Where does evil come from?

Jacob had only partially obeyed God's command to go home to his land and family.  After meeting with Esau he had settled outside Shechem in Canaan, and away from Esau. Leah's daughter Dina was raped there, and her brothers Simeon and Levi tricked all the males of Shechem into being circumcised,  and then when they were in pain,  killed all the males with the sword, and took everything as plunder. Jacob's response was fear of reprisals (Genesis 34).

It never ceases to amaze me how some can say that mankind is basically good. One secular explanation of evil consists of blaming it on bad government and the oppressive patriarchy. But Jacob was weak,  and there was no government here to blame. And if we are to believe the Bible the start of the escalation of murder to revenge to genocide stated within a generation of the fall (Genesis 4). When you understand this, you see why the Law had to start with an eye for an eye,  and a tooth for a tooth (Exodus 21:4). In other words justice,  not revenge.   Simeon and Levi were not in the place to be obey the New Testament command to  “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:24). Only after Jesus'  demonstration of “His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:10), could it be even begin to be commanded.

Paul tells us righteousness does not  come by the Law (Galatians 2:21).  Another way to say this, is that goodness cannot be legislated, be it legislation by God or man.  You can be sure that if justice and equity could be brought through laws,  rules, regulations or government, then God's laws and rules and regulation would be the ones that work.  But over and over again in the Old Testament we see Israel failing, be it under theocracy (God ruling) or secular Government (under a king in the old Testament). Paul personalizes human nature by saying he has this problem: that the good things he want to do, he does not do,  and the evil things he doesn't  want to do are the very things he does. The implication is that we all have this problem.  In other words living by rules, even if it is our own rules,  does not work!  He also says  one of the purposes of the Law and/or rules and regulations is that it show us of our need of  obtaining righteousness apart from rules and/or legislation of any kind  (Galatians 3:24).

This of course includes any form of government. Democracy is very far from perfect, but what is the alternative? As Churchill said so eloquently “Democracy is the worst form of government apart from all the others.”  And we need to ask if Democracy is so bad,  why do so many people want to come to North America?  And what I am saying is that the best known form of government is heavily under attack when we disallow free speech,  and impose censorship, the very foundation upon which democracy can stand. The point is that  “the first to state his case seems right,  until another comes and cross-examines him” (Proverbs 18:17). But if we are not allowed to  cross-examine .....!

Father, nobody is saying we don't need just government, or that we should not work towards it and equity. But as Jesus clearly said it is the heart of man where the root of it all lies (Mark 7:20-22). We need our hearts transformed, let the transformation start with me in Jesus Name Amen