Basket of Figs

Published 2002-4

Bud Powell

Trinity Covenant RCUS, Colorado Springs

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Why the Wicked Have Power

Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:  Psalm 17:13

One of the great comforts of the saint is that no evil can happen to them apart from the will of God.  Wicked men and devils have power only from God, for there is no other source of power in the world.   One of the great lessons from the book of Job is that even Satan could not do any evil to Job except by the permission of God.

It is true that even Satan was created by God in righteousness, but not immutable, not immune from falling.  He did fall in circumstances that we know little about.  In becoming the enemy of God and men, he did not cease to be a creature upheld by the power of God and used by God for His own purposes.  The Bible makes it clear that it is the purposes of God that come to pass, not the devil’s (Eph. 1)

The wicked king of Assyria is described as an axe in the hands of the Lord (Isaiah 10).  “Should the axe boast against the one who uses the axe,” God asks.   In Daniel, after eating grass like an animal for seven years, King Nebuchadnezzar was humbled and learned something about the Lord.  “I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:  And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”  --Daniel 4:34,35

There is no weapon that the wicked have that is not designed and formed by the power of God: 

Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.   No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.  --Isaiah 54:16, 17

The wicked themselves and the weapons they forge are instruments of the Lord.  It is blasphemy and atheism to say that God has nothing to do with the evil things that come into our lives.  The godly attitude is to call upon God in the time of trouble, repent our sins, and covenant anew to seek Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.

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