Is God blind to evil and human suffering? Why doesn’t He intervene to put a stop to it? Or could it be that it’s we who are blind to what God is doing and that humankind must learn some major lessons before He puts an end to evil?
How well I remember the report! During a severe drought in South Africa a distraught farmer nailed a bucket to a fence post beside the road. Above it he nailed a sign: "Donations accepted to buy God glasses so He can see what's going on down here."
Why does God allow evil things to happen? Why doesn't He just end all the suffering and sorrow that we see all around us?
These questions have perplexed humanity since the beginning of our existence. Even the world's greatest philosophers have struggled to find the answers.
Actually, the answer is clear and easy to understand—if we would only believe all that God explains about His great plan for solving this most troubling human problem. We find that plan explained in His written Word, the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ..
Yes, God has a plan, an excellent plan. And His plan includes a permanent solution to evil. That solution will exceed our greatest hopes and dreams. But for it to succeed, God has made our willing participation a necessity. That is why each phase of His plan takes so long to complete.
God is now allowing us to experience fully the results of human vanity, pride and greed. When the time of His direct intervention to change how we think and behave arrives, He will be able to present us with a complete record of our failures.
Human failure started in the Garden of EdenThe land in which the Lord planted a garden for Adam to live in (Genesis 2:15). It was located at the branching of 4 rivers: the Euphrates, the Hiddekel (the Tigris), the Pishon, and the Gihon (Genesis 2:8-14). It was also the location of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life (Genesis 2:16).. Adam and Eve had the opportunity to choose for mankind an easier path, one filled with direct contact and assistance from God. Instead, on behalf of themselves and their posterity, they chose to trust their own perceptions of good versus evil. That choice put the human family on a path of suffering, of having to endure all the evils we bring on ourselves. Man has walked that path ever since.
Will we learn to listen?
Through personal experience, God is allowing the human race to learn how destructive and deadly our bad choices can be. At the end of the day, the most important lesson God wants us to learn is to really listen to Him.
Collectively we have not learned that lesson. But we will! That is God's promise! And that promise will be fulfilled because He plans to help us learn that lesson.
While revealing the right way to live to ancient Israel, God advised the people to choose carefully: "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him" (Deuteronomy 30:19-20, New International Version, emphasis added throughout).
For life to have real meaning, we must learn that lesson. Our human tendency is to use the freedom God gives us to make our own choices. Yet we complain about the terrible effects our foolish choices produce. We tend to blame God for those disturbing results—even suggesting He needs glasses to improve His vision so He can sympathize with our plight.
God sees our plight quite clearly. He wants to shower blessings on all who listen to Him!
Notice God's promise when He freed the Israelites from slavery and began to form them into a nation: "If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid" (Leviticus 26:3-6, NIV).
But God wants us to learn how much we need His help, then simply to understand and choose the right path. So His plan includes time for all of humanity to learn critical lessons from personal choices, both the good and the bad. That also is why He has not rushed to end the consequences of our many wrong choices.
God's most important intervention into human affairs will be to change the leadership of every nation on earth. To completely remove the curse of evil that we have brought on ourselves, God will put in charge a righteous leader who clearly understands every distinction between good and evil.
But who will that be? Who is qualified to teach all of mankind about God's way of life?
The only clear choice for that assignment is Jesus Christ. He alone has always understood and followed every right path. He alone is capable of leading the whole world down that same path.
As the apostle Paul explained, God has "made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment— to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (Ephesians 1:9-10, NIV).
Coming: a time of worldwide restoration
Concerning Jesus Christ's present role, Peter explained that He "must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21, NIV). Only then, during that future time of restoration, will Jesus begin to eliminate the evils and curses of sin throughout the whole earth.
Jesus has already cleared one gigantic hurdle for us. He has become our atonement (translated from the Hebrew word kaphar, meaning covering ) . By His sacrifice all the evils we foolishly have committed can be forgiven—covered by His blood. His sacrifice for us was essential in God's plan to eliminate evil and bring righteousness to all nations.
As Hebrews 2:17 tells us concerning Jesus, "Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people" (New Revised Standard Version).
Our English word atone is a verb formed by joining two words— at and one. It means to become at one with or to be reconciled with another. Atonement means to be in a state of oneness or reconciliation with another.
Sin cuts human beings off from God. As Isaiah 59:2 says, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." Only through Jesus Christ can humanity be reconciled to God again. But how will that happen?
On the biblical calendar used by the Jews, the Day of Atonement occurs five days before the commencement of the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:27, 34). Both of these sacred occasions have an enormous symbolic meaning for the time of restoration the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. foretells.
