John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 3:37-38

"Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the Most High cometh there not evil and good?" — Lamentations 3:37-38 (ASV)

The Prophet, after having mentioned the blasphemy that was prevalent everywhere at that time, strongly condemns such gross stupidity. Who is this? he says. He checks such madness with a sharp rebuke—for the question implies an astonishment, as if the Prophet had said that it was like a prodigy to find men who imagined that God was content with His own leisure and exercised no care over the world. This was to annihilate Him altogether.

God is not a dead being; He is not a specter. What then? God is the judge of the world. Therefore, we see that it was a monstrous thing when men entertained the notion that God is idle or forgetful, that He gives up the world to chance. This is the reason why the Prophet asks, as of something absurd and extremely disgraceful, Who is this? Could it be that men would give themselves up to such a degree of madness? For when they said that anything could happen without God’s command, it was the same as if they denied His power; for what is God without His judgment?

The other verse may be explained in two ways, but as to the meaning, there is little difference. It may, then, be read as a question: Cannot good and evil proceed from the mouth of the Most High? Or it may be rendered thus: “As though good and evil should not proceed from the mouth of God.” As to the substance of what is said, we see that there is no need for disputing, for the Prophet confirms what he had said: that men are to be abhorred who imagine God to be, as it were, dead, and thus rob Him of His power and of His office as a Judge.

And, doubtless, unless we hold this truth, no true religion can exist in us. For unless all the sayings and doings of men, and also their motives and thoughts, come to an account before the tribunal of God, then:

1. there will be no faith;
2. there will be no integrity;
3. and all prayer to God will be extinguished.

For if we believe that God does not regard what is done in the world, who will trust in Him? Who will seek help from Him? Besides, who will hesitate to abandon himself to cruelty, frauds, or plunder? Then, every sense of religion is extinguished by this impious opinion that God spends His time leisurely in heaven and does not attend to human affairs. This is the reason why the Prophet is so indignant against those who said that anything could be done without the command of God.

Let us now see how God commands what is wrongly and foolishly done by men. Surely He does not command the ungodly to do what is wicked, for He would thus render them excusable; for where God’s authority interposes, there can be no blame. But God is said to command whatever He has decreed, according to His hidden counsel.

There are, then, two kinds of commands: one belongs to doctrine, and the other to the hidden judgments of God. The command of doctrine, so to speak, is an evident approval that acquits men; for when one obeys God, it is enough that he has God as his authority, even if he were condemned by a hundred worlds.

Let us, then, learn to be attentive to the commands of doctrine, by which we ought to regulate our life, for they make up the only true rule, from which it is not right to depart. But God is said to command according to His secret decrees what He does not approve, as far as men are concerned. So Shimei had a command to curse, and yet he was not exempt from blame, for it was not his purpose to obey God; indeed, he thought that he had offended God no less than David (2 Samuel 16:5, 6).

Therefore, this distinction ought to be understood: that some things are commanded by God, not so that men may have them as a rule for action, but when God executes His secret judgments by ways unknown to us. Thus, then, this passage ought to be understood: that nothing is carried on without God’s command—that is, without His decree and, as they say, without His ordination.

It therefore appears that those things which seem contingent are yet ruled by the certain providence of God, so that nothing is done at random. And what philosophers call accident, or contingent (ἐνδεχόμενον), is necessary with respect to God; for God decreed before the world was made whatever He was to do, so that there is nothing now done in the world which is not directed by His counsel.

And true is that saying in the Psalms, that our God is in heaven, and doeth whatsoever he pleaseth (Psalms 116:3). But this would not be true if all things were not dependent on God’s counsel. We therefore see that nothing is contingent, for everything that takes place flows from the eternal and immutable counsel of God.

It is indeed true that those things which take place in this or that manner are properly and naturally called contingencies, but what is naturally contingent is necessary, as far as it is directed by God; indeed, what is carried on by the counsel and will of men is necessary.

Philosophers think that all things are contingent (ἐνδεχόμενα). And why? Because the will of man may turn either way. They then conclude that whatever men do is contingent, because he who wills may change his will.

These things are true when we consider the will of man in itself and the exercise of it; but when we raise our eyes to the secret providence of God, who turns and directs the counsels of men according to His own will, it is certain that however much men may change in their purposes, God never changes.

Let us then hold this doctrine: that nothing is done except by God’s command and ordination, and, with the Holy Spirit, regard with abhorrence those profane men who imagine that God sits idly, as it were, on His watchtower and takes no notice of what is done in the world, and that human affairs change at random, and that men turn and change independently of any higher power.

Nothing is more diabolical than this delirious impiety, for as I have said, it extinguishes all the acts and duties of religion.

For there will be no faith, no prayer, no patience—in short, no religion—unless we believe and know that God exercises such care over the world, of which He is the Creator, that nothing happens except through His certain and unchangeable decree.

Now those who object and say that God is thus made the author of evils may be easily refuted, for nothing is more preposterous than to measure the incomprehensible judgment of God by our limited minds. The Scripture cries aloud that the judgments of God are a great deep; it exhorts us to reverence and sobriety, and Paul does not in vain exclaim that the ways of God are unsearchable (Romans 11:33).

Since, then, God’s judgments in their height far surpass all our thoughts, we ought to beware of audacious presumption and curiosity; for the more audacious a man becomes, the farther God withdraws from him.

This, then, is our wisdom: to embrace only what the Scripture teaches. Now, when it teaches us that nothing is done except through the will of God, it does not speak indiscriminately, as though God approved of murders, and thefts, and sorceries, and adulteries. What then?

It means that God, by His just and righteous counsel, so orders all things that He still does not will iniquity and abhors all injustice. When, therefore, adulteries, murders, and plunders are committed, God applies, as it were, a bridle to all those things; and however much the most wicked may indulge themselves in their vices, He still rules them (this they themselves acknowledge). But for what end does He rule them?

It is so that He may punish sins with sins, as Paul teaches us. For he says that God gives up to a reprobate mind those who deserve such a punishment, that He gives them up to disgraceful lusts, that He blinds more and more the despisers of His word (Romans 1:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:10). And God has various ways, innumerable and unknown to us.

Let us then learn not to subject God to our judgment, but to adore His judgments, though they surpass our comprehension. And since their cause is hidden from us, our highest wisdom is modesty and sobriety.

Thus we see that God is not the author of evils, though nothing happens but by His nod and through His will—for His design is far different from that of wicked men.

Then it would be absurd to implicate Him as an associate in the same crime when a murderer, a thief, or an adulterer is condemned. And why? Because God has no participation in thefts and adulteries; but the vices of men are comprehended within His judgments in a way that is wonderful and incomprehensible.

In a word, as far as the heavens are from the earth, so great is the difference between the works of God and the deeds of men, for the ends, as I have said, are altogether different.

The Prophet says that from the mouth of the Most High proceed good and evil. By “mouth” he means His decree. God indeed does not always declare that He is a Judge; He has often executed punishment on the wicked, as it were, in silence, for there were no prophets among the Gentiles to proclaim the judgments He brought on them.

But though God does not always speak when He punishes the wickedness of men, it is yet said that good and evil proceed from His mouth, because He allots to men their punishment as it seems good to Him; and then He spares others or bears with them for a time.