Why Does God Allow Evil in This World?
Few questions cut deeper than this one. When we watch suffering unfold — in the world, in our communities, or in our own lives — we inevitably cry out: If God is good, why does He allow this? Why has He allowed such evil to come against me?
This is not a new question. Scripture itself wrestles with it. And the answer, when we find it, is not cold theology — it is living truth that changes the way we walk.
The short answer is this: God allows evil because He insists on giving us a real choice. And a real choice requires a real alternative.
God Created Both Light and Darkness
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
— Isaiah 45:7
This verse startles people the first time they read it. God creates evil? What does that mean?
It means God is sovereign over all things — including the existence of a universe where choosing wrongly is genuinely possible. He did not create evil the way He created light. He created the conditions in which genuine moral choice exists. And genuine choice requires that both options be real.
Think of it this way: a world in which only good was possible would not be a world of love — it would be a world of automation. God did not want robots. He wanted sons and daughters who freely turn toward Him. And that freedom necessarily means the freedom to turn away.
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."
— Deuteronomy 30:19
Notice that God does not merely present the choice — He pleads with us to choose rightly. That is not the voice of a distant architect. That is the voice of a Father who loves.
Satan as an Agent of the Court — Not an Autonomous Enemy
One of the most clarifying truths in all of Scripture is this: Satan does not operate outside God's sovereignty. He operates within it. Rabbi Alon Anava’s near death story explains this very well. A few weeks ago, our bible study was discussing this subject, and the story of Ahab was brought up when discussing the origin of evil, and this week in First Fruits of Zion's Torah Club, End of Days series, Lesson 37: 'Unchained’ they discussed this verse too.
In 1 Kings 22, the prophet Micaiah is given a vision of the heavenly throne room. God asks, 'Who will entice Ahab king of Israel to go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?' A spirit comes forward and volunteers to be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets. And God says: 'Go and do so.'
"Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him … I will go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Then He said, 'You are to entice him and prevail also. Go and do so.'"
— 2 Chronicles 18:20–21
This is a shocking passage — until you understand what is really happening. Ahab was already condemned. He had murdered Naboth. He had already chosen death. The lying spirit did not make Ahab evil; it confirmed a judgment already rendered. The heavenly court had already ruled.
This is the key to understanding how God uses evil in our world. He does three things through what the book of Job, Zechariah, many Rabbis including Rabbi Anava, and what Torah Club's End of Days lesson refers to as 'the Agent of the Court':
First, God tests hearts. Satan presents evil as a plausible alternative to righteousness — making the right choice a genuine act of the will. Without this, there is no real virtue. If we cannot choose wrongly, choosing rightly earns nothing.
Second, God reinforces choices. The sages of Israel teach that 'one sin leads to another.' Satan does not make people sin — he assists people down the path they have already chosen. He confirms their direction, shelters them from correction, and amplifies their message. He is not a cause; he is an accelerant.
Third, God punishes the guilty. Sometimes a person's condemnation is already set by heaven, and the deceiver is sent to bring that judgment to its conclusion — just as with Ahab. As FFOZ stated:
Satan is not God's rival. He is God's willing instrument — a tester, a reinforcer, and when necessary, an executioner of heaven's decrees.
Why Do Good People Suffer Because of Others' Choices?
But this raises the most personal question: what about the innocent people caught in the crossfire? What about Ahab's army? What about the employees of the failing business owner? What about you?
Here is an example of how evil spreads. A business owner starts with genuinely good intentions — to serve customers, care for employees, honor God. But pressure builds. Small compromises begin. Overpromising to clients. Stretching the truth. Then unpaid vendors. Then employees missing paychecks. Then a marriage fracturing. The business owner's choices ripple outward, and people who made no such choices suffer deeply.
Why does God allow this? Because we live in a web of relationships, and the choices of leaders — in business, in families, in governments — genuinely affect those around them. God does not prevent this, because preventing it would mean overriding human freedom at every moment. Instead, He has given us:
The voice of wisdom. There were mentors available. There were people who had walked that road and were willing to guide. The tragedy was not that help was absent — it was that humility was absent.
The gift of repentance. At every step of that downward spiral, there was an open door. The moment the business owner chose to turn — to make things right, to humble themselves, to walk in integrity again — the path of life reopened. It may not erase the consequences. But it changes the trajectory.
"In the way of righteousness is life: and in the pathway thereof there is no death."
— Proverbs 12:28
The Warning of Seven Demons Worse
"When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first."
— Luke 11:24–26
Yeshua's parable is sobering. It is not enough to stop doing evil. The house swept clean but left empty is more vulnerable than before. This is why repentance is never just a single act of stopping — it is an act of filling. Filling with Torah. Filling with prayer. Filling with community. Filling with the Spirit.
The same FFOZ End of Days lesson that illuminates the Ahab story applies this parable to the cosmic scale: when Satan is eventually released at the end of the Messianic Era, he finds a world that has grown unguarded — people raised in peace, unacquainted with his devices, unable to recognize his voice. They are, as Ezekiel describes, 'a land of unwalled villages … all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates' (Ezekiel 38:11).
The lesson for us today is direct: the space created by repentance must be filled with something better, not left vacant. This is how the path of life stays the path of life.
Faith and Action: The Hebrew Understanding
In Hebrew, emunah — faith — is not a passive mental state. It is an active orientation of the whole person. It is the posture of one who acts as if God's word is true, because they believe it is true.
"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
— James 2:26
This is why repentance — teshuvah — is never only feeling sorry. Teshuvah means turning. It means redirecting your steps. The Talmud teaches that a baal teshuvah, a master of repentance, stands in a place that even the perfectly righteous cannot reach — because they have overcome the pull of the wrong path.
God allows evil in this world so that our choice to walk with Him is genuine, costly, and therefore glorious. A love that costs nothing is worth nothing. A righteousness that was never tested is not righteousness — it is comfort.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds — knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
— James 1:2–4
Choosing Life — Even Now
The thread running through all of Scripture is this: God sets before us life and death, and He pleads with us to choose life. That choice is always open. It was open to Pharaoh. It was open to Ahab. It was open to the business owner in our story. It is open to you.
God created Pharaoh — knowing what Pharaoh would choose — so that all the earth would see what the choice of death leads to, and what the mercy of God is toward those who turn. As Paul writes:
"What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath — prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory."
— Romans 9:22–23
Evil is not the final word. Suffering is not the final word. Repentance is always available — and repentance leads to life. Not just eternal life eventually, but a better path now. A path where, as we learn and correct and return, we grow in empathy for others who are struggling, and we become people who can help them choose life too.
This is the testimony God is writing through human history. Every story of turning — every teshuvah — is a proclamation that His name endures, that His mercy is real, and that the path of life is always open.
Draw Near to God
He will draw near to you. — James 4:8