God and World

One of the things that frustrates us as believers is that God doesn't just come and put everything right in the world. From the beginning of time, we as humans have been asking - why do the wicked prosper? Why do the good suffer? Why doesn't God just step into this broken world and put it back together? Why doesn't He stop bad things from happening?

It's called "theodicy" - the problem of evil in the world - and it seems to most of us that the most simple way to solve it is for God to just be God and do God things and exert His force and power (and, uhm, love and stuff, you know) as God to just end it. 

But...He doesn't. 

Drives you crazy, doesn't it?

Whenever I'm thinking about this sort of thing, whenever I'm wrestling with what God does and doesn't do about evil in the world, I'm drawn to the book of Esther. Yes, Esther.

In Esther, the evil man Haman acquires the king's signet ring and signs, seals, and delivers an order for all of the Jews in the entire kingdom to be executed. Slaughtered. En masse and on the same day. When that day comes, all the people have been instructed to kill their Jewish neighbors. 

Of course, Mordecai has the king's favor, and so does Esther, and when the whole plot comes to light, Haman is hanged on a pole he erected himself, Mordecai is promoted, and things are looking up. 

Kinda.

Because there's still this little problem of a decree signed in the king's name that permits the killing of all Jews. All the men of the kingdom are aware of it by now. They're already planning. They already know how that day is going to go. And by the rule of the land, anything sealed in the king's ring cannot be undone. You can't just rip up the order.

But Mordecai is given the king's ring to issue whatever order he sees fit in response to Haman's order. 

Now, if it were me, I would issue a new decree that says that we don't listen to dead men, especially dead men who were hanged on their own pole for their own wickedness. I would issue a decree that says that we don't entertain that kind of nonsense and appeal to the moral character of the people as a whole. But...of course, it wasn't me. And honestly, in a society that is ruled by dictate, appealing to the innate moral character of humanity probably doesn't work. 

Still, I would have been tempted to simply issue a decree stating that the old decree is null and void. It, too, would be sealed with the king's ring, so...newest order wins? 

That's not how it goes down. Instead, Mordecai issues a new order stating that the Jews can fight back. (Could they not fight back without an order? Actually, they could not. For they would have been guilty of murder, which would have further threatened their place in society.) But Mordecai tells them they can fight back. They can defend themselves, even unto death. And now, it's all-out war basically. 

And this is where we find ourselves, as well. 

We're in constant battle with the world, at odds with the way they do things here. At odds with how they live. God has plainly told us we would be at odds with this world. And as much as we want Him to just step in and end it all, put all the broken things back together, the truth is that He doesn't. What He has done is to issue a new decree telling us that we can fight back. That we don't have to conform to the patterns of this world. That this world is not our home. That we are to be in the world, not of the world. 

He has told us we can stand up. That's the decree of the Lord in the face of evil. 

...for now.