evil is a vapor

 

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Job 20:1-22:30. Job reminds us of something very important. We know it to be true, but it's hard to remember sometimes. And it flies in the face of a modern, popular truism.

What Job reminds us of is that evil is temporary. He says it several times, in many different ways. "The triumph of the wicked is short lived", and "the joy of the godless has been only temporary". He even says, "the godless will be thrown away like their own dung." Whoa, Job. Easy, killer.

But it's good for us to hear this. Because our modern culture likes to say things like "all good things must come to an end" and "absolute power corrupts absolutely." Both of these things are intrinsically wrong. ONLY good things are forever. All bad things must come to an end, and when you compare eternity to the length of time that we live on earth, they come to an end very rapidly. Evil is just a quick flash in the pan. It's a vapor that is gone before we even fully realize what it is. Absolute power does NOT in fact corrupt absolutely. There is only one being in the universe who has absolute power, and He is absolutely incorruptible. Good is forever. Evil is gone before you know it.

If you traveled back to Poland in 1943, and told the Jewish people living there that the Nazis would be gone in just two years' time, their power broken and their armies gone, it would have been difficult to believe. They SAW the evil of the Nazi regime all around them, very much in power and seemingly here to stay. But evil was a vapor, and in just a year and a half, they were gone. Running for their lives, hiding from the authorities, being dragged before courts to account for their crimes.

Evil seems permanent today, too. We look all around us, and we see corruption in the church. We see sex trafficking run rampant. We see Venezuela succumbing to the inevitable effects of Socialism. And we see a virus going crazy around the world, killing people and shutting down entire economies.

But it's just a vapor. A mist. It will blow away before we know it, and goodness will remain. The church will not, CANNOT be destroyed. Evil will come and go, but good is here to stay.

God, thanks for reminding us, from the oldest book in the Bible, one of the oldest books ever written, that from then until now and forever, good is eternal and evil is passing.