Intro: The problem of evil is an issue that every worldview must, if it is to be coherent and compelling, answer. Why? Because any intellectually honest person admits that this world is replete with evil. Our newsfeeds, papers, headlines, laws, prisons, and our own hearts attest to the reality that evil is both without and within. It is both “out there” in the world and also “in here,” in our hearts and in our nature. No one legislates laws because people are morally upright and pristine. No one builds prisons to house the noble and upright. Laws are necessary because human nature is fallen. We are not what we ought to be. As Robinson captured this truth in one of his hymns, we are “prone to wander.” 

Same Old Story: Like a lot of Soldiers, I love studying history. And if you’re like I am, you discover through the study of history that man’s nature is consistent through the ages. We tend to make the same blunders again and again. It’s the stuff of tragic heroes. Patterns emerge. It’s become almost bromidic, but the line from writer G. Michael Hopf rings true, does it not: “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” 

The Upshot: In Genesis, Jacob (renamed Israel by God) has twelve sons who are the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. When Jacob is an old man and is nearing death, he is granted understanding of things hitherto veiled from him. Jacob, now an old man, is reunited with his beloved son Joseph (whom Jacob/Israel believed had perished). But instead of Joseph’s absence, Jacob/Israel learns that Joseph has been used by God to not only not perish, but to rise to a position of authority. Joseph’s authority is so great indeed that he forgives his enemies, feeds his brothers who earlier betrayed him, and blesses the nations. In short, Jacob learns that God reversed the apparent victory of evil for the purposes of good and holy ends. 

Encouragement: This is how Christianity is the coherent and compelling answer to the problem of evil. The promise made by God in Genesis 3:15, that the seed (Jesus Christ) of the woman Eve would crush the head of the serpent (Satan). This is what’s known as the first (proto) announcement of the gospel (evangelion), the protevangelium. 

This is why when it comes time for Joseph (a type of Christ in the Old Testament) to die, he says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive . . .” (Genesis 50:20). And he told his brothers, fallen sinners who had done evil to him, “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:7-8a).

God conquers evil through the gospel, you see. Evil does not win for all those who are covered by the seed of the woman. And that seed is Christ.