People often feel it is impious to blame God when things go wrong in our lives; it feels wrong to ask “Why did God let this happen?” Instead, we should simply accept that bad things randomly happen to everyone – rather than supposing either that by divine action God caused that bad thing to befall us in particular, or that by divine inaction God allowed it to happen to us.

But the Bible offers a perspective that differs from our conventional wisdom. The Bible is not afraid to assign the responsibility to God for distressing things that occur in human life. God says to Moses, “Who makes people mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4:11). The answer, apparently, is Yes.

When we read the context for this line, we see Moses trying to talk God out of sending him to Egypt. He had begun by saying that the people of Israel would not believe him when he claimed that God had sent him to deliver them; and God provided several miracles that Moses would essentially carry in his pocket, to bring out and show the people God’s power at work (4:1-9). Since that argument had been answered, Moses tried again, indicating that he was the wrong person to send because of the way he talked: “O my lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now since you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (4:10). Some have guessed that this means stuttering or some other speech impediment; others have proposed that it was simply fear of public speaking; in any case, Moses felt his inability to speak well should disqualify him. And God shrugs off this objection: God was in charge when Moses and his slowness of speech were created.

It’s true, of course, that much of the blame for things that go wrong rightly falls on us. We cause harm to one another in so many ways, and as individuals we are often our own worst enemies: before I conclude I’m bad at math because God made me this way, I should consider that it might be because I don’t do my homework. Even so, we should recognize that the sovereign Lord has authority over this world in which we can make those bad choices, and like the captain of a ship acknowledges responsibility for the crew’s actions.

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Ah Lord! You rule over everything! In your sovereignty you rule over the ways of stars and galaxies, and even over the fickle human soul. Teach me to obey your call: and to trust that you really do have the whole world in your hands.