Day 1- SATAN’S DELUSION

Many people turn from the Gospel because they can’t reconcile a loving God and an evil world. Again, you will just touch the surface of the answer to this question but hopefully this week’s study will provide a foundation for your defense of the gospel. First and foremost you must believe that God is a good God.
Read James 1:17. Do you believe that God is a good God?
The person who struggles with the presence of evil, struggles with a good God who would allow evil. The problem is that they define “good” from their perspective. We must define “good” from God’s perspective. To see God’s perspective, we need to start from the beginning – actually before the beginning. The prophet Isaiah was speaking a word against the king of Babylon, the future king who would defeat Israel. All of a sudden, the wording changes to describe a figure of someone who had far greater reach than the earthly king of Babylon. Things are said that we know are not true of the earthly King of Babylon. This passage is talking about Satan himself, before the world and mankind were created. This is how Satan sinned.
Read Isaiah 14:9-15
In verse 10-11, where is Satan destined?
The word “stars” in the OT represents angels. How is Satan described? Was he an angel?
In verse 13-14 what did Satan say he could do?
In verse 12 what happened to Satan? He was cut down to where?
Satan is delusional. He thought he could be better than the angels. Even worse, he thought he was better than God. Think through this today and we will pick up where we left off tomorrow.

Day 2- SATAN’S PRIDE

Ezekiel was another prophet in Israel. He spoke the Lord’s words and gives us another clue to Satan’s fall. Again, Ezekiel starts out the chapter talking about the prince of Tyre, an actual man who lived on earth. But the language changes again. Things are said of the King of Tyre that could not be true of one man.
Read Ezekiel 28:11-18
How is the “King of Tyre” described in verse 11? Has any man been described this way?
Read Romans 3:10 for a clue
What does verse 13 say that give us the big clue this is Satan?
Read verse 14, what was Satan and where did he dwell?
What did Satan do? What happened to him?
Satan was the “cherub who covers.” The Hebrew word for covers means “to guard.” No one, not even the smartest of theologians knows what this means, but it must have been very important position, one who sees God every day. Satan literally stood on the Holy Mountain of God, in His presence and thought He could be like God. It states again in verse 17, God cast Satan to the ground. The Bible tells us at this moment there was a mutiny in heaven. Revelation 12 gives a small summary of the history of what happened in the Bible. It uses symbolism to describe the events in history. It talks of a dragon and in Revelation 12:9 it explains this dragon is Satan. Read what it says Satan does.
Read Revelation 12:4. What did the dragon’s (Satan’s) tail do?
The mutiny in heaven was started by Satan’s pride but there were angels that chose to side with him instead of God. Most of the angels stayed with God, but a good number went with Satan. The next place Satan shows up is the Garden of Eden after God creates the earth and mankind. What have you learned about Satan?
Here is the final question for today. Think on this question and we will dig in deeper tomorrow. Here it is… Could God have destroyed Satan and the fallen angels right then and there? If so, why didn’t He?

GIVE IT A TRY!

If you want to dig deeper into questions like “Why Man” or “Why Evil”. A great read is: The Bigger Picture: Understanding the Story of The Bible by Tommy Nelson

Day 3- GOD’S PATIENCE

This mutiny in heaven happened before the earth was created. Satan made a pretty bold statement that he could be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13-14) and even convinced a good number of angels to follow. This was a massive event in heaven. It would have been on the front page news… if heaven has such a thing. Satan’s pride and departure left a big question unanswered.
“Is God worthy to be praised, or can someone else be like Him?”
Yesterday you were asked the question, “Did God have the power to destroy Satan and his angels years ago?” If you believe God is all-powerful, then the answer is YES! If you read the gospels, Jesus defeats Satan on the cross. If you read the book of Revelation you will see Satan doesn’t have a good ending. So… why not save all the trouble and destroy him to begin with?
Read Psalm 145:3. What does this verse say?
Here are the reasons why God allowed evil to come into this world.
01 In this mutinous event the angelic realm was watching. There was a question that needed to be answered. If God had destroyed Satan, it would have been clear because God is all-powerful. But we would never know any of His other attributes. Just being “all-powerful” does not mean you are worthy to be praised. God created the earth, mankind and all that is in it to show all of who He is, prove He is worthy of praise, and show that no one is like Him.
02 God is good and worthy of being experienced. He would be a selfish God to not give life and show the goodness of who He is. One can’t experience all of who God is by being forced to do so. God allowed evil so mankind could have a choice. The good news is He also gave us a chance to overcome evil.
Read 2 Peter 3:9. Describe God’s heart.
Why does He allow evil for now? Are you glad He is patient?
Are you starting to see why God is allowing evil for a time?

Day 4- LET GOD JUDGE

God is a Holy God. He poured out His wrath on His Son, who took the sin of the world to the cross. His wrath can be avoided for any who wants to believe in Him. There will still be many who will not. Remember, they have a choice. A loving God cannot create robots that do not have a choice. He would be called a dictator or tyrant if this was true and God has not shown Himself to ever be these things. He also, because He is sinless, is the only one who has the right to judge. Humans do not have this right so we must leave all judgment to Him. Jesus tells a parable about this to His disciples.
Read Matthew 13:24-30
Who sowed the bad seed? What did the servants want to do?
What was the owner’s answer and why? What will the owner do?
Read Matthew 13:36-43. How Does Jesus explain this parable?
Jesus tells us the origin of evil is not from God, but instead an enemy. The owner’s workers ask, “Master did you not sow good seed in your field, how then does it have tares?” Jesus is addressing the “If you are a good God, why is their evil” question right here. He addresses it first by reminding His disciples that God does not sow evil. He allows it but He does not create it. He then lets them know they should not pull out the tares for fear they would accidentally pull out wheat. Tares are a weed that looks like wheat. It’s hard to tell them apart until they are full grown. Only God knows who is “good seed” and who is “bad seed.” Humans have a limited scope of who people are because they only see people in certain seasons of their life. God sees people in all seasons. He can tell the difference between good and evil so we should leave it up to Him.

Day 5- HE HAS ALREADY WON

Evil is a hard thing to experience and see. Sadly, people do evil things and even worse, there are people who have to suffer the consequences of the evil people’s actions. No one likes evil and no one should. I challenge you to take the reverse situation of the subject of evil. People get mad at God for allowing evil, but challenge them to think about it from the opposite view.
If God didn’t allow evil, this means He is a dictator instead of a loving God.
If God didn’t allow evil, He wouldn’t have the ability to prove He is worthy to be praised. We couldn’t look back throughout history to see His attributes.
If God didn’t allow evil, mankind would not be here.
If God didn’t allow evil, we would never know of God’s grace and mercy.
If God didn’t allow evil, humans would not be unique. Our life experiences in Christ grow us to be who He wants us to be.
Instead, we should rejoice in how God has already won the victory.
Read 1 John 3:8, Romans 8:28, and 2 Corinthians 12:9
What do these verses say God will do for us?
We always focus on the question “why evil?” If God just allowed evil and did nothing else, then we should have a problem. But we don’t have a problem because God solved the problem of evil by overcoming it. Instead of focusing on the existence of evil… focus on the God who can overcome it.