God Destroys Evil

We should admit the battle between good and evil is sometimes difficult to decipher. We stand up against evil to the best of our ability with the hope the God is there to help us. We are tempted to become violent against evil using the Scriptures as our defense. The Old Testament is filled with examples of God destroying evil. Why shouldn’t we follow His lead?

Of course we shouldn’t become violent. First, God has called us to love our enemies and to do good those who do evil against us. If that wasn’t enough, we have totally missed the point of the Old Testament examples of violence by God.

O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.  For thou hast made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt.  Therefore strong peoples will glorify thee; cities of ruthless nations will fear thee.  For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry place. Thou dost subdue the noise of the aliens; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.  And he will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.  It will be said on that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Isaiah 25.1-9

As I have said before, biblical prophecy isn’t as simple of telling the future. It is a warning of what God will do if things don’t change. By the time Christ came to do everything that He had promised to do, many Jews had totally missed the point.

The Jews thought the Messiah was going to destroy the Roman Empire and free them from political oppression. Instead, God freed them from spiritual slavery. All the talk about God coming and destroying the city was misunderstood by the Jews.

Take a moment and read today’s passage from Isaiah again. This time, read it with the eyes of the Resurrected Christ and His defeat against evil and His destruction of death. The ‘city’ isn’t an earthly expression. It is spiritual.

I could never understand why modern Christians would make the same mistake the Jews made about Christ. If He wasn’t on earth to destroy Rome then, what makes us think He is going to do it now?

Sure, the earth will be destroyed in the end and a new Kingdom established. We will be citizens of the new kingdom as Christians, but we can’t go through life thinking God wants us to tear destroy cities in His name. He wants us to tear down evil. He wants us to destroy evil.

Evil is the “veil that is spread over all nations.” We will find shelter in His Church from the storms of life. We will exalt God and praise Him, not because governments fall, but because evil no longer has dominion over us. We have been set free from evil.

For generations people have set traps from their enemies. They have set decoys to distract their enemies. While the decoys are being destroyed, the people rush to safety. God has set a trap for evil.  While the evil one thinks he is destroying us, we have already been rushed to safety by God.

Everything we have on earth is a trap. Either we fall for the trap and cling to worthless materials that will be destroyed in the end, or we cling to God. One thing is for sure, evil will be destroyed once and for all, and we will be saved. “Let us be glad and rejoice.”