God’s Commands, His Heart, and the Purpose of Evil

How can God condemn evil while still intending it to serve His ultimate purpose?

One of the greatest misunderstandings about God comes from confusing the role God plays in His relationship with humanity with the fullness of who God actually is.

God deals with humanity in ways we can understand. He gives commandments, expresses anger toward wickedness, condemns injustice, and reveals what is pleasing to His heart. These expressions are genuine, but they do not reveal everything about His ultimate intention.

Consider a cup of ocean water. Everything in that cup is truly ocean water, but the cup does not contain the entire ocean. Likewise, what God reveals of Himself through His dealings with humanity is true, but it is not the fullness of His wisdom, knowledge, and purpose.

This distinction matters because God can command humanity to do what is right while intending that humanity’s failure to obey will serve a greater purpose.

Something can be utterly contrary to God’s commandments and heart without being outside His predetermined intention.

And Scripture gives us remarkable examples.

1. “It Never Entered My Heart”

In Jeremiah 7:31, God condemns Judah for burning their sons and daughters in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom.

He declares that this was something He had not commanded, “neither came it into my heart.”

Jeremiah 32:35 repeats the condemnation in connection with sacrifices to Molech. God had already forbidden such practices in Leviticus 18:21.

Some translations render the expression as “it never entered My mind.” However, the Hebrew word is heart, not mind. I believe this distinction is important.

Was God saying He had absolutely no idea humanity would commit such horrifying acts? That He looked upon His creation in surprise, discovering something He had never imagined?

How could that be reconciled with Isaiah 46:10, where God declares the end from the beginning?

God was expressing how utterly foreign and abhorrent these sacrifices were to His heart, character, and commandments.

But something being far from God’s heart does not mean it was absent from His predetermined purpose.

In fact, I believe this terrible example reveals an extraordinary contrast between the true God and the false gods humanity worshiped.

Molech was associated with children being consumed in fire. The true God explicitly condemned such worship.

Could God have intended that humanity’s encounter with the cruelty of false gods would ultimately reveal, by contrast, the goodness of the true God?

I believe so.

The evil was real. God’s condemnation was real. And His ultimate intention remained sovereign.

2. God’s Commands Are Not Always His Ultimate Intention

Consider the Law of Moses.

God commanded Israel to obey. Yet Israel repeatedly disobeyed.

Was their failure a surprise? Did it ruin God’s plan?

Paul explains:

“By the law is the knowledge of sin.” — Romans 3:20

He also tells us that the Law entered so that the offense might increase (Romans 5:20), and that it served as a guardian leading to Christ (Galatians 3:24).

The Law was not a failed experiment.

God commanded righteousness, yet through humanity’s experience of failure, He revealed sin and the need for something greater than human righteousness.

Now consider Pharaoh.

God commanded Pharaoh to release Israel, yet God had already declared:

“I will harden his heart.” — Exodus 4:21

Pharaoh resisted God’s command while fulfilling God’s intention.

Paul addresses this very tension in Romans 9:19:

“Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?”

Notice Paul’s response. He does not introduce an independent human free will capable of frustrating God’s purpose.

He points to the Potter and the clay.

The Potter has authority over what He makes.

Humanity can resist God’s commandments. Nobody can defeat God’s ultimate intention.

Pharaoh was not another god. His resistance was not a competing sovereign power.

And neither are Satan, human free will, or evil itself.

3. The Cross Proves the Distinction

The clearest example is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

God commanded humanity not to murder. Yet the brutal murder of His own Son was not an unforeseen tragedy that forced God to invent a rescue plan.

Acts 2:23 declares that Christ was delivered up according to God’s predetermined counsel and foreknowledge.

Acts 4:27–28 identifies Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and Israel as participants who accomplished what God’s hand and counsel had determined beforehand.

Think about that.

The greatest act of human wickedness was also the means through which God accomplished the greatest revelation of His love.

Those who crucified Christ intended evil.

God intended reconciliation.

Through Christ’s death, God was reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Colossians 1:20 speaks of reconciling all things through the blood of His cross.

God did not need to approve of the wicked intentions of Christ’s murderers for their actions to fulfill His purpose.

The cross reveals that an event can be evil according to the intentions of those carrying it out while accomplishing the good God intended from the beginning.

If this is true of the cross, why should we assume that other acts of wickedness must exist outside God’s sovereign purpose?

4. Evil Is Not an Independent Power

Many Christians speak as though God is responsible for everything good, while Satan and human free will are responsible for everything evil.

