Proverbs 12:2-8 "Wicked!" It isn't just a musical!

Before I start this morning, I wanted to give you a link to my daughter, Molly’s website where she posted photos and her perspective on Emmy’s Choose Joy event. I had just put on my makeup for the day when I read it. Now I need to redo! 

Chapter 12 of Proverbs has much to say about the wicked. You know, there are lots of people in this world who don’t believe there is such a thing as evil. They believe that because God is all good, there can only be goodness everywhere. They refuse the concept of sin - preferring to use words like “mistake.” I spoke with a sweet gal several months ago who believes that everyone will go to heaven and that all of us have good inside. And I thought, “Really? You want to spend eternity with Hitler and Stalin and Charles Manson?? Would a good God not deal out justice?"

Well, Proverbs shows that surely there are truly evil people in the world. Yes, we are ALL sinners. But those who have believed the gospel have been made righteous by God’s amazing grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. There are, however, some who embody wickedness through the choices they have made to reject God and to exalt self. And Proverbs speaks about them:

A man cannot be established through wickedness,

    but the righteous cannot be uprooted... 

The plans of the righteous are just,

    but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.   

The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,

    but the speech of the upright rescues them.   

Wicked men are overthrown and are no more,

    but the house of the righteous stands firm.   

A man is praised according to his wisdom,

    but men with warped minds are despised. (Proverbs 12:3, 5-8)

See all those “buts” in there? A perfect example of comparing and contrasting. The righteous stand firm and are strongly rooted, but the wicked will overthrown (NOT sent to heaven). The righteous affirm, encourage, and treat others with justice, but the wicked speak destruction and seek blood. The righteous have wisdom, but the wicked have warped minds. Huge differences! And very different ends!

In John 14, Jesus promises He is preparing a place for His own, and Revelation 21 speaks to the joy that awaits us in that place where there will be no more tears and no more death. But Revelation 20 tells us that those who are wicked are doomed to the eternal lake of fire that God has also prepared.

Oh, yeah, there is evil all right. And I’m so very grateful that God is continuing to root it out of MY heart!