Blue Cord

Last week I made reference to an article by Denis Prager in which he claimed that you could predict where someone would stand on certain political issues by knowing whether or not they accepted the authority of the Torah. One of the issues he mentioned was “the willingness to label certain actions, regimes, even people ‘evil’.”  This was the one issue from his list on which he and I agreed.

But it is always good to check yourself when quoting the Bible.  If you are going to claim that the Bible supports your position, you better make absolutely sure that you know what the Bible says on that issue.  And if you are going to use the Bible to attack others the way Prager did, your responsibility to do so is even higher.  So, I went to see what the Torah had to say about evil people and evil nations.¹Â Â  I am limiting myself to the Pentateuch because Prager makes his claim based on the Torah.

The word “evil” appears 30 times in the NIV translation of the Pentateuch.  Of these, not a single one refers to a person as evil.  Only once is a group referenced as evil, and that group is the people of Israel (Deut. 1:35) .  Nor are any nations or regimes called evil.  Instead, what the Torah labels as evil are actions and intentions.

In the rest of the OT, the story is pretty much the same.  The only place that a nation is called evil is in Jeremiah 8:3, where the nation is Judah.  People are called evil in a number of verses, usually in Wisdom Literature and in the Psalms.   But the vast majority of instances of the word evil refer to actions and intentions.

The Torah, therefore, does not support calling any people or nation evil except your own, and even in that case I would recommend not doing so unless you have divine revelation.  I am more than willing to call actions evil, but calling people evil seems to move into the realm of judging people.  It is God, not we, who will judge.

Prager may or may not be correct that someone’s position on calling people evil can be predicted by knowing that person’s position on the authority of the Torah, but the willingness to call people evil is not something people get from the Torah.

1. I am writing this while I am on lunch break at work, so I don’t have a Hebrew Bible handy.  I am relying on on-line copies of the NIV. [back]

I am at one of the definite low points in my life. After six years on the job market, I have yet to land a permanent teaching position. I have done adjunct teaching and one semester sabbatical replacements, while my one long term position did not come with a paycheck. I have been getting somewhat irate at God lately because of my situation.

A number of people have been telling me to be patient, that God will work things out in God’s time. Some have said that God is doing this so I will learn to trust God and others have urged me not to focus on the problem but count the blessings God has given me.

Fortunately, the daily lectionary reading for yesterday included Psalm 70, which had this wonderful line:

But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God!  You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay! (Psalm 70:5)

It is always conforting to read the psalms and know that the biblical authors had no problem telling God to hurry up when they needed help. They didn’t wait around and piously count their blessings. They knew they needed things and they needed them immediately! For instance, I have rent coming up at the end of this month. If I don’t get it, I am in trouble. I am poor and needy! Hasten to me, O God! Stop your stalling and help me out!

I think it is very telling that the most common form of psalms is the lament psalm, a prayer to God in time of need. God not only wants us to tell God about our needs. God’s own word even gives us permission to tell God to hurry up. The psalms are the prayer book of the Bible, and we can’t do any better than praying this words.

[N.B. This post is not intended to be taken as a plea for donations. I have found some temporary work, so it is likely that I will be able to earn my rent. The focus of this post is on the psalms, which provide us with the words to tell God that we can’t afford to wait sometimes. It is just nice when our situation and the words of Scripture line up so neatly.]