The Heart of Darkness: Where Evil Originates and How God Intervenes

And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord... So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan... And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he harshly oppressed the children of Israel. (Judges 4)

Where does evil come from—and why are we powerless to escape it apart from God's intervention?

Evil Is Objective, Not Opinion

The list of the works of the flesh could go on and on—things that are objectively evil. How do we know they are objectively evil? Because Scripture tells us beforehand, as Paul told them in times past, that those who continually practice such things will not inherit the kingdom or the blessing of God. Some of these we readily acknowledge: murder—yes, that is wicked, that is evil.

But in our culture today, there are others people dismiss as "just your opinion." They call evil good and good evil. Take fornication—sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage. Our culture says, "No, that's not evil, that's normal behavior between consenting adults, that's perfectly fine." Yet Scripture says that actually falls outside the bounds of what God calls right. He calls it wicked, and those who practice such things will not inherit eternal life in the kingdom of God but will inherit corruption and destruction.

Doing Evil in the Eyes of the Lord

Notice the language in Judges 4: the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. Another way to read that is they did evil in the eyes of the Lord. That Hebrew word translated "eyes" or "sight" is the very same word used twice in Judges when we read that every man did what was right in his own eyes.

People will say, "That thing you call evil isn't really that bad." But look at the outcomes. What does it produce in a culture, in a society? By the fruit you shall know the tree. Every man did what was right in his own eyes—and by doing those things, they did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Things are evil based on an authority declaring them to be out of bounds. When we read they did evil in the sight of the Lord, we are given an understanding that accords with reality: there are things that are objectively evil because there is an objective moral standard, a moral law.

A Moral Law Requires a Lawgiver

We live in a culture that increasingly says there is no such thing as an objective standard or moral law—that it's merely a socially constructed idea of right and wrong. This is social construct theory, and the Western world of 2024 has been fed this ideology for a long time: morality is socially constructed.

If you ever talk with someone who claims morality is socially constructed and there are no objective standards of right and wrong, simply ask: Was what happened in Auschwitz in the 1940s objectively wrong? I have yet to meet a person who will not agree that it was objectively wrong. And if it was objectively wrong, then there is an objective moral law. If there is a moral law, then by necessity there is a moral Lawgiver—and that Lawgiver, we find in Scripture, is God.

Some say, "I just don't agree with that." Your agreement doesn't matter one lick. Have I told you about the law of gravity? "I just don't agree with that." Okay—try it. Let's see how that works out for you. As Dr. Phil says, "How's that working for you?" It doesn't appear to be working very well.

Woe to Those Who Call Evil Good

Twenty-eight hundred years ago, Isaiah addressed those who call evil good and good evil:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)

That word "woe" is translated in other English translations as "sorrow awaits" or "judgment is certain." Sorrow awaits the person who calls evil good and good evil.

Where Does Evil Come From?

But this begs the question: where does evil come from? Fascinatingly, the first use of the word "evil" in the Bible is in the opening chapters, where God gives the first command to humanity. He says of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die. Through man's decision to disobey God's command, he gained an experiential knowledge of evil. Through that disobedience—which the Bible calls sin, because sin is disobedience of God's command—death entered the world, and evil entered into our hearts.

Some philosophers today say evil is the result of society—people do evil things because they've been oppressed. But where did the oppression of society that is evil come from? Jesus gives the answer in Mark 7:

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7)

Where does evil come from? It is the result of sin's effect in our lives and hearts. Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and it spread to all humanity. The works of the flesh Paul identifies in Galatians 5—adultery, sexual immorality, murder, theft, lewdness—are the very same evil results of an evil heart Jesus identifies in Mark 7. According to God, they are all evil.

Enslaved to Sin Apart from God's Intervention

Point number two, if you're taking notes: apart from God's intervening, redemptive action, I am the subject of and enslaved to moral evil and sin. A broken heart, affected by sin, produces sinful and evil thoughts and actions. There is no way to deal with that apart from the intervening redemptive action of God. Without God intervening, we are the subject of and slave to moral evil and sin.

This is why, for all their hopeful ambition—for all their professions that "all that you have said we will do and be obedient"—the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. Note those words: in the sight of the Lord. God sees and knows the full depths of the wickedness of our sinful heart, even though, amazingly, we often don't even know it ourselves.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

And yet the very next verse says: "I the Lord search the heart" (Jeremiah 17:10). I know the heart.

Nothing Is Hidden from God

Sometimes we think our sins are private, personal, or hidden—that they're not harming anybody, that it's my own personal thing. But nothing is hidden from the Lord. Jesus said in Luke 12:2 that nothing is covered or hidden that will not be known. In Hebrews 4 we read that all things are exposed and naked before God, the eyes of the Lord to whom we must give an account. And in that same book we read that it is appointed to all men to die once, and then comes the judgment. He who sees all and knows all—one day I will stand before Him completely exposed and open.

Isaiah said it again:

Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? (Isaiah 29:15)

In Isaiah's day there was a group in Israel doing all kinds of immoral and sinful things behind closed doors, saying, "Nobody knows, nobody sees, it harms nobody, it's no big deal." But God sees and He knows.

Under Sin, Subject to Justice

The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who had nine hundred chariots of iron and for twenty years harshly oppressed them—and they cried out to the Lord.

Apart from God's intervening redemptive action, I am the subject of and the slave to sin and moral evil. If God does not intervene, and if I do not receive His redemptive intervention, then I am under sin and subject to justice. The wrath of God will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.