PERSEVERE IN RESTISTING EVIL DEVOTIONAL 3

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One of the most difficult aspects of “resisting evil” is the fact that there are so many sources of “evil” out there—a reality amply attested in the Hebrew Bible. In Hebrew, a single word—raʿ—is used both for ordinary things that we would call “bad” and for the human moral state that we typically refer to as “evil.” Unlike in English, there is no distinction in terminology between the two concepts. Thus, unfruitful land (Num 13:19), nonpotable water (2 Kgs 2:19), and rotten figs (Jer 24:2) are all raʿ, but so are “wicked” human beings and “evildoers” (Prov 11:21; Ezek 30:12). Especially problematic for those of us who are committed to resisting evil is that, according to the Hebrew Bible, “badness/evil” is built into our human nature. Both our “heart/mind” (Hebrew lēb; Jer 3:17; 7:24; 11:8; 16:12; 19:12) and its “inclination” (Hebrew yēṣer; Gen 6:5; 8:21) are raʿ—“bad/evil.” The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel acknowledge this reality, and both present our “evil inclination” as a problem that is beyond our own ability to fix. Instead, they declare that God will write God’s law on our heart/mind (Jer 31:31-34) and give us a new heart/mind (Ezek 36:26). This truth concerning the human condition and its need for a divine remedy is often associated with Paul, Augustine, or Calvin, but it was already expressed centuries before any of them in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is thus fitting that the Christian vow to “persevere in resisting evil” appears in the context of the Baptismal Covenant as part of the sacrament of rebirth. It is also fitting that the Book of Common Prayer phrases this affirmation, “I will, with God’s help,” since our ability to resist evil is only due to the gracious act of a God who refused to give up on us, despite our “bad inclination.”