God's Good Purpose Through Man's Evil Actions
Study: A Series Through the Bible • Sermon • Submitted
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As we observed last week in the life and betrayal of Joseph, God’s Providence is at work in EVERY SITUATION.
He Sustains…Preserves
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
if Christ were to cease his continuing activity of sustaining all things in the universe, then all except the God would instantly cease to exist.
God does not simply Sustain, though… He brings about all situations…
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
“He works all things according to the counsel of His will...”
The word translated “accomplishes” (energeō) indicates that God “works” or “brings about” all things according to his own will. He gives them “energy” to come about.
No event in creation falls outside of his providence.
God’s Providence is present in Creation...
God’s Providence is present in Creation...
6 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
In Animals
In Animals
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
Something as miniscule as a couple of small birds… Neither will see death outside the providence of God…
In “Random” Events
In “Random” Events
33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
What seems like “chance” to us is actually the Lord at work...
In ALL Aspects of our Lives
In ALL Aspects of our Lives
For example, our dependence on God to give us food each day is affirmed every time we pray...
Matthew 6:11
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
even though we work for our food and (as far as mere human observation can discern) obtain it through entirely “natural” causes.
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
even though God may use “ordinary” means (such as other people) to do so.
God plans our days before we are born,
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
Our words, our steps, our movements, our hearts, and our abilities are all from the Lord.
PRIMARY CAUSE - GOD
PRIMARY CAUSE - GOD
SECONDARY CAUSE - US
SECONDARY CAUSE - US
God’s Providence of Everything should not lead us to deny the reality of our choices and actions.
Again and again Scripture affirms that we really do cause events to happen.
We are significant and we are responsible.
We do have choices, and these are real choices that bring about real results.
Scripture repeatedly affirms these truths as well.
Just as a rock is really hard because God has made it with the property of hardness,
just as water is really wet because God has made it with the property of wetness,
just as plants are really alive because God has made them with the property of life,
so our choices are real choices and do have significant effects,
because God has made us in such a wonderful way that he has endowed us with the property of willing choice.
God causes all things that happen, but He does so in such a way that he somehow upholds our ability to make willing, responsible choices, choices that have real and eternal results, and for which we are held accountable.
What about Evil?
What about Evil?
If God does indeed cause, through his providential activity, everything that comes about in the world, then the question arises, “What is the relationship between God and evil in the world?”
Does God actually cause the evil actions that people do?
Is God responsible for Sin?
In approaching this question, it is best first to read the passages of Scripture that most directly address it.
But we must remember that in all these passages it is very clear that
1. Scripture nowhere shows God as directly doing anything evil,
but rather as bringing about evil deeds through the willing actions of moral creatures.
Moreover, (2) Scripture never blames God for evil or shows God as taking pleasure in evil, and
3. Scripture never excuses human beings for the wrong they do.
However we understand God’s relationship to evil, we must never come to the point where we think that we are not responsible for the evil that we do, or that God takes pleasure in evil or is to be blamed for it. Such a conclusion is clearly contrary to Scripture.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
HERE WE GET TO THE STORY OF JOSEPH…
Scripture clearly says that Joseph’s brothers were wrongly jealous of him (Gen. 37:11),
hated him (Gen. 37:4, 5, 8),
wanted to kill him (Gen. 37:20),
and did wrong when they cast him into a pit (Gen. 37:24)
and then sold him into slavery in Egypt (Gen. 37:28).
Yet later Joseph could say to his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve life” (Gen. 45:5),
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.”
16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died:
17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Joseph’s brothers have not fully attained his forgiveness.
In their manufactured message from their now-deceased father,
we find the first acknowledgement of guilt by the brothers,
yet even now they offer it in the context of a message from their father rather than owning up to it themselves.
The indirect repentance of the brothers, the forgiveness extended by Joseph, and the theological statement concerning God’s purposes contain the climax to the Joseph story and, in some ways, the message of both this story and the entire book.
In the first chapter we saw God’s introduction of blessing.
Once the decision of rebellion was made, sin and blessing continued apace.
Why did God create a world that he knew would go awry?
Why did God allow the serpent into the garden?
Why did God not eliminate sin as soon as it started?
Why do we live in a fallen world?
Why is there evil and suffering?
Whatever we intend for evil, God intends for good.
THIS WEEK YOU’RE GOING TO START READING OF GOD’S WORK IN EGYPT THROUGH MOSES...
The story of the exodus from Egypt repeatedly affirms that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh:
21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.
Ex. 10:27; 11:10...
8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
BUT WAIT… DOESN’T IT SAY THAT PHAROAH HARDENED HIS OWN HEART??
15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
Ex. 8:32; 9:34...
