February 27 2011

							February 27, 2011

Series on 1 Samuel, Secret Strength: Living In God’s Fullness. “The Enemy” 1
Samuel 22: 1 – 23 (2.27.2011)

In the last line of his poem “The Year’s at the Spring,” Robert Browning wrote, “God’s
in his heaven – All’s right with the world.” It’s a wonderful thought but somehow given
the news of riots, earthquakes, the murder of four Americans by Somali pirates and more
tragedies this past week, Browning’s sentiment rings hollow. All is not right with the
world and every sane person knows it. Actually, since the fall in Eden, the world never
has been all right. A case in point is our text. The story is not unusual. In fact it is all so
tragically typical for our world.

An All-to-Familiar Occurrence
The story is so clear it hardly needs commentary. An innocent man, Ahimelech is
accused of a crime he didn’t commit and he along with his whole city is murdered by an
unjust, evil despot. Stories like this abound in history. For all the talk about moral
progress in our world Saul’s actions here are no different than that of Hussein, Pol Pot,
Stalin, Hitler and now Qaddafi.

It’s the same old story. Rank injustice, the flowing blood of men, women and children.
And God? Yes, that’s the issue, isn’t it? What of God and this world of pain? The
passage today forces us to think again about the perennial problem of God and evil so
let’s delve into this matter. To be sure, the narrative of 1 Samuel 22 raises some deeply
troubling questions.

The Text Raises Deeply Troubling Questions
Philosophers have raised their questions. Three centuries before Christ, the Epicurus
asked, “Whence evil – if there be a God?” Hume, Voltaire and others have raised the
same issue. Recently philosopher George Smith in his book Atheism: The Case Against
God wrote, “The problem of evil is this… If God knows there is evil but cannot prevent
it, he is not omnipotent. If God knows there is evil and can prevent it but desires not to,
he is not omnibenevolent.”
Authors have raised their questions as well. Homer, Milton, Mary Shelley, Shakespeare,
Tolstoy and Flannery O’Conner have all been challenged by the reality of evil. Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Cardboard Box has Sherlock Holmes wrestling with
the problem of evil:

           “What is the meaning of it, Watson? said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the
           paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It
           must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is
           unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to
           which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.” 1

Scripture prominently raises the question of evil! Long before Epicurus, the writers of
Scripture were bluntly and passionately asking why God permits evil. In fact, Randy
Alcorn notes, “If atheists would read Scripture, they’d find their best arguments
articulated there.” 2 Consider that just three chapters into the first book of the Bible evil
makes its appearance. In God’s Word 600 times specific terms for evil appear with
thousands of other references to sin and wickedness. Far from the Bible being a message
of pie-in-the-sky in reality it never sugarcoats evil. Jesus called an entire generation
“evil” in Matthew 12:39. He taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil” not simply, “Help
us face tough times.” The prophet Habakkuk saw the evil of his day and demanded of
God: “How long, O LORD, will I call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You,
‘Violence!’ Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity, and cause me to
look on wickedness (1:2 – 3)?

Considering all of this Joni Eareckson Tada, reflecting on forty years of her life spent in a
wheelchair put it simply, “I’ve learned that suffering is messier than I once thought.” So
what can we say to this?

The Text and Human Experience Calls for an Answer
One approach to the challenge of evil is look to human free will. Does the answer to evil
lie in our freedom of choice? In our text we see that David’s decision to lie about his
situation to Ahimelech and Saul’s choice of blood vengeance are the causes of the murder
of so many innocent people. But that’s only part of the answer isn’t it? What about God’s
silence while all this was going on? Why didn’t He stop Saul?

So yes, while some of the horror of evil acts can be deflected by appealing to human
choices, still if God is God He could have stopped the holocaust in Nob at any time but
He didn’t. No, some further answer than simply saying evil is caused by humans is
needed. Some folks just give up at this point. A Christian may just shove the issue to the
back of his or her mind while others can’t bring themselves to believe; the reality of evil
makes believing in God just too hard. So what can we say to this? Actually, a fuller
answer comes by addressing other questions.


1
    Quote from page 22 of Doyle’s work.
2
    Randy Alcorn, If God Is Good, 20.
Consider this: Was God unjust to allow the innocent people of Nob to die? The answer
to this is hard, so read carefully and fully before you react. Was God unjust in allowing
the citizens of Nob to die? No, He wasn’t. Why? Because there’s no such thing as an
“innocent” person. This is part of the truly counter-cultural message of Scripture. Lady
Gaga may say in her newest song Born This Way that “he (God?) made you perfect” but
that is not reality and every honest person knows that. Are you perfect in every way?
Show of hands? Yet what do we do with Jesus’ demand found in Matthew 5:48,
“Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Any lack of
perfection is sin and according to Romans “the wages of sin is” what? “Death!” So given
that none of the people involved in this incident were innocent, nothing happened to them
that will not happen sooner or later to all sinners.

