Bad Things Done by Bad People

When bad things happen to us, some people will remind us that God is in control.

God is sovereign, so we can trust Him.

That is a biblical truth, but often in the depth of the crisis, it's hard to see how God is in control. When it's hard to see, we don't want to hear it either.

This week I was thinking of the evil things that women in the Bible had done.

The first one that came to mind was Queen Athaliah. When she realized that her son, Ahaziah, was dead, Athaliah killed the rest of the royal family, so that she could be queen of Judah (2 Kings 11:1-3).

Then Delilah, a prostitute in the land of the Philistines, who whined to Samson until he revealed the secret of his strength. Delilah was paid handsomely and Samson was captured and had his eyes gouged out (Judges 16).

But as I thought through the next chapters of the events, it became clear that God was in control of these evil women and their evil actions.

A nurse had hidden one of the royal sons, who was presented as king seven years later. Athaliah was executed and revival came about under the leadership of Joash. The temple was repaired and the Word of God was honored (2 Kings 11:4-12:21).

Samson was left in prison, but his hair began to grow out. As the lords of the Philistines mocked this once mighty warrior of Israel, the blind Samson knocked down the pillars of the building, killing more of God's enemies at that time, than he had in any other battle (Judges 16:23-31).

And the longer I thought about it, it wasn't just evil women with evil plans. Evil men with evil plans remained under God's control, bringing about major events displaying God's glory.

So when evil men or women do evil things against us, rather than looking at them and their evil, we can look to God. We can ask ourselves, "What good will God bring out of this?"