instructive for (1) understanding God’s total, particular sovereignty over all things (including evil), (2) the true heart of God even as He causes evil, and (3) how to respond to that evil

(1) Jeremiah says that God casts off (v31), causes grief (v32), afflicts (v33). Verse 37-39 hits hardest: God alone commands both good and bad; there is no other ultimate authority or force in the world. So, as Christian said so well, the biblical authors are not afraid to use active verbs to say that causes evil or bring suffering.

(2) the heart of God is one of compassion. Lam 3:33 says, “he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” God does not delight to bring pain to His beloved children. He loves them! Yet He does so for His good purposes, “work[ing] all things after the counsel of his will” (Eph 1:11), many which are beyond our comprehension.

For this reason, I think that “permit” and “allow” are useful words to describe God’s sovereignty acts. The analogy I’ve used is that “allow” is the close-up view and “cause” is the landscape view. If someone’s daughter has just died, I wouldn’t come out of the gate and say, “God killed your daughter.” That might be theologically true but it is tactless and borderline cruel. In my mind, “God allowed your daughter to die” brings out the sense of Lam 3:33. Yet it is true that God planned the death of the daughter from before time began. He orchestrated all the events, meticulously controlled all the details. He plans many things of which He “does not approve” (Lam 3:36). “from the mouth of the Most High… both good and bad come” (Lam 3:38).

(3) The entire book of Lamentations is a lament, and the lament doesn’t end in chapter 3! It is wrapped up in complaint and pain and tears and prayer. So, even as we rejoice in God’s sovereignty and lean hard upon God’s faithfulness, this does not immediately ablate the sorrow we feel. It is not necessarily more godly to “get over” the effects of sin by appealing to the sovereignty of God. We can grieve, indeed we must grieve, yet not as those who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13).

Verse 39 and 40 are especially humbling. We ought to remember that we are sinners, and that sinners deserve to suffer. Anything less than instant hell is God’s mercy. And yet NT believers have an even greater hope than this; God uses all of our suffering to accomplish His glory and our good (Rom 8:28), namely a greater conformity to the image of our Savior. All the pain He sovereignly causes/allows/brings/orchestrates/plans/ordains/determines has a wonderful purpose: our sanctification/discipline (Heb 12:4-11) and an eternal weight of glory unworthy to be compared with this age’s sufferings (Rom 8:18). That is our hope in the sovereign God!