Why Evil Must Be Exposed to Be Overcome
The Power of Confrontation
Sins hide best in the dark.
Evil flourishes where it’s ignored, minimized, or excused.
The hard truth is this: You cannot overcome what you refuse to face.
God knows it. That’s why He forces us to confront the very thing that poisons us.
The Power of Intent (and Why It Matters More Than You Think)
Let’s start with a brutal headline.
Every day, people die in tragic accidents. Those close to the deceased grieve, but the general public barely bats an eye.
But when the intent is evil—when someone plots, stalks, savors the act—suddenly the world stops and stares.
For months, the media obsesses over the case and we follow with a morbid curiosity.
Why? Because intent reveals what’s inside us. The monster we fight with every day.
It’s the difference between accident and atrocity.
The Bible is obsessed with intent.
You see it in Genesis—Abel’s offering is accepted, Cain’s is not. God doesn’t just look at the gift; He looks at the heart behind it.
Sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Genesis 4:7 (CSB)
Intent is the dividing line between giving life and taking it, between worship and idolatry, between love and manipulation.
Tools, Technology, and Idols: Intent Transforms Everything
This isn’t just about ancient sacrifices.
Look at our world—nuclear technology can light up a city or obliterate one.
The internet can unite people across continents or turn into a weapon of hate.
AI can help you learn, create, and heal—or it can replace thought and destroy meaning.
It all comes back to intent. Are you using it for good or evil? Are you ruling over it or letting it rule over you?
The same is true in the Bible’s symbols.
The serpent—usually the sign of evil—becomes, for one moment, the very thing God uses to heal (Numbers 21).
And the cross—Rome’s weapon of terror—becomes a sign of freedom.
God is making a point: Objects aren’t good or evil by nature.
It’s what you do with them, and why, that matters.
Anything, even the Bible itself, can be weaponized as an instrument of evil when applied with ill intent.
Our goal then is not to avoid innovation, but to escape the evil inclination that tugs at our hearts.
Exposing Evil—Not Avoiding It
In Numbers 21, Israel grumbles in the wilderness. Again.
They’re tired of God’s provision. They want to go back to Egypt, back to the old oppression, the familiar chains.
God doesn’t just take away the problem.
He sends fiery serpents—the same symbol etched into Pharaoh’s throne, the Uraeus, the mark of Egyptian power.
They wanted Egypt? Here’s Egypt in all its horror.
But here’s the twist: God doesn’t magically remove the snakes. He doesn’t coddle or distract.
He tells Moses to make a bronze serpent, mount it on a pole, and set it up in public view.
Anyone who’s bitten—anyone poisoned by the very thing they wished for—must look directly at it to be healed.
Confront the evil. Acknowledge the source. Stare at what’s killing you and see it for what it is.
There’s no shortcut, no bypass.
You can’t heal until you name what’s killing you.
The Gospel Parallel—The Cross as Ultimate Exposure
Fast forward to the Gospel of John.
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life
John 3:14-15 (CSB)
Jesus is executed on a Roman cross—the world’s ugliest symbol of power, brutality, and humiliation.
He is lifted up, exposed, made a spectacle.
This is not God looking away from sin. This is God dragging evil into the light and forcing us to look at it.
You want to understand the cost of sin?
Look at the cross. See the innocent brutalized, the best of humanity crushed by the worst in us.
To look at Jesus on the cross is to stare directly at the result of human pride, violence, and rebellion.
Only by confronting it—by facing the horror, by refusing to avert your eyes—can healing begin.
Repentance Requires Confrontation
Repentance isn’t about guilt. It’s about honesty.
Israel’s healing didn’t start when they hid from the serpents or numbed the pain. It started the moment they looked up—when they faced the very symbol of their own rebellion and its consequences.
Why did God make them look? Because until you stare at the effects of your actions, you’ll keep telling yourself comfortable lies.
“We were just hungry. We were tired. We were only venting.”
No—you were wishing yourself back into slavery. You were demanding Egypt, not freedom.
It’s the same for us. Real repentance only begins when you stop sugarcoating the chaos you’ve created.
The words that cut your spouse or your kids
The habit that “isn’t that bad” but ruining your health
The “little” compromise that’s growing roots in your life
You can’t repent of what you refuse to see. You can’t heal what you hide.
That’s why the first step isn’t “I’m sorry”—it’s “I see.”
I see what I’ve done.
I see what this has cost.
I see the pain it caused in others, and in me.
This is the brutal clarity Scripture demands. Repentance is not about making yourself feel miserable, but about naming the thing that’s killing you.
God doesn’t want your performance. He wants your honesty.
It’s why, in the ancient world, people went through public acts of repentance—tearing clothes, pouring ashes on their heads, crying out in the streets. It wasn’t about theatrics; it was about breaking denial and naming the problem out loud.
That’s why Jesus doesn’t let the cross happen in a corner. It’s public, raw, undeniable. “Look here. This is what sin does.”
When you finally face what’s true, that’s when real change is possible.
Confession isn’t weakness. It’s the first breath of freedom.
So, what in your life are you refusing to look at?
What truth have you kept in the shadows because it’s too uncomfortable, too costly to confront?
Repentance doesn’t begin with feeling bad. It begins with seeing clearly—and then turning toward something better.
You want to be healed? Start by looking.
Where Do You Need to Look?
The world doesn’t need more denial.
We don’t need more distraction, more scapegoating, more excuses.
We need people willing to look evil in the face, name it, and choose something better.
God’s way is not the way of avoidance.
It’s the way of exposure, confession, and new intent.
Where do you need to stop hiding?
What do you need to confront, confess, or lay bare before God?
Yes, acknowledging sin is only the beginning, but it’s a key step that many people avoid taking. Change can only begin when you refuse to look away—when you allow honesty to break the cycle.
Your transformation begins by facing what’s been hiding all along.
I appreciate the time you took to read this article. If you were inspired by it, do me a favor and share it with just one person you know.
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