But Scripture does not present two competing sovereign powers.

God declares:

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” — Isaiah 45:7 (KJV)

The Hebrew word ra can refer to evil, adversity, or calamity, depending on the context. But the declaration remains: God places darkness and adversity, as well as light and peace, under His sovereignty.

Scripture gives further examples.

In Job 1–2, Satan cannot afflict Job beyond the boundaries God establishes. In 1 Kings 22:19–23, a lying spirit operates within God’s judgment upon Ahab. Judges 9:23 describes God sending an evil spirit, and 2 Thessalonians 2:11 speaks of God sending a powerful delusion.

These passages do not portray evil as an independent power that has escaped God’s control.

Ecclesiastes 1:13 describes the grievous experience God has given humanity.

And Romans 8:20–21 reveals something especially important:

Creation was subjected to futility—not willingly—but in expectation of being liberated from corruption.

Creation did not voluntarily subject itself.

And its subjection was connected to an expectation of liberation.

That is purpose.

Futility was never the destination. Liberation was.

I believe God deliberately included humanity’s temporary experience of evil, suffering, weakness, and mortality within His greater plan.

God is not desperately reacting to a creation that has escaped His control.

He is accomplishing what He intended.

5. Why Would God Intend Something Contrary to His Heart?

This is where the question becomes difficult.

If God intended that evil would exist, does that mean He enjoys wickedness or delights in suffering?

No.

Something can serve a greater purpose without being pleasurable or desirable in itself.

Consider a surgeon who must perform a painful procedure to save a child’s life.

The surgeon does not delight in the child’s suffering. The suffering is not the desired outcome. Healing is.

Of course, this illustration is limited. God is not a human surgeon, and we cannot justify every tragedy by imagining that we know its particular purpose.

But the distinction remains important.

God knows the end from the beginning. He alone can raise the dead, abolish death, and bring His creation into perfect life.

I believe He has designed humanity’s experience of evil to reveal His goodness through contrast.

How would we understand forgiveness without experiencing sin?

How would we appreciate freedom without knowing bondage?

How would we experience God’s strength in our weakness?

How would humanity understand the glory of immortality without first experiencing mortality?

And how would we know Christ as Savior, Redeemer, Reconciler, and the Conqueror of Death without the experience of sin, suffering, and death?

Consider the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Why did God place that tree in the garden?

I believe it was part of a process through which His creatures would come to know good and evil by experience, ultimately discovering the immeasurable goodness of their Creator.

The evil does not create God’s goodness. It provides the contrast through which His creatures come to understand it.

Paul writes:

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” — Romans 8:18

The suffering is real.

But it is not the final chapter.

6. Molech, Eternal Torment, and the True God

Now return to Jeremiah.

God condemned the horrifying practice of burning children in fire.

Yet consider what much of traditional Christianity teaches about God Himself.

Many believe God will preserve some of His own creatures alive in conscious torment forever.

Think about the comparison.

Molech was associated with children being consumed in fire. Yet the doctrine of eternal conscious torment portrays the true God as keeping His creatures alive in suffering without end.

The children sacrificed to Molech eventually died. Under eternal conscious torment, the suffering never ends.

How can we condemn the cruelty associated with Molech while attributing something even more prolonged and horrifying to the Father of Jesus Christ?

I reject that picture of God.

I believe Scripture reveals a completely different destination.

“The Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” — 1 Timothy 4:10

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” — 1 Corinthians 15:22

Colossians 1:20 speaks of reconciling all things through Christ.

And Paul declares:

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” — 1 Corinthians 15:26

Finally, God becomes ALL IN ALL (1 Corinthians 15:28).

That is the destination I see in Scripture.

Not endless suffering.

Not everlasting corruption.

Not death continuing forever.

But reconciliation, resurrection, immortality, and God becoming All in all.

The true God is not Molech perfected. He is the God who abolishes death.

I believe humanity’s encounter with the cruelty of false gods—and even the distorted pictures of God produced by religion—will ultimately make the goodness of the true God unmistakable.

Darkness exposes the beauty of light.

7. What About Those Who Suffer Horribly?

Someone once raised a deeply personal objection:

What if I were attacked, tortured, or murdered? How could I find comfort believing God intended such a thing?

I understand the difficulty.

I would never tell someone enduring unimaginable grief that their suffering is insignificant or that they should simply appreciate the lesson.

Evil is real. Pain is real. Grief is real.

Even Jesus wept.

And Scripture does not explain the particular purpose behind every individual tragedy.

