Evil Twins
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 2:4-13 (part one)
Defining evil and understanding its existence in a world created by God are subjects on which hundreds of books have been written. It would be hubris to think I could give a complete and final answer to the many questions about that subject in a brief devotional. But since Jeremiah points out two particular evils committed by God’s people; it might be helpful to define our terms.
Evil can mean natural evil, or it can mean moral evil. Natural evil is anything that causes harm or injury. At times the Bible speaks of natural disasters as an evil that has come upon a people. The is no morality involved. It is something that causes harm and is therefore evil.
Moral evil is more often how we think of the word. This is a breaking of God’s laws. It also causes harm and has that in common with natural evil. We often think of evil as the opposite of good. We link the two concepts together, often in the way we talk, by saying things like “good and evil.” It is important to understand that evil cannot exist without good, but good can exist without evil.
We can say that because evil is the absence of good and good is not the absence of evil. Good exists apart from evil, but evil cannot and does not exist apart from good. Whatever evil you can think of, it has its foil in some form of good. Hatred is the absence of love. Lying is the absence of truth. Unbelief is the absence of faith. And so on.
In verse 13 of Jeremiah chapter two, when the Lord declares, “My people have committed two evils…” we might anticipate that would be followed by something about child sacrifice or sexual immorality. Instead, the two evils have to do with forsaking God and digging wells (a metaphor); both of these acts are religious and not something we generally put in the category of “evil.” When was the last time you considered apostasy evil? When you see people walk away from the faith, you probably think of it as a bad idea, a sad choice, or maybe even a justified action considering how offended they were by their church of choice; but you weren’t calling it evil.
Yet, here is God saying that forsaking Him is evil. It is a moral evil. It is the absence of that which is a true good. It is the root of other sins, the ones which we more easily identify as evil. But more on that tomorrow.
