Devotional

Let's revisit the existence of evil in our world. There are religions that flat out deny that evil exists. They believe that God is good and created all things; He is omnipresent and omniscient; and, therefore, evil cannot exist. I believe that God is good and created all things, however, He is more than just good. The Bible tells us He is also Love, the Almighty, Salvation, Creator of all there is (including all beings given the gift of choice), Counselor, Wonderful, Prince of Peace, God with us, Lord of Lords, God who sees us, King of Kings, the beginning and the end, etc. 


I also believe that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is omnipresent and omniscient. However, I do not believe for a second that satan or his minions can read our minds or be anywhere and everywhere and all knowing. Their power exists within the will of the Lord God Almighty to allow it, as He did in Job and many other Bible stories referred to below. In other words, our Heavenly Father (not satan who is the earthly father, the father of lies), has within His all-knowing power the ability to remove the ability for any creation to go about the earth seeking to kill, steal and destroy. 


However, God's Word tells us in story after story about God-created humans who behaved in a most evil way, such as Cain, Pharaoh, Jacob, Herod, Saul of Tarsus and Judas, to name a few.  Just the characters in these stories alone give a birds-eye view of murder, deception, mass murder, enslavement, deception, thievery, cheating, ungodly order in the home, confusion, mass murder, fear, hatred, greed, hardening of the heart, imprisonment of innocents, greed, betrayal and, of course, major deception and greed again and loads of pride. Also, notice the absolute destruction of families in all of these examples! What better way to destroy mankind than to attack the basic structure for which he was created - propagation, submission to God, and relationship.


Although there has been lots of discussion about whether the serpent was Satan or a cherub or ruler of this earth or Lucifer, it is clear that men have been given the freedom by our Heavenly Father to make choices. Those choices have been very wicked and sinful against God and our fellow humans. He has also allowed what satan meant for bad to be used for good, so that we know that all things work for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).