Evil = Not Good

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.  Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests.  Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children. [Hosea 4.6]

I had some ideas yesterday on a long drive and interstingly, today, I find scripture that coincides (at least in my mind)!

People are destroyed because they are without God (don't know God).  How does this compare to the fact that darkness really doesn't exist but is merely the condition that remains in the absence of light?  My thought is this: evil does not really exist as a force of itself, but is merely the condition that remains in the absence of good.  I would like to meditate further on this thought because it could explain a lot of questions...

I am not saying evil, like darkness, is not a reality as much as I am saying it is more like the condition of 'empty' as in a glass void of water.  Or, it is like 'nothing' in a box with no contents.  It is indeed a 'condition' but not so much a force (if you will).  One would not request a glass full of empty any more than he would request a box full of nothing.  If these containers are unoccupied they are empty.  Ironically, the condition of emptiness renders the respective containers useless - or at very best underutilized!

An 'evil' man could be classified in this same way.  It is not so much that he is full of evil, but that he is not full of good.  And, because he is not full of good, he is evil.  Bear with me...

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned.  Their subsequent condition onset at the eating of the forbidden fruit, but notice carefully what the resulting condition was: they hid from God.  Why did they hide from God?  They hid because they had consciously chosen not to partake of God's goodness that flowed freely upon them in his presence.  And thus, without goodness, evil is the resulting condition.

Question: if God created man for fellowship in the first place, why were Adam and Eve alone when approached by Satan?  Could it be that the real 'evil' began when they wandered away from God in the first place?

Back to Hosea... regardless whether my ramblings here have any merit or not, it is simply NOT a good idea to NOT know God.

Father, I want to know You.  I want to be full of Your goodness - imparted to me freely in exchange for my obedience to, and faith in, Jesus Christ.