Who can make straight, what God has make crooked.

 Your question, "Who can make straight what God has made crooked?" touches the heart of one of the Bible's most honest and profound wrestlings with the mystery of suffering and God's sovereign will. It is a direct quote from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

📜 The Scriptural Source

The Teacher in Ecclesiastes, having observed life's perplexities, states:

"Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?" (Ecclesiastes 7:13)

This is not a statement of rebellion, but one of humble recognition. It acknowledges that there are aspects of life—mysteries, hardships, and events we perceive as "crooked" or unjust—that we cannot fix or fully understand. Our human power has limits in the face of divine providence.

💡 What Are the "Crooked" Things?

In context, the "crooked" things God has made are not sin or evil (which distort His good creation), but rather:

· The inscrutable mysteries of His plan that we cannot trace.

· The apparent inequities and frustrations woven into life under the sun.

· The suffering, decay, and futility that entered the world through the Fall, yet operate under His ultimate sovereignty.

The rhetorical question expects the answer: No one but God. It calls us to accept our limits and trust His governance even when we don't understand His ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).

✝️ The New Testament Lens: Redemption in Christ

While Ecclesiastes leaves us in a place of sober acceptance, the New Testament reveals a God who enters into our "crooked" reality to redeem and restore it. Jesus Christ is God's answer to the crookedness of a fallen world.

Perspective Key Question The Answer in Christ

Ecclesiastes (Under the Sun) Who can straighten what God has made crooked? No human can. We are called to fear God and accept mystery (Eccl. 7:14, 18).

The Gospels (God With Us) What did God do about the crookedness? God entered it. In Christ, God took the full weight of the world's crookedness—sin, suffering, and death—onto Himself on the cross.

Revelation (The Promise) What will God finally do? He will make all things new. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4-5)

Therefore, while we cannot straighten God's inscrutable ways, we believe in the God who, in Christ, will ultimately straighten every wrong. Our role is not to fix the unfathomable, but to trust the Redeemer.

🙏 A Prayer of Trust

Almighty God,

You see the crooked paths, the broken lines,

The things in my life and this world

That I cannot fix or understand.

Forgive my pride that wants to straighten every bend.

Teach me the wisdom of Ecclesiastes—

To humbly accept what I cannot change,

To fear You, and to do good while I can.

But anchor my heart in the greater revelation of Jesus,

Who bore the ultimate crookedness of sin on the cross,

And who promises to make all things straight and new.

So I trust You with the mysteries.

I wait for Your redemption.

I live in the hope of the day when every crooked line will tell Your story of grace.

Amen.

This is the tension of the Christian life: living with present mysteries while clinging to the future promise, made certain by the cross and resurrection. If you are facing a specific "crooked" situation and need scriptural comfort, I can point you to Psalms and promises that speak into seasons of hardship.