The other day I was looking for an answer for the origin of evil. I could not find a satisfactory answer, not even on ChatGPT. I asked for a clear answer, and believe it or not, I found it in my own writings (1995):

Faith versus fate

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men.

3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men,

5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!'”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.

7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

  Luke 18:1-8 (NIV)

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

  Matt 10:29-31 (NIV)

42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”  Luke 22:42 (NIV)

10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

  Matt 6:10 (NIV)

Some people say that when something bad happens to us it must still be God’s will, because ultimately some ‘greater’ cause in God’s plan is served. I must say that I find it disturbing that when a child of seven is being run over by a car, somebody can say: “it was God’s will.” We must always remember that death, old age, sickness and disease came as a result of sin and that God did not really want this to happen. But very clearly, the message that Jesus brings is that God wants us to be His partner in fighting the darkness that came as a result of sin. Once you accept that God exists, the next question automatically is: what part should I play in His plan? Does God want accidents, diseases and disasters to happen in our lives? No! (e.g. Jer. 29:11-13) Rather, He needs our hands to join Him in preventing them. Therefore it is probably better not to express such thoughts about God’s will at such a sad occasion when somebody dies very young!

Some insurers in our insurance industry have now also come up with the idea of not paying out insurance claims if the disaster can be termed an ‘Act of God.’ For example, if there is a nationwide flood or earthquake or whatever, and it can be classed as an ‘Act of God’ then there will be no settlements of claims. What worries me about all of this is that God is now apparently being blamed for all the disasters and accidents that can happen in the world. No. That cannot be true. Jesus revealed to us God’s true character and Jesus would never want to harm a child. He blessed the children. He wept when he looked in the future and saw Jerusalem destroyed by war. He healed those struck with diseases. God is Light and in Him there is no darkness. Our God does not have two faces! God is Love and nothing else. That is important to remember in everything what we say or think of God. That is also the message of every parable that Jesus tells us. And to this fact the apostles have also testified, e.g. 1 John 4:8 – “Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love”.

Jesus advises us never to give up resisting whatever it is that you cannot accept (vs. 1). You do not have to accept the inevitable. Even death itself is regarded by Jesus as “sleep”. (e.g. John 11:11) and we should take the same view. You do not have to accept injustice (vs. 3). You do not have to accept sickness or disease as being the so-called ‘will of God’. We can even prepare ourselves against natural disasters. The first step in our fight against injustice, poverty, sickness, disease, loneliness, etc. is: prayer  (vs. 1). It will give you the right perspective on the problem. You have to keep on knocking at His door (vs. 3). Eventually your persistence must pay off and you will get faith (vs. 8). Once you have faith – that specific answer that convinces you that God has heard your prayer and that He is aware of the problem – you can trust Him to give you the tools to solve the problem. That does not mean that you can sit back! No way. You must use the tool or tools that God will make available to you. If you have a headache and you know that a tablet will cure you then you don’t have to pray for that. God has already given you the tool! You are not testing your faith by not taking that tablet, you are testing God. Jesus warns us against that. (Matt 12:38-39). Always remember that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal 5:6b)

There are some things that God cannot do. For one thing, He cannot go against that what He is or what He stands for: Love. We have to realize that His decision to choose the road to the cross was not an easy one. (vs. 42). With the power that was in Him, He could have come down from that cross. Instead He gave up His own life for our sake. Jesus’ decision on this issue was also made after prayer. So, apparently there are situations when we will have to accept what has happened or what is going to happen because there is some ultimate purpose for the good of mankind. (vs. 42). This also happened to the apostle Paul. If you read his letters carefully you can almost feel that He prayed and asked God for him to be released from prison. But in this case God could not do anything about it because of a higher purpose that had to be served. Most of Paul’s letters were written in prison. Looking back, we now can say: what would the New Testament be without Paul’s letters?

There is another old story that is being told of a Chinese farmer. He had only one horse and one day this horse ran away. That was bad luck. A month later his horse came back together with a hundred wild horses that he had brought with him. That was a blessing. Not much later his son fell off one of the wild horses’ back and got paralysed from the waste down. That was bad luck again. For any father that is most probably the worst thing that you can wish for your son. Only a year or so later it was war and only all the healthy young males from the village were conscripted into the army. None of them ever returned. Looking back now, the Chinese farmer noticed of course that he should be glad with the bad luck that he had encountered because it had saved his son’s life.

In a way I think this story illustrates why we must include a very important statement in every prayer (vs. 42 and vs. 10)  ‘If what I want does not fit in with Your plan for me or those after me, I will accept that too…’ God does have a plan and our journey here on earth really is to find our part in God’s plan. God’s plan is to fight evil. Simply put, every prayer to our Father in Heaven then basically has three possible answers: Yes. No. Wait. (vs. 4)

Which brings me back to the beginning. Does evil, too, come from God? It appears life itself and the end of it – whether natural or by accident or by disease – is in God’s hand (vs. 29). But look again carefully at the parable that Jesus is telling us here. He is bringing another message in the story by reversing the true situation. If you look anywhere in the gospels you will find that Jesus continuously talks about His Father who loves His children and who will do anything for them provided it is for their own good. Whenever He can He compares the relationship of God and man between that of a parent and his child. Yet, here, in this story, He talks about a judge who is in fact not a good person (vs. 4), but who happens to be the person (father) in control of our life. What is He telling us?

Looking back at relationship with your own father one may well remember situations where you thought your father did not treat you fairly, even though you must admit now that it was most probably in your own interest that your father did not give you what you wanted. Jesus is acknowledging that you too may feel this way towards God, even to the point that these feelings may be legitimate. You may feel bitter about a certain situation; perhaps you may have once asked Him to help you and He didn’t. Maybe you cannot accept the death of someone close to you and you have decided to rebel against Him, or worse, ignore Him. Jesus says: “Listen to what the unjust judge says” (vs. 6). He knows your pain because He went through the same thing. Jesus is making it clear that we must carry on placing the same request to our Father and to keep Him bothering with it. If the unjust judge would eventually give in and grant the widow justice (vs. 5) then how much more will our heavenly Father listen to us and grant us our wish, precisely because He is exactly the opposite of what the unjust judge was (vs. 7).

In a way one might argue that evil does originate from God because Lucifer was also a creation of God. But God (Jesus) came down to earth to expose him as the source of all evil and misunderstanding and to bring his power in our lives to an end. We may now count on God’s help to fight evil, wherever and whenever we experience it. This is most clearly illustrated by what Jesus states in Luke 10:18-19: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”  This is an important promise to every person who has faith in Jesus.

Jesus chooses a widow as the person experiencing the injustice (vs. 3). There is a message in that too. A widow usually experienced a lot of hardship, especially in those days. Mostly alone, of course. Jesus is implying: ‘even if no one else will help you, you may still know that I am always on your side.’ You don’t have to accept anything as being the will of God if you don’t think it is good. Your faith can make a difference. That is the message of this parable. Our own Big Brother is always on our side, whenever we face difficulties. The question is: Will you put your trust in Him? (vs. 8)