Why is there Evil? S1e79 Gen15:7
Abram is having a vision; with bringing outside stars
Lord is visiting Abram on earth in a vision. Intimate taking out
Abram is having faith…counted as righteousness
Pattern for all men of all ages
No faith, no righteousness
Who God is :I am the LORD who…
What He has done previously: I brought you here; appearance; survival
What He’s going to do: give you a land to possess
Gen 157 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
Action: Sacrifice 5 animals cut the big ones
Love this detail: birds of prey come to the worship altar
Lot of meat available and birds of Prey know it.
But it comes with service, unwillfull service, 4 centuries suffering, your death,
If you just came in at the end of this with no context, and no belief, you’d ask: Why is their EVIL?
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Sun going down. Deep sleep. LORD SAID TO ABRAM
Conversation continues—big moment in Abram’s life
Unusual: spent MOST of his life not in the open presence of God
Perhaps all are recorded here
On day before he got day vision,
Now night voice
KNOW FOR CERTAIN
That your Offspring…(don’t have any right now. Don’t have any lany land) but YOU HAD ME AT OFFSPRING
Sojourners; land not theirs; servants, 400 years
14 BUT I WILL bring judgement on the captors
They shall come out with great possessions
You will die in peace
You will be buried OLD
You will come back HERE (land) in 4 generations
Why me. Why this?—not everything is about YOU
“Why is this happening to me?” Why is there to be EVIL?
EVIL
Iniquity of the Amorites ” Daniel Gen 10 Ge 10:15–16 son of ham, grandson of Noah. Table of nations.
Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,
The term “Amorites” in the Old Testament refers either to a specific people group in Palestine or generally to non-Israelite peoples living in the land before the Israelites. The origin of the Amorites goes back to 3000 bc. The biblical writers describe the Amorites as inhabitants of the northern part of Canaan, Syria, and the Transjordan area especially during the conquest and settlement of the Israelites in the lan
is not yet complete
“trangressors have reached their limit
“Fill up the measure of their sins” 1 Thess 2
Concept of Divine patience, regarding Man’s evil, for a specified time
In addition to Abram’s specific interaction with the Lord, there are epic world events unfolding that Abram may or may not be aware of. The Lord has a higher vision than just Abram. Here He is predicting and watching, and judging the evil of the Amorites
Purging the promised land from sinful people, Amorites are high on list
Conclusions
God cares, God came down, God incarnated, God stayed down.
Clothe ourselves with his presence, friendship, faithful are wounds
Not everything is about YOU—Lord may be dealing with epic good and evil and nations Amorites that is out of the scope of. Your visual field
“I am doing stuff you do not see”
We love to ask the question: “why is there the suffering I see”
A: there is more happening in God’s sovereignty that you can see.
Why is there evil? Because it comes from Man
Why did God allow it? Because He’ll be glorified in it’s fixing
Why does God allow evil HERE; that I can see? Sometimes there are things going on elsewhere, that we do not see that sovereignly affect our lives here. You see evil here, because I am doing stuff you do not see.
