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Exchanged Glory V: God Meant it for Good
Evil becomes a footnote in the grand scheme of our lives as He dives into our messes and makes them meaningful.
Some of my convictions get me into trouble, and that has been the case with what I will share in this chapter. I believe that God is in total control of the universe. Most people don’t have a problem with that statement, but they get upset when I take it a step farther and say that everything that happens on this planet happens according to His plan.
Their objections are understandable: “Evil happens; if God plans for that, doesn’t that mean He causes it? And if He causes it, doesn’t that make Him responsible for it?” Appendix A explains how God is perfectly capable of planning something without causing it – or even wanting it to happen – because He doesn’t force the outcome. Instead He chooses when, where, and how He will either allow us to continue on some foolish path or intervene to influence us toward something better. By injecting His input into the events of our lives, He works with our choices to determine what will happen. I won’t repeat Appendix A here. Instead, this chapter will focus on answering some common objections to God’s sovereignty.
This is an important subject, because many of us miss the good news in the fact that His plans include the evil that occurs on this planet. It means that He isn’t limited by our failures or the failures of those who sin against us. Joseph’s statement in Genesis 50:20 is based on this reality:
And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
The Hebrew word translated ‘meant’ means literally to “weave or fabricate” and figuratively to “plot or contrive.”[71] It is easy to see how Joseph’s brothers plotted and contrived to send him to Egypt. Amazingly, however, Joseph uses the same Hebrew word to describe what God was doing. He was weaving the evil actions of Joseph’s brothers into a plan that would give Joseph the character (from finding God in difficult circumstances), the skills (from his training in Potiphar’s house and the prison), and the position (leadership in Egypt) to save many lives.
Although the truth of God’s sovereignty sounds wonderful, it gets sticky when I take it to its logical conclusion, especially when I apply it to sex addicts. Some of them were abused when they were young and have suffered from years of twisted thinking as a result. A small number of them have abused others. We instinctively react with revulsion at the thought that any of this could be a part of God’s plan. It is just too horrible.
In our minds, if God’s plans include these sorts of trouble, He is at the very least guilty of criminal neglect. He knows about the abuse ahead of time, He is able to stop it, yet He chooses to let it continue. We don’t know what to do with a God like that, so we erect mental blocks to keep us from any theology that might lead us to view Him in this way.
For example, we may say that abuse takes place because He cannot interfere with human freedom; it would violate His own laws for Him to step in and stop an abuser. This argument falls short when we consider the many biblical examples where God did stop abusers. Did He interfere with Pharaoh’s freedom when He freed Israel from slavery and brought the Red Sea down on the Egyptians (Exodus 14)? How about when Herod fell dead and was prevented from persecuting the early church (Acts 12:20-23)? God is clearly able to stop any abuser, and He sometimes does so. Any theology that tries to take this ability away from Him is misled.
Another approach is to talk as if the devil and those who listen to him were the only ones making choices. We say in effect, “God wasn’t anywhere near that crime. It was an attack of the enemy, and God was totally out of the picture.” There is, of course, great truth to the idea that God never does evil and the devil and those who listen to him do. But we need to ask how the devil and the abusers managed to commit a crime in God’s universe. Isn’t God all-knowing (so He knew what was going to happen), all-present (so He was there when it happened), and all-powerful (so He could have stopped it)? Why didn’t He step in when He had the chance?
At this point, we may say that God was doing everything possible, but the victims stepped outside His safety zone. They didn’t have the level of faith, wisdom, or obedience required to keep evil from striking. This statement is, of course, sometimes true. People can unnecessarily open themselves to abuse, but it is preposterous to say that this applies to every case. Many victims are children after all! What terrible sin on their part could have placed them outside of God’s safety zone?
In addition, even when people open the door to trouble, God sometimes protects them. Was David, an adulterer and murderer who God protected many times, always blameless? What sin has an abused victim committed that is any worse than the sins of others who have not been victimized?
The Bible is clear: God is strong enough, wise enough, and merciful enough to protect anyone, whether they deserve it or not – yet He sometimes chooses not to. Any attempt on our part to weaken Him by saying that evil happens because He was unable to stop it is unscriptural. It is understandable why we might turn to those sorts of ideas. We don’t want people to see Him as a cruel or detached bureaucrat, so we would rather limit His power than question His love, but it is a mistake to think that doing this will truly help anyone.
When we limit Him, we take away the basis for our faith that He can truly protect us. We imagine a world in which we can be devastated in spite of His best efforts. Granted, this makes Him harder to blame, but it also gives us little hope for safety. He isn’t really able to come to our rescue, so we feel that the only way we can be secure is to grab whatever control we can for ourselves. This belief strengthens the grip of the Unprotected Heart Stronghold.
Our theological difficulties are a new form of a centuries-old argument against the Christian God. In this viewpoint, if He is all-powerful and all-knowing, yet He allows evil, He must not be all-good. (If He was all-good, He would use His power and knowledge to stop evil.) On the other hand, if He is all-good, He must not be all-powerful and all-knowing. (Because an all-good God would stop evil if He had the power and knowledge to do so.) Since the Christian God claims to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, those who want to justify unbelief argue that He is a self-contradiction that cannot exist.
The apparent contradiction exists only because we don’t think in terms of the Holy Spirit’s work in people’s lives. If we were to truly experience His touch in our darkest moments, we would see that He continues to be good even when evil comes. His comfort in the life of someone like Joseph demonstrates how He wants to come alongside anyone who suffers.
