This issue of good and evil is an incredible consideration! Think about it. In the beginning Adam was cast out of the garden having become like God. “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:22). Yahweh’s original description of Himself was – “knowing good and evil.”
This is an amazing and obviously significant issue; for all of mankind since, and equally relevant to the kingdom of heaven, has taken place under this premise of a knowledge of good and evil.
We are going to consider this matter, but there is no way our consideration of this good and evil can do little more than begin to open up some understanding of this obviously significant and dominating issue; but let us examine some of the things we can learn from it.
We know that good and evil come from Yahweh. It is His very nature. In Lamentations 3:38 we read – “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and evil go forth?” Other verses that attest to this are Isaiah 45:7 and Ecclesiastes 7:14.
But the hope of this reality is found in the verses just above Lamentations 3:38 where we read – “For if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness. For He does not afflict from His heart, or grieve the sons of men” (vss. 32-33). Also read Jeremiah 32:42 and Hosea 6:1-3. Even so, make no mistake that Yahweh uses evil, but He does it in the end for good. This is an important point:
Yahweh brings evil so as to effect good.
Even as we read in Genesis 50:20 regarding Joseph’s response to his fearful brothers who had sold him into bondage, so it is true with Yahweh’s works – “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” This is the way of Yahweh. He uses evil for good.
Job 2:10 has long been a favorite verse of this writer. In the New American Standard we read – “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” This was Job’s reply to his wife who urged him to “curse God and die” after he had lost everything. But the Hebrew word here translated “adversity,” is the identical word used in the tree of the knowledge of good and “evil.” Thus the statement is actually – “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept evil?”
Even though Job’s affliction was carried out by Satan, Job knew very well from where this evil had come – “Who among all these does not know that the hand of Yahweh has done this” (Job12:9). The writer of Job equally knew that Yahweh did this – “and they consoled (Job) and comforted him for all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him” (Job 42 11). And even James knew who brought this evil on Job – “You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful” (James 5:11).
Before we consider once again the recent destructive tsunami, let us see what this way of Yahweh means for the church. There is too much evidence to ignore that compels us to examine what this means in the bigger picture.
In Job we find an exceptionally clear pattern for the church. It was a work established by Yahshua in the beginning that was delightful in His sight. Even as Yahweh said three times that Job was “blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1, 8, and 2:3), so the church was such in His sight in the beginning. But even as we read in Ezekiel 24:21, so Yahweh would profane His church and turn it over to evil – Satan and flesh man.
As Yahweh turned Job over to Satan at His own bidding, so He turned the church over to Satan. According to Strong’s, “Job” means “persecuted.” And even as Satan was given the authority to take everything from Job but his life, so Satan was given the authority to take everything from the church but the power of an indestructible life. They will rise again from the grave.
This is the same testimony we see in Joseph as well. Joseph brought back to his father an evil report about his brothers (Genesis 37:2), and afterward he was placed into a pit by them and sold into slavery in Egypt. This is precisely what Yahweh did with the church.
This is likewise the testimony we see when Jacob went to Laban’s house and served him for twenty years. The number “twenty” is simply a lower denomination at man’s level that testifies to the 2,000 years that the church would equally serve “laban.” In The Rod, page 1, we have already seen that the word “laban” means “white.“ But its usage is quite revealing. First, the “bricks” that were used to build the tower of Babel were actually “labans.” Likewise, the sons of Israel’s bondage in Egypt led them to make “labans” and gather their own straw as well. Furthermore, the sign of leprosy was when a sore was “laban” (Leviticus 13). And finally, the rod that Jacob striped so as to produce striped offspring, which represented Yahshua taking upon Himself the sins of man, were stripes of “laban.” Thus “laban” actually represents sin and bondage; and this is precisely what is testified when Jacob served Laban for twenty years – it clearly represented the 2,000 year period of the church that has served sin and bondage.
If you want to know what the 2,000 years of the church have been, look at the testimonies related to the number “twenty.” As you will see, twenty is the number of waiting and corruption, even as has been the 2,000 year period of Christianity.
Thus, whether it is the testimony of Jacob laboring under Laban for twenty years, or the sons of Israel being sold into Babylon for seventy years and Yahweh’s holy place being profaned, or Joseph being placed into a pit (death) and sold into slavery for twenty shekels of silver, or Job being given over to Satan, the testimony is the same – the church has been turned over to Satan for 2,000 years!
