Arminianism's Human's Free Will in light of Proverbs 16:4 & Proverbs 16:33 (since said verses strongly suggest support for Calvinism's predestination)

Question

Proverbs 16:4

The Lord has made everything for [c]its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.

16:4 Hebrew OT: Westminster Leningrad Codex כֹּ֤ל פָּעַ֣ל יְ֭הוָה לַֽמַּעֲנֵ֑הוּ וְגַם־רָ֝שָׁ֗ע לְיֹ֣ום רָעָֽה׃

Proverbs 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.

16:33 Hebrew OT: Westminster Leningrad Codex בַּ֭חֵיק יוּטַ֣ל אֶת־הַגֹּורָ֑ל וּ֝מֵיְהוָ֗ה כָּל־מִשְׁפָּטֹֽו׃

How would Arminianism supporters explain Proverbs 16:4 & Proverbs 16:33 (since said verses strongly suggest support for Calvinism's predestination)?

(Side Question:

@ray-butterworth Thanks for your posting.

For Proverbs 16:4, would the following be a reasonable analogy?

• -A person named John Doe is walking all alone in the forest with a bleeding physical wound

  -He sees a really dirty rag near a tree

  -He decides to take the dirty rag, and wrap it around his wound to slow down the bleeding

  -Now, he knows the dirty rag can cause physical infections, but for the time being, the dirty rag will slow the bleeding

  -Therefore, he decides that if he does get any infections from the dirty rag then he will deal with it later because the immediate concern is to Reduce the bleeding.

To conclude, the dirty rag represents Proverbs 16:4's wicked. It's sort of like selecting the lesser to 2 evils in order to put an end to the greater of the 2 evils by reducing the physical wound's bleeding which is an immediate concern at that time. If any physical infections show up which is a consequence of using the dirty rag then it can be addressed at a later point in time. )

Answer 1

Proverbs 16:4

The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, …

Everything that is made, whether by God or man, is made for its own purpose, just as hammer is made to drive nails, a car is made to transport people, etc. But that doesn't mean that the hammer was predestined to drive a specific nail into a specific piece of wood, nor that the car will experience a flat tire at a specific time and place.

… Even the wicked for the day of evil.

The Assyrians for instance were given a societal personality that allowed them to serve as a tool for the occasional correction of Israel at times when they drifted away from God's teaching and into idolatry.

But that doesn't mean that any individual Assyrian's actions were predetermined, only that, at the appropriate times, the one nation would attack the other.

Proverbs 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.

Casting lots is a purely random non-supernatural process. There is nothing about the dice themselves that can be affected by the question being asked or the person asking the question.

But on some special occasions, when God does care about the outcome, that is when a supernatural decision is made, and that decision was from no source other than the Lord.

Other than that rare occurrence, the dice do not make decisions; people simply use them as a way of avoiding their own responsibility to make decisions.