Many prophecies explaining how Jesus will reverse the worldwide ignorance of and resistance to God's plan are scattered throughout the ScripturesThe divinely inspired writings of both the Old and New Testaments. The term Scripture is used in the New Testament to refer to both the Hebrew Bible (Luke 24:44-45) and the new apostolic writings accepted as inspired (2 Peter 3:16; 1 Timothy 5:18).. When that time of restoration is completed, those ScripturesThe divinely inspired writings of both the Old and New Testaments. The term Scripture is used in the New Testament to refer to both the Hebrew Bible (Luke 24:44-45) and the new apostolic writings accepted as inspired (2 Peter 3:16; 1 Timothy 5:18). tell us, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).
To ensure that this will happen, Jesus Christ, after returning to earth, will see to it that the nations will go up to Jerusalem "year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles" (Zechariah 14:16, NIV).
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ as mankind's atonement for sins is featured prominently throughout the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ., though mostly symbolically through animal sacrifices in the Old TestamentThose books that make up the Hebrew Bible generally accepted by Christians, Jews and to some extent Muslims. It contains a threefold division: the Law (the five books of Moses), the Prophets and the Writings.. To this day among the Jewish people the Day of Atonement ( Yom Kippur ) is their most sacred occasion. Yet, few of them now recognize Jesus as their atoning Sacrifice.
Let's now examine prophecies that sketch a verbal picture of how Christ will bring peace and righteousness to all nations during His millennial reign. Let's also see how knowledge and understanding of His atoning sacrifice is to be made available to all of humanity.
Christ's administrative staff
Jesus plans to install competent administrators to help Him rule all the nations of the world effectively. And preparation for that administrative staff has long been underway.
For example, to His 12 apostles Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19:28, NIV). "Judging" in this context refers to their appointment as decision makers over Israel.
Also, Jesus promises to His "called, chosen, and faithful" servants (RevelationThe disclosure of God's Word and plan to mankind. In the Bible this refers to making obscure things clear; bringing hidden matters to light; causing especially called individuals to see, hear, perceive, know and understand the things of God; the unveiling of biblical mysteries (Romans 16:25). 17:14) of this present age, "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (RevelationThe disclosure of God's Word and plan to mankind. In the Bible this refers to making obscure things clear; bringing hidden matters to light; causing especially called individuals to see, hear, perceive, know and understand the things of God; the unveiling of biblical mysteries (Romans 16:25). 3:21). This isn't some promise of a nebulous future in heaven, as some suppose. It is a promise of literal rulership in Christ's Kingdom!
And what will His chosen and faithful servants do in His Kingdom? Jesus' answer is, "To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations" (RevelationThe disclosure of God's Word and plan to mankind. In the Bible this refers to making obscure things clear; bringing hidden matters to light; causing especially called individuals to see, hear, perceive, know and understand the things of God; the unveiling of biblical mysteries (Romans 16:25). 2:26, NIV). This is talking about the physical nations of the earth!
To enable His faithful followers to fulfill that awesome responsibility, God will first give them immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-55). Then they will serve as Christ's top administrative aides forever.
Yet even this staff won't be large enough to accomplish all that is needed in God's plan for righteous renewal. God intends to set up a model nation so that all other peoples will have a realistic, functioning example to copy.
The restoration of all Israel
God gave the ancient Israelites the opportunity to become the world's model nation (Deuteronomy 4:5-8). He also gave them choices, making their success conditional. But like Adam and Eve, they habitually failed to make the right choices.
Through later prophets, God revealed that at a future time—when the Kingdom of God has been firmly established under the rule of the promised MessiahA Hebrew word meaning literally "anointed one," synonymous with the Greek word christos, translated Christ. "In ancient Israel both persons and things consecrated to sacred purposes were anointed by having oil poured over them ... The Israelites did not think of crowning a king but of anointing him when he was enthroned ... [The future Messiah] is to destroy the world powers in an act of judgment, deliver Israel from her enemies, and restore her as a nation. The Messiah is the King of this future kingdom to whose political and religious domination the other nations will yield. His mission is the redemption of Israel and His dominion is universal. This is the clear picture of the Messiah in practically all of the OT passages which refer to Him" (The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, "Messiah").—the 12 tribes of Israel will be restored as one people. Together they will become the model that the world needs of a truly righteous nation.
How will God, through the reign of Jesus Christ, accomplish this? Notice this biblical promise to the descendants of Israel at the time of Christ's coming reign: "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for DavidKing of Israel, killed the giant Goliath with a sling and stones, a man after God's own heart, only turned from God in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5), had an affair with Bathsheba, Messiah would come from line of David, main author of Psalms and highly musical. a righteous Branch [Christ], and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety . . .
"Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, 'As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,' but 'As the Lord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.' Then they shall live in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:5-8, NRSV).
Something remarkable will happen to the restored Israelites under Christ's rule as He turns them into a truly righteous people. Here is the promise: "I will restore Israel . . . and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and none shall be found; for I will pardon the remnant that I have spared" (Jeremiah 50:19-20, NRSV).
This is describing the spiritual conversion of all surviving descendants of Israel—Jews included—by Jesus Christ following His return.