But it should be noted that God’s promises that he would harden Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 4:21; 7:3) are made long before Scripture tells us that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (we read of this for the first time in Ex. 8:15).
Moreover, our analysis of concurrence given above, in which both divine and human agents can cause the same event, should show us that both factors can be true at the same time: even when Pharaoh hardens his own heart, that is not inconsistent with saying that God is causing Pharaoh to do this and thereby God is hardening the heart of Pharaoh.
What was God’s purpose in this?
The Apostle Paul sheds light
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
In fact, God also hardened the hearts of the Egyptian people so that they pursued Israel into the Red Sea: “I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen” (Ex. 14:17).
17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.
This theme is repeated in Psalm 105:25: “He turned their hearts to hate his people.”
25 He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.
Then you have instances like Job, to whom the Lord sent Satan and enemies to crush and take away everything he had.
21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Elsewhere in the Old Testament we read that the Lord “put a lying spirit in the mouth” of Ahab’s prophets (1 Kings 22:23)
23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
and sent the wicked Assyrians as “the rod of my anger” to punish Israel (Isa. 10:5).
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!
He also sent the evil Babylonians, including Nebuchadnezzar, against Israel, saying, “I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants” (Jer. 25:9).
9 behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.
Then God promised that later he would punish the Babylonians also:
12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.
If there is a deceiving prophet who gives a false message, then the Lord says
9 And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
What do we say to all of this?
God Never DOES Evil, and Is Never to be BLAMED for EVIL.
God Never DOES Evil, and Is Never to be BLAMED for EVIL.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
The BLAME and JUDGMENT for Evil Rightly Sits Upon Those Who COMMIT Evil.
The BLAME and JUDGMENT for Evil Rightly Sits Upon Those Who COMMIT Evil.
3 “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations;
4 I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.”
The blame for evil is always on the responsible creature, whether man or demon, who does it, and the creature who does evil is always worthy of punishment.
Scripture consistently affirms that God is righteous and just to punish us for our sins.
And if we object that he should not find fault with us because we cannot resist his will, then we must ponder the apostle Paul’s own response to that question:
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
In every case where we do evil, we know that we willingly choose to do it, and we realize that we are rightly to be blamed for it.
Evil is REAL… And it is Always HARMFUL
Evil is REAL… And it is Always HARMFUL
Scripture consistently teaches that we never have a right to do evil, and that we should persistently oppose it in ourselves and in the world.
We are to pray...
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
, and if we see anyone wandering from the truth and doing wrong, we should attempt to bring him back.
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
We should never even will evil to be done, for entertaining sinful desires in our minds is to allow them to “wage war” against our souls (1 Peter 2:11) and thereby to do us spiritual harm.
If we are ever tempted to say, “Why not do evil that good may come?”
THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR YOU TO COMMIT EVIL.
THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR YOU TO COMMIT EVIL.
Why not Lie so that I can keep my loved one out of Jail?
Why not steal so that I can feed my family?
Why not
as some people were slanderously charging Paul with teaching, we should remember what Paul says about people who teach that false doctrine: “Their condemnation is just” (Rom. 3:8).
God Uses ALL Things to Fulfill His Purposes—EVEN EVIL--for His Glory and for Our Good.
God Uses ALL Things to Fulfill His Purposes—EVEN EVIL--for His Glory and for Our Good.
WHEN EVIL COMES INTO OUR LIVES… WE HAVE THIS BLESSED ASSURANCE…
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
THIS WAS THE SAME CONVICTION OF JOSEPH
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
if we argue that God does not use evil to fulfill his purposes, then we would have to admit that there is evil in the universe that God did not intend, is not under his control, and might not fulfill his purposes.
If we argue that Evil is simply a result of Free Will alone…that evil was inevitable… Then we argue God was powerless to stop it...
This would make it very difficult if not impossible for us to affirm that “all things” work together for good for those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28).
It would even throw into question God’s Omnipotence… If God couldn’t stop it, can he overthrow it?
GOD USES EVEN EVIL TO FULFILL HIS PURPOSES...
THE CULMINATION OF THIS
The most evil deed of all history, the crucifixion of Christ, was ordained by God—not just the fact that it would occur, but also all the individual actions connected with it.
The church at Jerusalem recognized this, for they prayed:
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
THIS WAS THE PLAN FROM THE BEGINNING
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The Evil of Satan crucified our Lord, The evil of humanity (pharisees, sadducees, Herod, Pilate, you, me) crucified our Lord… Yet, it was the Goodness and Grace of God that pleased our LORD...
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
THE MOST EVIL ACT IN HISTORY… NOT THE HOLOCAUST> NOT EVEN ABORTION> CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST…
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.