The Hebrews thought that their God had forgotten them. 400 years of silence and slavery. YHWH was now the God of the losers, the slaves, the rejects. Yet, God orchestrated circumstances that would produce a cry in a people that would pepare the way for YHWH to appear as a deliverer in the greatest measure possible.

Here is where the great scandal of God’s unrelenting love and commitment takes shape; the longing of the Creator to restore it all back to how He designed it. His method can be observed through the relationship He initiated with Abram. In fact, we can see that the Biblical authors emphasize this particular relationship over the greatness of creation and the depravity of mankind.

The story of the first humans is both beautiful and devastating. We read about how God created, how he rested in its perfection, how humanity was established, the joy of all things, but also the way this was destroyed.

The Lord orchestrated a magnificent narrative in order to tell His story and to accomplish the deepest desire of His heart. There are many ways that the Lord could have chosen to reveal Himself, yet He chose to do so through the context of a story, and He has inserted Himself directly into the storyline as the main character. 

There are differing views on whether believers should confront these powers because there have been both good and terrorizing outcomes to this. Therefore, it is critical that we have a proper Christology and soteriology because it will result in a righty defined ecclesiology. As White warns, “We must not fall prey to the danger of embarking on a holy crusade to rid the world of evil —If our vision of God aching for the lost is blurred by a commando operation against the gates of hell, we miss the point.”

Whether we are suffering residue of our past life or are facing the venomous hatred of the enemy in our present obedience, resisting Satan is a normal part of Christian community. We are called to draw near to God, in faith and prayer, becoming immersed in the Scriptures, attaching oneself to other believers in meaningful relationships, and understanding and appropriating the work of Christ.

Christ has already become the eternal victor against all powers! The key element to a biblical worldview on spiritual power ascribes all authority to God and the victory of Christ in regaining what humanity relinquished.

Christianity hinges on the miracle of resurrection. This story of the miraculous resurrection of Christ has convinced many intelligent people throughout history.  Thus, though it remains possible that testifiers are deceivers or are him/herself deceived, it does not strip miracles of their viability and existence. To argue that educated people would not be convinced by these occurrences is absurd.

When imagining a world with no evil and only good, one arrives at the conclusion that there cannot be a moral good without the possibility of moral evil. Evil can exist and not strip God of his goodness or his power. Evil is real and not imagined.

The only comfort is hope – hope for our resurrection, our adoption, the arrival of Messiah, the wedding day when we will be united with God. Truly, dealing with the existence of evil provokes us, the bride of Christ, to join the Spirit in longing for the return of the King (Rev 22:17).

Can there really be meaningful personal relationships between humans and God, when one party in the relationship exercises complete, unilateral control over the other?