The reality is that throughout the bible God used evil men/empires to punish/refine His people. That is His plan with anti-Christ as well. It is well to remember that Moses went to Pharaoh many times with 'let my people go' as the message. Pharaoh refused many times, establishing a pattern. The Bible tells that God then 'hardened' Pharaoh's heart. In other words, God 'fixed' that heart in the pattern it had set for itself, and God used it to accomplish His purposes.
In a direct comparison, we would be Moses. What God does behind the scenes is one thing. As he is God, he can do anything and it just ‘is’ Good or evil are what he says they are if you get what I mean. But I have yet to see one area/story/episode where God had ‘us’ personally/directly rely on evil to achieve a good result. The whole book is about us rejecting evil, praying to be freed from evil, throwing evil into lakes of fire etc.