Someone may quip, “What kind of God considers Himself good because He comforts those who suffer. Why not just stop their suffering!?”
We need to understand that He balances many “goods” as He runs the Universe. I previously mentioned our freedom to make decisions. If He were to stamp out evil by removing our ability to choose, He would also be stamping out the many benefits we enjoy from this ability.
Another good is mercy. We have all committed sins for which we deserve to burn in hell, yet through mercy we can be accepted by Him. God would rather forgive than to force obedience at every turn. Mercy is a goodness that we would never know if He instantly removed evil.
There is also the good of delayed justice. When someone refuses to turn to God for mercy, He shows patience, not leniency. He always considers their sin to be a painful and loathsome crime, and He is extremely clear that His wrath will eventually fall on them, so He never simply excuses an abuser. But He delays justice to give the abuser a chance to find mercy rather than punishment. His desire is for everyone to repent and experience His kindness.
Those who dismiss God for allowing evil are failing to consider these many expressions of goodness. Most human beings, even those of us who don’t receive Christ, appreciate free will, mercy, and delayed justice. We like it that we can sin and learn from our mistakes. Many TV shows and movies, which aren’t especially known for supporting God’s view of the world, extol the virtues of this sort of freedom. They take special delight in reminding us of the oppression of those who try to take away that freedom in the name of building a better world.
The problem we run into is that we believe we are experts on how God should dispense free will, mercy, and delayed justice. We look at major crimes like abused children, genocide, and unjust war, and we decide that He should use His power to prevent them. When He doesn’t, we question whether He is truly good and sometimes doubt that He exists at all.
What this boils down to, however, is that we don’t like the way He runs the Universe. We want to choose who receives quick punishment and who receives quiet patience. We want to be in charge of mercy and judgment. In our minds, He is too strict with some and too soft with others.
This shows that our objections are not really based on the logic of whether an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God can exist. We are more than willing to accept a world with evil (especially our own) when it is outweighed by a greater good. Instead, our objections are based on a disagreement with God over His view of the greater good. Our objections are emotional in nature – not logical.
Having said that, however, we shouldn’t discount the importance of emotions. Logical arguments are essential, but they rarely meet the needs of a suffering heart. We need a reality that touches us in our pain. God offers that reality:
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
(Psalm 34:18-19, NAS)
The above promise is for both victims and victimizers. He will be near to anyone who turns to Him with a broken heart. He comes by His Spirit and shares His emotions with us, and this changes our perception of our pain. Life becomes an entirely different experience when the One who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, Who loves us and cares for us intensely, shows up to help us handle our suffering.
He brings healing and restoration. Our emotions join with His, and we sense His anger, sorrow, and hope. He weeps when we weep (Isaiah 16:9-11) and rejoices when we rejoice (Zephaniah 3:17). He affirms our condemnation of wrong and opens our eyes to the ways in which His love and mercy are working in spite of it. Our grief is transformed as we are held in His arms and comforted like a child with its mother. He enables us to face loss.
This makes any charge of criminal neglect on His part ridiculous. His willingness to meet us in such a tender and intimate way shows that He is incredibly concerned and involved. He supports and loves us as we honestly bring our feelings to His throne, even when those feelings are directed against Him. He wins us over by drawing us close in the turmoil of our upheaval. We find that an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God is exactly what we need when faced with evil!
He does more than this, however. He also reshapes our most devastating traumas into stepping stones to a better future. Evil becomes a footnote in the grand scheme of our lives as He dives into our messes and makes them meaningful. To our amazement, our worst moments end up being some of our most important. Out of our need we find His supply; out of our confusion we find His wisdom. We emerge as new people who can share His kindness and light with those around us.
None of this would be possible if He wasn’t in total control. His ability to weave even the most loathsome crimes committed against us or by us into a good plan gives us a basis for hope. It strikes at the heart of the Unprotected Heart Stronghold. Our security comes from knowing that He isn’t random and careless. He is creating something wonderful out of our darkest moments, something beautiful out of hideousness.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a prime example. It was the most horrible crime in all of history. A totally innocent victim, a man who was offering healing and freedom to the world, was tortured and murdered.
We can see that God felt tremendous emotion about it. He turned the sky dark and shook the land with an earthquake (Matthew 27:45; 51). He was so filled with grief and rage that the city responsible for the crime was eventually destroyed (Matthew 23:37-38)! Still, we can’t deny that it was His plan that was being fulfilled:
…this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. (emphasis added)
(Acts 2:23, The Message)
Something more important than God’s temporary happiness was at stake. In order to bring salvation to the entire planet, He allowed evil to come against His Son so He could weave it into a far greater good: a covenant of grace.
Is it too hard to believe that He feels the same sort of anger when we suffer? And is He unable to similarly work our suffering for good? The word of God is clear; He works all things for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28-29). Nothing is excluded – not our sins, not the sins committed against us, not our pain, not the pain we have brought to others, not our dysfunction, not the dysfunction of those around us. This is His incredible promise that deals with the reality of evil in the earth.
…Is there any other real hope for victims? They carry wounds created by the dark void of those times in which God seemed to be missing. Doesn’t it make sense that the wounds will be healed when the void is filled with the knowledge that He was actually there? Security can only come from the fact that nothing has happened or will happen except what He has already determined will be for our benefit. He will be with us as we turn to Him, and He will lead us into His promised future.
That is where restoration and new life are found. It isn’t in avoiding pain. It isn’t in redefining God in some way that only seems to match our need for love and reassurance. It is in finding His grace to look at the worst moments in our lives and to honestly say, “They (or I) meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
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