How can God give men and nations free will yet still have everything go according to His plan?
God grants men and nations genuine free will, yet because He is sovereign, omniscient, and possesses foreknowledge, their choices still unfold according to His plan. Nothing catches Him by surprise, and He remains absolutely in control, bringing all things to the end He has determined, even though this harmony is hard to comprehend.
Les teaches that this is one of the hardest things to put together, and he says he does not even try to fully explain it. Yet the context shows the resolution: God set humanity in motion in Genesis, gave men and nations their free will, and still everything they do is according to His plan, bringing all things to the end He planned and according to His foreknowledge. God is able, sovereign, and omniscient; He is absolutely in control of everything. Israel is a case in point: God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew, and nothing Israel did caught God by surprise, even though they operated under free will as a nation.