Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and evil way, and the froward mouth, I do hate.” In Isaiah 45:7, God says, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all of these things.” God hates evil, yet He creates evil. Evil is created to reward them that do evil in the sight of God. God gave Law; if you obeyed His Law, you did what was right in His sight; but, if you did not keep His Law, you did what was evil in His sight. Psalm 34:16 says, “The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” 2 Samuel 3:39 says, “…the Lord shall reward the doer of evil, according to his wickedness.”
Isaiah 3:8-9 points out how Jerusalem and Judah rewarded evil unto themselves. Let us read: “For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves.” As you read the Appendix 1 to this book, you will notice what happened to the kings who did that which was right in the sight of God and those which did evil in the sight of God. You can clearly see how when they did what was right in the sight of God they received blessings from God. On the other hand, when they did that, which was evil in the sight of God, God brought evil unto them.
God explains in Jeremiah 18:7-10 how He applies this judgment. “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
Elmore Richmond Jr.
The Church Readiness Ministries