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In the Bible and in day-to-day life we often witness the spectacle of evil somehow managing to undo itself. I do not mean in the rather obvious cases, such as happened in Cleveland in 2019 when a man entered a bank and demanded cash from a female teller, not realising that the note he had handed her was written on the back of a document from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. This contained his name and address – which made matters rather easier than usual for the law enforcement authorities.

Rather, I had in mind the more general and serious observation of Sinclair Ferguson, that ‘We do not break God’s commandments so much as break ourselves against them.’ When Jonathan fought the Philistines, there was so much confusion that the Philistines fought themselves (1 Sam.14:20) – a case of ‘friendly fire’ before there were explosives. Something very similar had occurred when Gideon’s band of 300 men defeated the Midianites, who turned on each other (Judges 7:22). In the days of Jehoshaphat, all seemed lost, and the king prayed to the Lord: ‘We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you’ (2 Chron.20:12). The result was a rout against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, and the explanation is that ‘the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another’ (2 Chron.20:23).

Undoubtedly, the best known example of such a happening is Haman in the book of Esther. Wanting to see Mordecai hang on the gallows that he had especially made for him, Haman was found out before his plot could be implemented. So he was hanged on the very gallows that he had intended for another. ‘Hoist by his own petard’ as Hamlet would have it. He was, in fact, hanged partly for a crime for which he was not guilty – he had not tried to molest the queen, but he paid for the greater crime of attempted genocide. Justice can be a little rough, but it was brought about by the God of justice.

The prevalence of evil led to imprecatory Psalms: ‘In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised’ (Ps.10:2). This prayer was fulfilled in the times of King David, where the wicked tried to destroy the righteous, but God so worked events that ‘their own tongues turned against them’ (Ps.64:8). In another Psalm, David observed:

The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands (Ps.9:15-16).

The wicked will do their best to slay those who are poor and needy and upright, but ‘their sword shall enter their own heart’ (Ps.37:15).

There have been any number of illustrations of this principle down through the ages. Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was surely a judgment on both societies. George Orwell’s experience in the Spanish Civil War started to teach him that Nazism and Communism competed with one another for the right to build bigger and better concentration camps. The LGBTQI camp today is looking less united than it once did, as lesbians (L) often object to transgender (T) people on the ground that they debase women. It may be too early to say so, but professional sport looks to be undermining itself through its rampant greed, distortion of reality, and coercive support of ungodly causes. Not needing such illustrations, Spurgeon nonetheless could comment, almost poetically: ‘Falsehoods usually carry their own refutation somewhere about them, and sting themselves to death.’

The most glorious example of evil defeating itself is surely Satan’s defeat at the cross. What looked like his most stupendous victory was turned into his most devastating rout. The accuser of the brethren could rightly accuse them of being sinners, but they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Rev.12:10-11). Satan sent Christ to the cross, but so did God the Father. Satan poured out his malice; God poured out His mercy. Satan tried to overturn all justice; but Christ fulfilled it. Evil appeared to triumph, but only for a time; God triumphs for all eternity.

– Peter Barnes