od Sometimes Uses The Wicked And Their Deeds To Help Accomplish His Will

Romans 13:1-4 is frequently used to justify Christians fighting in wars or participating in the government execution of murderers. Does the fact that God “ordained” governments to carry out such functions authorize Christians to contribute to such endeavors? That would seem to contradict the verses leading up to that section – 12:17-21 which specifically forbid us from helping accomplish such.

The truth is God many times uses the wicked and their deeds to accomplish His will. Consider the obvious case of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. Gen 50:20 says about this occurrence – “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” See how God used the sin of Joseph’s brothers to save much people alive from starvation in the days of that famine (Gen 45:5-8)?

Think also of Judas Iscariot. Didn’t God use his terrible betrayal to help facilitate Jesus dying for the salvation of all mankind (Zech 11:12-13)? By “use” I mean God allowed Judas’ sin to happen as a critical part of His overall salvation plan. Isn’t that what Prov 16:4 is saying is a common modus operandi of God? – “The Lord works out everything to its proper end— even the wicked for a day of disaster” (NIV).

But some argue the fact God “ordained” the government to punish evildoers proves soldiers are approved by God to kill our national enemies. On that point consider Acts 4:26-28 which says God “anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate against thy holy child Jesus … to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” Just because they were “anointed” by God to put Jesus to death, that doesn’t mean God approved of such, that they were not sinning in that specific action, does it? See the parallel to Rom 13:1-4?

Same thing with Acts 2:23 (Jesus “being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain”). God determined beforehand that He would use the actions of the wicked hands of the Jews to help accomplish the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. And once they did what God needed done, He punished them for that wicked deed (Matt 21:38-39,43, Matt 23:37-24:1-34). God never instructed the Jews to do such; instead He used what they did to accomplish His purposes.

Next read Isa 10:5-6. Do you see how God called Assyria the “rod of mine anger” using them to punish Israel for their hypocrisy? Amos 6:14 puts it this way – “I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you.” But Isa 10:7 says Assyria didn’t do such to obey God, but it was “in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.” And verse 12 tells us “when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.” See how God used the wicked deed of the Assyrian king to punish (“performed his … work upon”) Israel, and then turned around and punished that king for doing what God needed done?

And we read in Jer 50:14-18 the same about Babylon. So God used Babylon to punish Judah, and then turned right around and punished Babylon for warring against Israel. Because God using someone’s evil deeds to accomplish His purposes is not the same as actually instructing them to do such. Jer 25:7-9 actually calls Nebuchadrezzar “my servant” when God used him to punish Israel. And then God punished Nebuchadrezzar for doing it – “when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations” (verse 12). God used the wickedness of Babylon to punish Israel and then summarily punished Babylon for doing so. God obviously did not authorize/instruct Babylon to come against Israel, but just used what that nation wanted to do anyway to accomplish what He (God) needed done. “Calling” Babylon (Jer 1:15) to punish Israel did not mean it was not sin on Babylon’s part. Just because God termed Babylon “a golden cup in the Lord’s hand” (Jer 51:7) for doing God’s “dirty work,” that doesn’t mean He wouldn’t use the “kings of the Medes” (verse 11) as his “battle axe” (verse 20) to “render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion” (verse 24). And just because Hab 1:6 says God “raised up the Chaldeans” to punish Israel, that doesn’t mean they were doing right in doing so. And just because II Chron 33:11 says “the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon,” that doesn’t mean God approved of what Assyria or Babylon did to that wicked king of Judah. God many times uses the wicked deeds of the lost for His purposes, and then afterwards punishes those same wicked hands He used (Jer 30:14-16).

Another example of this kind of thing is I Sam 28:17-19. There Saul was told God would deliver him to the Philistines because he didn’t destroy all the Amalekites, but then the Amalekite that slew him was executed himself because he had “slain the Lord’s anointed” (II Sam 1:14-16). Just because God used an Amalek to punish Saul for his sin didn’t necessarily mean the Amalek wasn’t sinning when he did such. Judges 10:7-8 describes a similar thing – God using the Philistines to punish Israel for their sin. But that doesn’t necessarily mean God instructed the Philistines to do what they did.

God sometimes commanded a Gentile king to fight against someone (for example II Chron 35:20-22), but most of the time they were just doing it for their own selfish ambitions; God was not necessarily approving of their actions in the latter case, even if it helped along God’s plan.

Pay attention to another Old Testament example: Jeroboam was told by “Ahijah the prophet” in I Kings 14:2,7-9 that because he had “done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back,” God would “utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam” (verses 10-11, ASV). Then I Kings 15:27-30 tells us Baasha “smote all the house of Jeroboam … according unto the saying of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Ahijah … because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned.” Keep reading – in I Kings 16:1-4,7 God says (through His prophet “Jehu”) He would “utterly sweep away Baasha and his house … both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he smote him” (ASV). Then subsequently we read in I Kings 16:12-13 “Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, for all the sins of Baasha.” Bottom line: God used Baasha to destroy Jeroboam’s house for his wickedness, and then used Zimri to destroy Baasha for destroying Jeroboam’s house. Do you see that just because Baasha was used to get a job done for God, that doesn’t mean Baasha didn’t sin in so doing? See the possible parallel to Rom 13:1-4?

Ask yourself what Isa 53:10 means when it says “it pleased the Lord to bruise him” (Jesus)? Did God enjoy watching His son being tortured and crucified? No, it means God allowed something wicked to happen to help accomplish his overall plan of salvation – exactly what we’ve been talking about. The torture and execution of Jesus weren’t pleasing to God, but the results certainly were.

Now if you will go back and read Rom 12:17 through 13:4 together taken as one section, you will see the flow of instruction is that we are not to punish the evil doer ourselves, but instead let God take care of that job. And God will use the government (among other means) to handle it. The above illustrations prove God does not necessarily approve of their (the government agents’) specific actions. And passages like Rom 12:17-21,13:10 and Matt 5:43ff,39 teach a Christian is forbidden from helping with such actions.

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