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Jeremiah 44 – Does God Commit Evil?
Does God commit “evil’? Immediately our response as believers is no, because immediately we assign the descriptive modifier “moral evil.” Raah is used frequently in Jeremiah 44 (13x), and in all of Jeremiah (85x). Basically it means “adversity” which admittedly sounds somewhat benign. Only when we see it applied contextually do we see the depth of the adversity.
When it is moral adversity then it is translated “evil” or “wickedness” (Jer.44:3). In Jeremiah 44:2 it is punitive adversity and so translated as “disaster” or “calamity” which is an act of God. For Jerusalem this adversity is described as “they are a ruin today without an inhabitant in them” (Jeremiah 44:2). God even asks, “Why are you doing such great harm (raah) to yourselves?” The process is people commit adversity, which brings adversity to ourselves both from ourselves and from God.
As an application, through the punitive adversity we see the true nature of the moral adversity we often are blind to. Discipline then is an opportunity to see what we refuse to see; to receive from God what we have done to God and ourselves. God does not commit “moral evil” but God does bring to us up and personal the true reality of what we have done – evil.
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