God Suffers Evil for a Purpose

Prologue

God, as one can clearly understand from the classic story of Job, permits Satan to do what he does best - to wreck many persons' lives with evil. We cannot second-guess God for "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9)

Trusting God on his work against evil as well as his blessings for the righteous is the foundation of our belief. For everyone can be more capable of doing evil than doing good. For what can happen to the entire human race if we have a God perceived to judge according to his whim and fancy as humans are capable of and not through the prism of justice, all- encompassing knowledge and great wisdom.
 

The Lord Permits Lying Spirits
To Prophesy to Destroy the Evil King Ahab

1 Kings 22:1-12 ESV

For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.’” And all the prophets prophesied so and said, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” ...Continue Reading: 1 Kings 22:13-28

God Endured with Patience the Evil of Pharoah
To Show His Power

Romans 9:14-24 ESV

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 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.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 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?” 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? 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, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of ercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Epilogue

What can be a greater way to end the dominion of sin in the world than God sending his Son to die and suffer as a substitute for all of us?

Who can think of this great sacrifice?  And who is capable and willing? We owe God and his Son our thanksgiving. Most important, we owe them our love. For they loved us first!