[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ next_background_color=”#ffffff” module_id=”particles-bg1″ _builder_version=”3.22.3″ use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”rgba(0,4,15,0.99)” background_color_gradient_end=”rgba(0,0,0,0.36)” background_color_gradient_direction=”16deg” background_image=”https://eggplan11647644.wp02.tmd.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/jerusalem-wall.jpg” background_blend=”multiply” custom_margin=”||” custom_padding=”70px|0px|70px|0px|true|false” bottom_divider_style=”mountains2″ bottom_divider_height=”60px”][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_3,1_3″ admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_post_title comments=”off” _builder_version=”3.19.17″ meta_font=”||||||||” min_height=”1014px” custom_margin=”||” custom_padding=”||” custom_css_post_meta=”margin-bottom: 2em;”][/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.6.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” vertical_offset_tablet=”0″ horizontal_offset_tablet=”0″ hover_enabled=”0″ z_index_tablet=”0″ text_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” link_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ul_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ol_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” ol_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” ol_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” quote_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” quote_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” quote_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_2_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_2_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_2_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_3_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_3_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_3_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_4_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_4_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_4_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_5_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_5_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_5_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” header_6_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_6_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_6_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_tablet=”0px” sticky_enabled=”0″]Isaiah 5:13-25; Amos 5:4-15; Luke 11:34-36; John 1:1-5
Evil is bad. That is, it is harmful and painful, it breaks things and ruins lives, it preys on the weak, and it and makes a mockery of lofty ideals. Evil happens; it is adversity in life. Sometimes the Lord causes it – or, more accurately, lets us reap the evil fruits of our own folly and rebellion. That’s an aspect of evil we should be able to understand, but what we may not understand is wickedness: evil done on purpose by those who desire to bring harm. The Lord has some strong words about that, such as this:
Acquitting the wicked and condemning the righteous: both are an abomination to Adonai. (Proverbs 17:15 TLV)
Calling evil good and good evil is obviously wrong. How could anyone do such a thing? But before we go down the path of condemning those habitually wicked and ignorant people who fall for, or, worse yet, perpetuate such twisted logic, maybe we should consider Isaiah’s prophecy of judgment on Judah given at the time Israel’s Northern Kingdom was about to be destroyed by the Assyrians. Isaiah 5 opens with a parable about a faithless bunch of people who have lived securely in a vineyard the Lord planted, but which had not produced the good fruit He expected. Yeshua spoke that same parable to illustrate the wickedness running through the remnant of Israel in His day (Matthew 21:33-46). Here’s what Isaiah says next:
13Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;
And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
15So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,
The eyes of the proud also will be abased.
16But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment,
And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
17Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,
And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.18Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,
And sin as if with cart ropes;
19Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”
20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.Isaiah 5:13-24 NASB (emphasis added)
Those are strong words for a people who thought they were doing the right thing. Maybe they thought superficial compliance to the Lord was enough, and that there was no need to learn how He really intended them to live. Whatever they thought, it seems that the people of Judah took the same approach to the Creator as their cousins in Israel. Listen to what Amos, a contemporary of Isaiah, said to them:
4For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel,
“Seek Me that you may live.
5But do not resort to Bethel
And do not come to Gilgal,
Nor cross over to Beersheba;
For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity
And Bethel will come to trouble.
6Seek the Lord that you may live,
Or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph,
And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel,
7For those who turn justice into wormwood
And cast righteousness down to the earth.”8He who made the Pleiades and Orion
And changes deep darkness into morning,
Who also darkens day into night,
Who calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the surface of the earth,
The Lord is His name.
9It is He who flashes forth with destruction upon the strong,
So that destruction comes upon the fortress.10They hate him who reproves in the gate,
And they abhor him who speaks with integrity.
11Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor
And exact a tribute of grain from them,
Though you have built houses of well-hewn stone,
Yet you will not live in them;
You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine.
