It’s a question that's plagued humanity for millennia. And our tradition, in its beautiful, layered way, offers some fascinating, if not always easy, answers.
Think about Psalm 92:7: "When the wicked spring up as the grass." It paints a vivid picture, doesn't it? The wicked are everywhere, like weeds choking the garden. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating non-canonical Midrashic text, grapples directly with this unsettling image.
The text acknowledges the reality: God sees the wicked, sees how numerous they are, "as the grass to cover the face of all the earth." And not only that, but "all the worshippers of idols flourish." It can feel like evil is winning, that injustice is rampant. It is easy to get discouraged.
But here’s where it gets interesting. According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, God allows this proliferation of wickedness for a specific reason: "The Holy One, blessed be He, has only multiplied them in order to destroy them from this world and from the world to come." It’s a radical idea, isn't it? That God permits evil to grow in order to ultimately eradicate it. Think of it like a controlled burn to prevent an even greater catastrophe.
King David, in his wisdom, also wrestled with this seeming paradox. He saw the wicked increasing "like grass, (so as) to cover the face of all the earth." And he saw the idolaters flourishing. He saw the iniquity in their actions. But, crucially, he didn't sing Hallelujah – "praise ye the Lord" – until he understood the ultimate outcome. Until he perceived "that in the future they would be destroyed from this world and from the world to come." Then, and only then, could he truly praise God.
This is reflected in Psalm 104:35: "Sinners shall be consumed out of the earth, and the wicked shall be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord." Only with the assurance of ultimate justice, with the knowledge that evil will not have the final word, can true praise be offered. Only when God is King "exalted in the heights and in the depths" can we truly proclaim "Hallelujah."
So what does this mean for us? Maybe it’s a reminder to maintain faith even when things look bleak. To trust that there is a larger plan at work, even when we can't see it. To remember that the proliferation of wickedness is not the end of the story. It's a difficult message, to be sure. But ultimately, it’s a message of hope. A message that reminds us that even in the darkest of times, God is "on high for evermore" (Psalm 92:8).