The Bible Makes Me Mad Sometimes
I’ve been doing a “read the Bible in a year” reading plan and I have to admit, many stories just make me MAD!
As I was finishing up the book of Judges last week, I ran into chapter 19 which is the story of a Levite (a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi, especially of that part of it which provided assistance to the priests in the worship in the Jewish temple.) and his concubine (a woman who, in some societies, lives and has sex with a man she is not married to, and has a lower social rank than his wife or wives, UGH).
Feel free to read it for yourself, but it’s pretty gruesome.
To summarize the story, A man (the Levite) and his concubine are heading back home and decide to stay the night in a nearby town. No one would take them in for the night until an older gentleman offered his place for the night. Evil men from the city came looking for the visitors (they wanted to rape the Levite man) but instead the older gentleman offered his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine to the evil men for them to rape.
UGH, there’s no happy ending in this story, as you finish the book, it gets progressively worse. It’s tough to read. And the whole time I’m thinking, these men are the worst! The treatment of women and children in those days was appalling, to say the least. It’s very vomit-ty, and sometimes hard to believe, but these very horrible and evil things happened.
So I started talking to God. “God, why?” I asked. “Why did you let this happen?” “Where were you?” “Why do you allow evil?”
I Need Answers
As you read through the Bible, you will learn these truths about God:
God is Holy (1 Peter 1:15-16)
God is Righteous (Psalm 145:17)
God is Just (Deuteronomy 32:4)
God is Sovereign (Psalm 115:3)
It sounds to me like God detests evil, He can certainly prevent it, and He probably wants to get rid of it. So then, why so much evil?
The simple answer is FREE WILL - the ability to choose.
That’s right, a little thing called free will is at play, all the time.
The beauty of God’s masterpiece (our reality) is that we have options. You remember Adam and Eve? They had options. They were created blameless and innocent. They were given a legit garden and everything was perfect… and they had options.
Tend the garden, eat what you want, but do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why not God? Cause you’ll die!
Seems simple enough. This is what we call free will, this is what makes us human and not robots. We get to choose. As you read ahead, you’ll discover that we chose evil. UGH, there’s the answer I didn’t want to hear.
As I read Judges 19 and my blood starts boiling because of the injustice, I’m reminded that it’s not God, it’s us.
Why can’t God just change us so we stop sinning? FREE WILL
Why doesn’t He supernaturally intervene 100% of the time? FREE WILL
Why doesn’t God just get rid of the evil people? FREE WILL…… oh and also there’d be no one left (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
So Now What?
My anger starts to simmer down as I realize just how beautiful God’s design is. I’d hate to be a robot! No emotions, no feelings, nothing! Just 1’s and 0’s…..just code…..just, nothing.
Consider this, we get to live in a real world. We get to choose between good and evil. By the way, we never choose good. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” No one is exempt, we are all to blame for the evil in the world!
But thank God for salvation! Am I right?
Thank God there is a cure for evil, His name is Jesus, the Christ!
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Yes! That’s the ending I was looking forward to. There may be evil in this world, and yeah, it’s horrible. But there is a cure, JESUS!