12For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great,
You who distress the righteous and accept bribes
And turn aside the poor in the gate.
13Therefore at such a time the prudent person keeps silent, for it is an evil time.14Seek good and not evil, that you may live;
And thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you,
Just as you have said!
15Hate evil, love good,
And establish justice in the gate!
Perhaps the Lord God of hosts
May be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.Amos 5:4-15 NASB (emphasis added)
These passages should be disturbing – not because they describe people who were obviously wicked by the common understanding, but because God called them wicked and evil when they acted (at least outwardly) like righteous people. Both kingdoms of Israel called on the Name of the Lord and rightly considered themselves part of His Covenant people, but their attitudes and actions revealed hearts far from the Covenant. Evil to them was a word to describe their pagan neighbors. They didn’t seem to realize that evil had taken root inside them, expanding insidiously until its rot made God’s nation odious in His sight.
We have our modern equivalent of calling evil good and good evil. C.S. Lewis explains the modern manifestation of evil in The Screwtape Letters:
We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment. . . The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. (C.S. Lewis, Preface to The Screwtape Letters, Revised Edition)
From what Lewis says, it seems that evil hides behind the well-polished, polite, cultured veneer of civilization. That explains why John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, was an outcast from the polite society of first century Judea, while the corrupt Caiaphas rose to the office of High Priest. It goes with the deceptive nature of evil, and the straightforward nature of righteousness, which cares little for elaborate facades masking rotten hearts.
Evil can mimic righteousness, but can never understand it. Evil emphasizes appearance, but righteousness seeks to be genuine. This is evident in the lives of two 20th century Europeans. Adolf Hitler was an artist. Had things gone somewhat differently, he might have enjoyed a career as a painter in his native Austria, and his tortured soul would have manifested primarily in his artwork. But things did go differently, and Hitler’s armies occupied much of Europe.
When the socially acceptable people of Holland decided to go along to get along with their Nazi conquerors, a humble, righteous watchmaker stood in line to get a yellow star of David in solidarity with his Jewish neighbors.Caspar Ten Boom knew his choice was perilous, and it cost his family dearly, starting with his own death in prison. Yet he could discern between righteousness and evil, thanks to a lifetime of prayer, Bible study, and interaction with fellow saints of God.
John 1 contrasts righteousness and evil in terms of light and dark, saying:
The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it]. (John 1:5 AMP)
With this in mind, we should consider more seriously the exhortation of our Messiah:
Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is sick, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If then your body is full of light, with no part of it dark, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its gleam. (Luke 11:34-36 TLV)
[This article is available as a podcast at https://thebarkingfox.com/2020/10/25/the-insidious-nature-of-evil/.][/et_pb_text][et_pb_team_member name=”Al McCarn” image_url=”https://eggplan11647644.wp02.tmd.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/al-and-char-in-tn.jpg” _builder_version=”4.6.6″ header_font_size=”24px” body_font_size=”14px” vertical_offset_tablet=”0″ horizontal_offset_tablet=”0″ custom_padding=”30px|30px|30px|30px|true|true” link_option_url=”https://thebarkingfox.com/” link_option_url_new_window=”on” z_index_tablet=”0″ custom_css_member_image=”max-width: 180px” header_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” header_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” header_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” body_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” body_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” body_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” position_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” position_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” position_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” body_link_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” body_link_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” body_link_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” body_ul_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” body_ul_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” body_ul_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” body_ol_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” body_ol_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” body_ol_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” body_quote_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” body_quote_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” body_quote_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” border_width_all=”1px” border_color_all=”#dbdbdb” border_radii_image=”on|500px|500px|500px|500px” box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_horizontal_image_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_image_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_image_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_image_tablet=”0px” text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” saved_tabs=”all”]
I am a lifelong disciple of Jesus (Yeshua) of Nazareth, an avid student of the Bible, a devoted husband and father, a 29-year veteran of the United States Army, and a historian who connects people with their own stories.
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