Proverbs 16:4
The LORD has made everything for His purpose—even the wicked for the day of disaster.
BSB
ASV
Jehovah hath made everything for its own end; Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
KJV
The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
CONFERENCE 11:6 (435)
Only God does what is good, acting from love of goodness for its own sake and not moved by fear or hope of reward. As Solomon says, "The Lord has done all things for his own sake." For the sake of his own goodness he bestows an abundance of goodness upon the worthy and the unworthy, because he can neither be wearied by wrongdoing nor provoked to painful emotion by human wickedness. He always remains what he is, perfect in goodness and unchanging in nature.
The Lord hath made all things for himself - He has so framed and executed every part of his creation, that it manifests his wisdom, power, goodness, and truth. Even the wicked for the day of evil - וגם רשע ליום רעה vegam rasha leyom raah.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
2 Peter 2:9if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
leads to
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will…
Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the…
Through
Isaiah 43:21The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise.
leads to
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Through
1 Peter 2:8and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.
leads to
And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.
Through
Isaiah 43:7everyone called by My name and created for My glory, whom I have indeed formed and made.”
leads to
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise.
in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.
