Why does God allow evil? We see evil men throughout the Bible, Haman, being one extraordinarily wicked man, who was raised up to a position of power, for “such a time as this”. But why?
The horrendous shooting in New Zealand this past week, the 49 lives lost at the hands of an evil man, is devastating. Be it mass killers who have murdered millions over the millennia, like Nero, Stalin, Hilter, terrorist attacks on 9/11, or individuals like Manson and Bundy who have destroyed lives, the evil is unfathomable, yet God has allowed it in His sovereignty. The human mind cries out, why?
In Esther 3, we see a hateful man, Haman, willing to destroy an entire nation, the Jews, and a king who apparently didn’t read the fine print and just signed off on the mass slaughter.
Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”
In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 13 And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their [d]possessions. 14 A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day. 15 The couriers went out, hastened by the king’s command; and the decree was proclaimed in [e]Shushan the [f]citadel. So the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was [g]perplexed.
Whatever did the women and children, and the hardworking Jewish men ever do to Haman? What evil resided in his heart that he hated to the point of mass murder?
Billy Graham wrote,
“Man without God is a contradiction, a paradox, a monstrosity. He sees evil as good and good as evil. That is why some people love evil and hate that which is good—they are still in their sins. For them, life’s values are confused. Paul found the cure for his violent, destructive disposition, not at the feet of Gamaliel or in the culture of Greece, but on the Damascus Road when he met Jesus Christ. Later he wrote: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9
Evil in the heart of a man named Haman, to the evil in the hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees who nailed the perfect Son of God, Jesus, to a Roman cross, all originate in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve chose to do their own thing and disobey God. Eating a piece of forbidden fruit seems tame compared to the murder of millions of Jews, but it was the beginning of sin, death, and wickedness that has permeated the human condition. Sin began with the choice in the garden and is a daily choice for all humanity.
We need look no further than mankind’s rebellion and hostility toward Almighty God as the source of evil. God is never to blame, never the cause of evil itself. Tyrants, murderers, wars, famines, all flow from hearts set on evil, or a creation that is still groaning from the curse of sin.
Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation” (John 16:33). In other words, you can expect suffering, you can anticipate painful circumstances; don’t be surprised at fiery ordeals. It’s the bitter result of living in a fallen, sinful world. But He also said, “But take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Franklin Graham
Ultimately we each must choose what we will do with Jesus. John 3:16-17 states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Jesus willingly stepped into this evil infested world, to suffer the worst wickedness ever inflicted on any human, so that those who humble themselves and accept Him as Lord and Savior, can have a restored relationship with God and everlasting life. Jesus is the eternal antidote to evil.
Satan has celebrated evil men and their actions, but God has used them as tools and turned it to His glory. The cross is the ultimate example of that. Sinless Jesus was brutalized and killed so that mankind could be saved.
Haman is a tool in the hands of God, to demonstrate God’s love for His chosen and His miraculous use of Esther and Mordecai to bring about the salvation of the Jews in the Persian kingdom. As stated in Esther 3:15, “the city of Shushan was perplexed”, we too are perplexed by the evil we see today. We too ask, “Why?” but we can cast all our concerns and perplexities on God who cares for us and is ultimately in control, even when it appears He is not.
The antidote to evil is the cross of Christ and His resurrection. Be of good cheer, turn to Jesus because He has overcome the world.