A DESCRIPTION OF THE WICKED

 

By Bob W. Lovelace     

 

Job 15:16-35 (KJV) 

    How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? [17] I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare; [18] Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it: [19] Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. [20] The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. [21] A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. [22] He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword. [23] He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. [24] Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. [25] For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty. [26] He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers: [27] Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks. [28] And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps. [29] He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth. [30] He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away. [31] Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence. [32] It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green. [33] He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive. [34] For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. [35] They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

 

APPLICATIONS TO TODAY,

 

   This describes the kind of person who would take your life and not think twice about it! Lately it seems every few days a child is abducted, abused and then killed. While on vacation last month in Las Cruces, New Mexico the news told daily about a five month old baby that was killed at a time when her parents were in the house along with the mother’s cousin. The mother was young,  around 20 years old; her husband was just a couple of years older and her cousin who was involved, if I recall correctly, was just one year in difference in age from the mother of the child. The news reported the cousin as saying that the infant had been thrown up into the air, and sometimes they failed to catch her when she came down. That’s a five month old baby! Moreover, it was also reported in the news the baby had been sexually molested at five months! Repeatedly people asked, “What would make one human do such a thing to another?” Let’s face it, a lot of young people do not get the full picture of such things actually happening until something like this or like the abduction of the two teenage girls in Lancaster, Ca. last week comes out. The two girls were raped by the “wicked” man. He would have killed them had the police not arrived in the nick of time! Again, lately there was the case involving a 12 year old girl who was taken from her home and whose life ended in tragedy.

 

THINGS ABOUT THE WICKED,

 

   I can read what Job’s friend said and understand that the rapist in California finally came to the point those like him come to where he knew his days were numbered. I can understand how he lived his last days in fear, knowing that the Law was pursuing and near; those pursuing him and the “narrowness” of the places he could go without being recognized made him afraid, and these overshadowed him and worked against him the book of Job says, “as a king ready to the battle!” 

    A person’s life at this point becomes like a garden without water (there is no person or system of things that provides the necessities of life so life can flourish and be productive). You think about their dwelling place (where they stay at night) and they are reported (like the one who killed the little 12 yr. old girl) as staying in abandoned buildings, old factories that are desolate and dilapidated with no doors or windows in them and filth all over the floors.  Have you noticed that these are their motels? There’s a lesson in these things and a warning to the simple minded as well.

 

   Moreover, the one in California waited for the gunshots that mowed him down. He did not just stretch out his hand against mankind, or just against young women as victims, but he uncaringly put his fists out against God and that’s his undoing. Nobody rapes God! Biblically speaking what did he get? Isaiah says, “Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him” (Isaiah 3:11 (KJV)..

 

SUCH PASSAGES PLAINLY STATE:

1. That the wicked cannot escape being miserable.

2. That the punishment which they have so richly deserved at the time they did their wicked deeds assuredly awaits them, and is to be inflicted on them.

3. That the punishment is an example and terror to others, by a holy and just God, because he loves virtue.

4. That God pursues vice with a fierce and deadly hatred. 

('Liber Jobi,' p. 104, edit. R. Grey, from The Pulpit Commentary). Moreover, from Romans 13:1-6 we learn that civil government attends “continually” to this very thing!

 

AND NOW, CONCERNING “VICTIMS”

 

   Young people are not thinking about how cruel and vicious the wicked are when they are out at 2 AM parking at lover’s lane four miles out of town in the middle of night. The  wicked are referred to as beasts (2 Pet. 2:12), fierce dogs(Matt. 7:6), and adders full of deadly poison (Ps. 58:4).

 

BIBLICAL EXAMPLES,

 

THE HOMOSEXUALS OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH:

 

   “But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: [5] And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them” (Genesis 19:4-5 (KJV) ).

 

   Just look at what had happened to the “young” in this city (Job 19:4). Verse five shows you what they would do today if they get in control!

 

 THE MEN OF GIBEAH:

 

   The vicious conduct of the wicked is well illustrated in Judges 19 with regard to the Levite and his concubine who turned in to Gibeah of Benjamin to lodge for the night. That evening an old man (resident) told him “do not spend the night in the square.” (Judges 19:20). Now read the following.

 

Judges 19:22-30 (KJV) 

    Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. [23] And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. [24] Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. [25] But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. [26] Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light. [27] And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. [28] And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.

    [29] And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. [30] And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

 

  The young person often thinks because I don’t have these thoughts its not going to happen to me. You must understand that as a result of foolish conduct it can happen to you! The world says don’t put those negative thoughts into your mind, but the Bible warns you about the “beasts” out there and teaches you to obey your parents and civil authority which to some degree is your protection, along with good judgment and wisdom.

 

  Lastly, did this happen to two teenage girls because the rapist happened by, or did what happened include them being “wrong” in being there to begin with? As usual I never heard or read any condemnation of the young peoples’ conduct in relation to it being 2 AM in the morning. 

 

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