“Then the man of God went to the king of Israel and said, “This is what the Lord says: The Arameans have said, ‘The Lord is a god of the hills and not of the plains.’ So I will defeat this vast army for you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.””
1 Kings 20:28 NLT
Why do the evil prosper? This scripture tells us two reasons why this is so. The first reason is that the evil stand in God’s shadow as much as the righteous. When God’s name is impugned, if the evil carry God’s banner, than they will succeed. It is all about them picking the winning team in history. Their judgment will still come, but it will be more nuanced when it does. The second truth is that God’s character allows this grace because he wants enough opportunity for people to have a reasonable worship of him. We should notice that each time the prophet spoke, he ended with the phrase “that you may know that I am God.” God doesn’t want to simply dominate, he wishes for intellectual ascent and then fealty. This means that when we stand in judgment, we truly have no excuse as it is likely that we have either, at some point, turned from God directly or ignored him altogether, before that judgment came. God’s grace is always there. We shouldn’t be surprised when it’s offered. After all, it was offered to us as well.
JOSH McGARY. COM 