“But the children! Surely Allan, you consider them innocent?” Actually we are all born
tainted by Adam’s sin but nowhere in Scripture is anyone condemned based on their
carrying the taint of Adam’s sin. It’s beyond this message to delve into this but I am
convinced that the Bible points to the reality that children are secure in Christ until they
cross a line to deliberately rebel against the will of God. The upshot of this is, the
children of Nob, as well as saved adults, died and entered the presence of God. And by
the way, that’s the best thing possible for anyone to experience. But the bottom line is;
God was not unjust to permit Saul to carry out his murderous plan.

Another question: Was God perhaps uncaring? No… no… and…no! Why? Because
God will bring His full wrath and judgment on Saul as well as all evil! Think for a
moment. Saul faced immediate judgment from his people. Do you think he secured his
people’s loyalty and love by this act of cold-blooded mass murder? Also, if David is
already gathering to himself hundreds of discontented men and women how many more
will now be willing to side with him? As we will see in the coming chapters, Saul will
face judgment. He has sown violence and will reap it in the end. And all this will happen
precisely because God cares.

One other question: Was God too weak to stop Saul? Do I really need to answer this
one? Of course God wasn’t too weak. Because of this some apparently expect Him to
stop all evil acts before they start. But wait. If God did that then He would have to stop
everyone and literally recreate the world. One of the realities about the fact that we have
all sinned is that we are all perpetrators of evil. No, you haven’t murdered masses of
people like Saul but you have deliberately rebelled against God, ignored Him, scorned
Him, used His name in vain, lied, gossiped, hurt others and God knows what else. In fact
He does know! So let’s admit what is painfully obvious: we’re evil and therefore have
done evil. Now listen, one day God will put a stop to evil. Revelation chapters 20 – 22
depict in high definition clarity exactly how God will stop evil. First in Christ, God calls
the entire world to account. Every human being faces the record of his or her life. Some
are judged unworthy of life and are banished from God’s presence forever. Others are
judged worthy and inherit the kingdom called the New Jerusalem and dwell with Christ
forever in ceaseless joy.
Count on it my friend, God will put a stop to all evil but here’s the amazing thing for
some of you today: God will put a stop to it in your life now. I don’t mean He will keep
you from ever facing evil. I mean He will allow you to settle your account before Him
now. He is willing to forgive you your sin and its accompanying evil affects. Christ, you
see, has paid the price for your sin and evil so that you may go free and discover the joy,
the power of living free as a Christian. In Christ, God has judged your sin and evil so you
do not have to face His wrath because of it.

God is giving you time to see this just as He is the world at large. I think one of the
reasons God delays in executing His judgment is so the world will have every
opportunity to try its utopian schemes and fail. They fail because of sin and the evil sin
produces. But these failures are set by God so that we may realize our need of Christ to
remake us because we can’t remake ourselves.

Yet even as evil stalks us in this world, God can and does protect his own. We see this
with David being able to escape Saul and then when his family comes to him at the cave
he moves them to Moab. Interesting. Why Moab a pagan land? Moab is the home of
David’s great-grandmother Ruth. Doubt having a bit of Moabite blood in his veins didn’t
hurt so that when David needed help the Moabites of all people were there for him.
Amazing isn’t it? To think that the whole story of Ruth and Naomi, of meeting Boaz and
his falling for Ruth and then marrying her would not only make Ruth a part of Jesus’
royal line but be used of God to protect David years later.

Yes evil is real and it is a problem. But it is not a problem without some solid solutions.
And while perhaps all our questions about God and evil may not be answered there’s
enough of a solution given just in what I’ve learned and shared with you today to enable
me to say, “I can trust God. He is in spite of it all, doing all things well.” My prayer is
you too can say that. God can be trusted. The coming of Jesus, His cross and the empty
tomb as well as His sure coming again prove that God is not absent from scene nor
unconcerned about evil. He is in the thick of it all leading all who have called upon Him
for salvation to that eternal goal of a new heaven and new earth where no sin or evil but
goodness and righteousness reigns in peace forever.


For Further Reading:

Trusting God Even When Life Hurts, Jerry Bridges
Where is God in All of This? Deborah Howard
The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis
When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty, Joni Eareckson Tada


Pastor Allan Wooters, D.Min.
pastorallan@windstream.net
lwcsecretary@windstrem.net
www.livingwaterchurchplattsmouth.org