But as we have already seen, this evil that Yahweh brings upon the church will be used for good, and even the full extent of this good we do not even know. We do know though that even as Jacob received his two brides from this period of bondage, so Yahshua will receive His two-part Bride out of this period of Laban Christianity. And we know that this period of affliction will work to the good of the nations as well some day, as the body of Christ resurrects from death and the grave that it has been in for two “days” as the suffering and afflicted savior. And we know that in the end the Remnant will receive the double portion of His Spirit, even as Job received.
And since this matter of using evil for good is the way of Yahweh, it finds fulfillment in every area of life. As in the words of Paul, we are each being “poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service” of the faith of others (Philippians 2:17). The first time this truth was made clear to me was when Yahweh told me that the financial difficulties I was having in my life were for the faith of my father. Within only a few days of that, my father gave his life to Yahshua. And recently I heard a report on a man who in the last few years has filled a most interesting role in my life. Evidently he recently lost his family and ended up on the streets and lives in a homeless shelter. I cannot go into all that is involved here, for it is quite interesting, but this man ended up precisely where I anticipated I would end up. In 2003 when I lost my family and the Remnant promise had to die, I fully anticipated that I would end up where he is – in a homeless shelter. Frankly, I wonder if he paid the price for me so that I did not have to go there? This is indeed the way of Yahweh.
In the early 90’s Yahweh asked me if I was willing to pay the price so that others would not have to pay it and yet receive the reward. Honestly, I had to ask myself if I was indeed willing. It wasn’t that I was not willing to suffer, but I wondered if others would fully appreciate the reward if they did not pay the price. But my answer was affirmative. This is precisely the way of Yahweh. We pay the price for the sake of others, sometimes willingly and knowingly, but other times when we have no idea what Yahweh is doing. We pay the price for others, we endure the evil, so that they do not have to. This is taking up our cross for the benefit of others. It is the groaning and travailing of all creation that the sons of God would be revealed. This is what took place on the morning of December 26, 2004. Hundreds of thousands of people paid a price for the sacrifice and service of the faith of others. Yahweh once again used evil in order to effect good, and I trust that this is the good that comes with a spiritual tsunami that comes upon the land.
But to be honest, do I like His ways of good and evil? Many years ago I used to say to Him – I love your ways. Then I went through a very difficult time with a person and Yahweh would not allow me to defend myself. I was taking a shower and the Spirit spoke to me the passage from James 3:18 – “the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” Up to then I had said – I love your ways. But now I reacted in a more realistic way for a flesh man. I slammed the shampoo against the shower wall and declared the honest truth – I hate your ways!
How did Yahweh settle this nation, His kingdom of heaven at the nations level? Did He have a revival that brought us all here? Or did He speak to people and tell them to come? No, He used evil to bring people to America. He used the evil of the persecution of the Irish by the Scots and the British to begin the Irish immigration. And if that was not enough, He used the Great Potato Famine and the Black Plague to get them here. He used the evil of the Thirty Years War to get the Germans here, and the evil of disease and famine and natural disasters to get the Italians here. He used the evil of persecution to get the Jews here. And to get the Africans here, He used the evil of slavery. The list goes on of all the evil He used to bring others into the kingdom of heaven at the nations level. Hopefully this nation paid the price at the natural level so that we in the true kingdom will not have to pay it. Elijah prevents the great and terrible day of Yahweh (Malachi 4:5-6).
Of course the greatest example of Yahweh using evil is that of Satan. Yahweh uses Satan for His purposes, even as He did with Job and as He has used him in the church. In Matthew 5:39 we read the incredible statement of Yahshua – “do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other.” This is precisely what has taken place in the body of Christ. Yahweh did not resist Satan’s work in the church, so that when he slapped the church on the right cheek, the first 1,000 years, He gave the left cheek of the church to him as well. Again, Yahweh did not resist him who was evil.
I do not like the way of Yahweh when it comes to loss. Do you know what it is like to lose your family, when you had one of the most pure and devoted families there was; and not just to lose them physically, but to see them depart from the ways in which you had all walked and to return to the ways of the world? I hated to see my own “holy place,” my family, “profaned.” I hated to see the sorrow and suffering that came with the tsunami. I hate to see the corruption of the kingdom of heaven. I hate to see the blindness and division that results from it. I hate the corruption of this earth with evil and the resulting loss and death and conflict. In comparison with that which is to come, our state up to now is little more than being buried alive. I hate loss, and Yahweh using evil to effect good is a sore way. Yes, in the end I know it will be for good; but in the meantime it is very hard, and I guess it’s intended to be.
Continue to final page of 2004 Year-end Report for “LET THE READER UNDERSTAND”