But consider the alternative.

Am I supposed to believe another creature can temporarily become sovereign over my life? That someone can produce an outcome God never intended, defeat His purpose for me, and leave Him trying to repair what happened?

I find greater comfort knowing that my life and ultimate destiny never leave God’s hands, even when I cannot understand what He is accomplishing.

Joseph understood this after his brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery.

He told them:

“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” — Genesis 50:20

Notice what Joseph did not say.

He did not merely say that God reacted to their evil and eventually found a way to repair the damage.

He said God meant it for good.

His brothers intended evil.

God intended good through the same event.

That does not excuse the brothers or make their wicked intentions righteous.

It reveals the difference between the intentions of creatures and the purpose of their Creator.

The cross demonstrates this same principle on a far greater scale.

And that is why God’s sovereignty gives me hope rather than despair.

8. The Ending Changes Everything

Imagine judging an entire story by its darkest chapter without knowing how it ends.

If creation ends with billions of people suffering forever, I understand why someone would question the wisdom and love of its Creator.

But that is not the ending I see in Scripture.

Romans 8 reveals creation’s liberation from corruption.

Colossians 1:20 reveals the reconciliation of all things through Christ.

First Corinthians 15 reveals resurrection, the abolition of death, and ultimately God becoming All in all.

I believe God is accomplishing something greater than merely ending suffering.

He is bringing His creatures into life, righteousness, freedom, love, and immortality with an appreciation that comes from having experienced their opposites.

We cannot see the entire ocean from a single cup of water.

And we cannot judge God’s entire purpose from the limited experience of this present age.

We see the commands, the judgments, the suffering, and the darkness. But Scripture also reveals the destination toward which everything is moving.

Ephesians 1:11 declares that God is operating all things according to the counsel of His will.

Not merely the pleasant things.

Not merely the righteous things.

ALL things.

God did not create evil because He loves evil. I believe He included its temporary existence because its contrast serves the greater revelation of His goodness, wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and love.

His commandments reveal what is righteous.

His heart reveals what is pleasing to Him.

His ultimate intention reveals what He will accomplish through the entire experience of creation.

People can resist God’s commands. Nobody can overthrow God’s intention.

The darkness is temporary.

Death is an enemy that will be abolished.

And the final destination is reconciliation, immortality, and God becoming All in all.

God’s sovereignty is not the opposite of His love. It is the guarantee that His love will ultimately accomplish everything He intended from the beginning.

9. Ecclesiastes 7:17 Does Not Disprove God’s Sovereignty Over Death

“Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?” — Ecclesiastes 7:17 (KJV)

Some use this verse to argue that people can die before the time God intended, supposedly proving that human free will can override God’s plan. But this confuses the relative human perspective with God’s absolute sovereignty.

Ecclesiastes 7:17 speaks from the human perspective. Foolishness and wickedness can lead to what we consider an early or premature death. But dying earlier than people expect does not mean dying earlier than God appointed.

Consider Job 14:5:

“Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.”

And Psalm 139:16, which describes our days as written in God’s book before they existed.

These passages reveal God’s absolute sovereignty. Our days are determined, and nothing happens outside His knowledge and purpose.

Think about the implications of denying this truth. How could God accomplish any predetermined plan if people could die outside His sovereign control? Suppose God appoints someone to accomplish something ten years from now, but another person kills him tomorrow through supposedly independent free will. Has God’s plan failed? Must God now change His intentions because someone died unexpectedly?

That is not sovereignty. That is a God reacting to circumstances beyond His control.

Scripture declares:

“I kill, and I make alive.” — Deuteronomy 32:39

“The LORD killeth, and maketh alive.” — 1 Samuel 2:6

“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” — Isaiah 46:10

“Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” — Ephesians 1:11

Even Christ’s death occurred according to what God’s hand and counsel had predetermined (Acts 4:27–28). Human wickedness did not overthrow God’s plan; God accomplished His purpose despite and through those actions.

Those determined to defend independent human free will often overlook the plain declarations of Job 14:5 and God’s authority over life and death. Yet human pride cannot make God’s sovereignty disappear.

Either God is sovereign over all things, including when a person dies, or His sovereignty is limited by forces outside His control.

Ecclesiastes 7:17 warns about the consequences of foolishness from our limited perspective. It does not overturn God’s appointed purposes.

A person can die before the time people expected, but never before the time God appointed.

And the God who determines our days is the same God who will ultimately destroy death itself (1 Corinthians 15:26), until He becomes all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).