Wicked

“punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head”  2 Chronicles 6:23

Wicked – Axe murders?  Rapists?  Someone who tortures another?  When we think of “wicked” we often picture crimes of extreme violence.  We think of the headlines.  Then our descriptions get a little broader.  Embezzlers, thieves, cheats, arsonists, terrorists.  All those things we aren’t!   But God has a much bigger picture in mind. 

How does God define the wicked?  Read Proverbs.  The wicked are the ones who seek their own way.  They are self-reliant.  They are dishonoring.  They are guilty of breaking His commandments.  They are unjust, insolent and arrogant.  They are liars, envious and self-serving.  They are the ones who are not enjoying His fellowship because they do not want God’s order in their lives.  They might be the nicest people we know, but unless they honor God in their life commitment, God punishes these people.

The Hebrew word is rasha.  It is contrasted to the word for righteous.  Now we see the real meaning of wicked.  If righteous means to live in conformity with God’s character and in dependence on God’s mercy, then wicked means to live in defiance of God’s character and in independence of God’s mercy.  Righteousness and wickedness are heart matters.  One confirms in thought, word and deed that God is sovereign and we are servants.  The other believes, whether overtly or not, that I am the captain of my own fate and the master of my own destiny.

To be innocent is to be righteous.  To be guilty is to be wicked.  It’s not the axe murderer alone.  It’s the one who puts God’s Son on the cross by one thousand insignificant transgressions, one small self-centered act at a time.

Before God gave me a new heart, I was rasha.  Without God’s gift of a new heart, I would always have been rasha.  Guilty.  That’s me.  It is His innocence that rescued me, not my own.