A time of reconciliation
The apostle Paul was enthusiastic about Israel's future reconciliation to God. He wrote: "There is a divine secret here, my friends, which I want to share with you . . . the whole of Israel will be saved, in accordance with scripture: From Zion shall come the Deliverer [Jesus Christ]; he shall remove wickedness from Jacob.
"And this is the covenant I will grant them, when I take away their sins . . . Judged by his choice, they are dear to him for the sake of the patriarchs; for the gracious gifts of God and his calling are irrevocable" (Romans 11:25-29, Revised English BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ.).
But before Jesus Christ can turn them to repentance they first must be humbled through a time of "great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24:21). Those who survive will be much more willing to listen than they have been in the past.
God has several reasons for allowing that time of global upheaval to occur, especially in reference to Jerusalem. He says: "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves" (Zechariah 12:1-3, NIV).
Jerusalem has indeed become the center of global conflict, just as God foretold. And it will become even more so as Christ's return draws nearer. The prophecy continues, "On that day I will set out to destroy [by destroying their armies] all the nations that attack Jerusalem" (verse 9, NIV). How will this come about?
God explains: "I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
"Then the Lord [Jesus Christ] will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley . . . The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name" (Zechariah 14:2-4, 9, NIV).
Isaiah 58:1-4 describes what Jesus Christ will make clear to them at that time: "Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins . . .
"They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please . . . Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife . . . You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high" (NIV).
No doubt, the tenor of these verses will be included in the messages that Jesus Christ will give to the surviving Jews of Jerusalem after He returns. He will make sure that the survivors of all the tribes of Israel understand who He is. He also will explain to them the terms of the New Covenant and confirm it with them (Jeremiah 31:31-33).
God's special purpose for restoring them as His people was foretold centuries ago in Ezekiel 36:24-28: "I will take you from the nations and . . . I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and your idols. Also, I will teach you to respect me completely, and I will put a new way of thinking inside you.
"I will take out the stubborn hearts of stone from your bodies, and I will give you obedient hearts of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside you and help you live by my rules and carefully obey my laws . You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors, and you will be my people, and I will be your God" (New Century Version).
Jesus is accepted as Israel's atonement
When the descendants of the Jews and the other tribes of Israel grasp that Jesus really is their Lord and MessiahA Hebrew word meaning literally "anointed one," synonymous with the Greek word christos, translated Christ. "In ancient Israel both persons and things consecrated to sacred purposes were anointed by having oil poured over them ... The Israelites did not think of crowning a king but of anointing him when he was enthroned ... [The future Messiah] is to destroy the world powers in an act of judgment, deliver Israel from her enemies, and restore her as a nation. The Messiah is the King of this future kingdom to whose political and religious domination the other nations will yield. His mission is the redemption of Israel and His dominion is universal. This is the clear picture of the Messiah in practically all of the OT passages which refer to Him" (The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, "Messiah")., they then will sincerely repent.
Notice how the sudden realization of the enormity of their sinfulness will affect them. "And I will pour out on the house of DavidKing of Israel, killed the giant Goliath with a sling and stones, a man after God's own heart, only turned from God in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5), had an affair with Bathsheba, Messiah would come from line of David, main author of Psalms and highly musical. and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son" (Zechariah 12:10, NIV).
God will take away their hardness of heart and blindness of mind so they can see their sins and turn to Him with their whole heart. This time of correction, repentance and forgiveness is what the Day of Atonement, which has always been a sacred day of fasting, has been pointing to since the days of Moses.
Notice what Hebrews 9:7-8 tells us: "But into the second part [of the temple, the Holy of Holies] the high priest went alone once a year [on the Day of Atonement], not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing" (Hebrews 9:6-8).
The blood taken into the holiest part of Israel's tabernacle or temple on the Day of Atonement always represented the shed blood of Jesus Christ as the only possible covering for the sins of Israel committed in ignorance.
As part of the future fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, all the end-time survivors of the 12 tribes of Israel, including the Jews, will weep with repentance and be forgiven in the very presence of Jesus Christ. They will wholeheartedly acknowledge Him as their Savior and King. They will begin helping Him to reach out from Jerusalem to all other nations and peoples to repent.
Jerusalem as the city of truth
"This is what the Lord says: 'I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain'" (Zechariah 8:3, NIV).
The impact on the rest of the world of a spiritually converted example nation, Israel, ruled by Jesus Christ from Jerusalem, will be enormous.
"Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: . . . When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations . . . I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 39:25-29, NIV).
At that time, "many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.' The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" (Micah 4:2-3, NIV).
The direct intervention in world affairs by Jesus Christ will begin and finish the process of defeating evil. God has never needed glasses to see the suffering we've brought on our world; He's known it all along. The problem is that we have never had the eyes to see God's plan for us and a heart willing to sincerely follow and obey Him.
Thankfully, God is working out His plan according to His timetable, and the time is fast approaching when mankind will at last be reconciled with Him. God speed that day! GN
