Proverbs 16:4
"The Lord has made everything for its own purpose. Even the wicked for the day of evil."
There is much discussion about this verse and the idea that God made some people so that they could populate hell. This verse, however, does not say that.
It is best to understand the phrase "day of evil" as those times when consequences are meted out upon sinners – as in the case of the Assyrians and Babylonians attacking Israel.
This verse is a verse about purpose and use. Solomon is saying that God has a purpose for everything; and everything, including the wicked, will fulfill that purpose. God has a purpose for the wicked. But no one has to be wicked.
Why would God allow the wicked to continue and not destroy them immediately? Well, permitting a sinful, fallen world to exist to extract a small remnant of believers who would really love Him requires that parasites, scavengers, and even carnivores exist in the human realm as well as the biologic one.
The other truth that must be held in this regard is what Jesus states. It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come but woe to whom they come. There is free play in terms of who plays the scavenger or carnivore part. It may be inevitable that there is a stumbling block or wicked person, but it is not inevitable that I am one of them.
Once I make certain choices, then it is inevitable that I live out the purposes associated with those choices.
But, amazingly, our God is a God of mercy and will even allow our permanent choices to be redeemed through His mercy and grace given at the Cross of Christ. The path of wickedness can be escaped from through Jesus Christ.
This verse is pointing out the truth that God is not surprised by wickedness but instead is using it. Having permitted there to be a fallen, sinful world to exist, He must have consequences for it from within the organism itself.
I pray that my girls will throw themselves on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ and seek wisdom whereby they will not become a moral cockroach. It is a tragic thing – only seen in the moral realm – that the crowning achievement of God's creative energy can, through its own choice, become a moral maggot.
It is a truth that the path of wickedness changes a person's life; it also changes a person. It turns a person into something they were not originally meant to be but a something that God will use for His purposes in a twisted and fallen world.
I want the Lord to weigh my motives and my plans and direct me in the way of righteousness.
What is even more tragic is that in our day the culture is commending and encouraging and idolizing people who develop themselves into moral parasites and carnivores. The gangster, the hooker, the bully, the rebel, the liar, the thief, etc., are all glorified and promoted.
Many kids today want to pursue the path of wickedness because it is glorified. They are never told or shown what that path results in and what it does to the person who moves down that path.
You cannot escape God's boundaries; you cannot escape God's purposes. It is up to you which kind of life and which of His purposes you fulfill.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz