HOW GOD RELATES TO EVIL

1. How God Relates To Evil

a) Featured Scripture Text

1 Samuel 21:7 

Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD (was there at that time for ceremonial purification). His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.

b) If you wanted to put together a list of  the “bottom 10” people in the Bible (excluding Satan, to be fair) about how God relates to evil would be a little-known figure named Doeg the Edomite. 

c) The way in which Doeg appears on the scene, wreaks havoc, and disappears necessitates a case study.

d) The other top 9 people associated with evil are:

@1. Cain (first murderer, not including Satan), 

@2. Ahab / Jezebel (a tag-team of badness), 

@3. Manasseh (child sacrificer),

@4. Jeroboam I (who kicked off all the badness for the Northern Kingdom), 

@5. Herod the Great (slaughterer of children), 

@6. Herodias and Herod Antipas (beheaded John the Baptist), 

@7. Judas (for obvious reasons),

@8. Pontius Pilate (the hand-washer), 

@9. Saul / Paul (persecutor of Christians).

e) Doeg was an Edomite, chief herdsman to Saul, King of Israel. He is mentioned in 1 Samuel 21-22, where he is depicted as an antagonist (adversary) of David responsible for the deaths of a large number of priests.

f) At the command of Saul he slew the high priest Ahimelech at Nob, together with all the priests to the number of 85 persons.

g) In Psalm 52, David wrote to protest against his enemy Doeg (1 Samuel 22), who later slaughtered all the priests and their families. 

Psalm 52:1-4 

Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day. Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit. You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.

 h) Doeg is an instance of the evil consequences of slander, because by slandering the priests of Nob he lost his own life, and caused the death of Saul, Ahimelech, and Abner. 

i) How did the incident originate?

@1. King Saul was insecure and wanted to kill David. When Doeg reported about David and the priest Ahimelech, he desperately commanded his people to kill the priest but they didn't want to do it. So he commanded Doeg to do it. Doeg not only slaughtered all the priests but also their families. 

j) The Bible tells us that the heart is the most deceitful thing there is and desperately wicked. No one can really know how bad it is! (Jeremiah 17:9)

Romans 1:29-32 

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

k) So, above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. (Proverbs 4:23-27)