What the Wicked Know
The word wicked is not one that we like to use in modern times.
To call someone or something wicked is impolite unless we're referring to a well-known fantasy story adapted into a movie. Even then, the meaning of wicked is reversed to actually mean "good by another standard." The book of Proverbs is much more stark and for good reason.
Too often we think of someone described as evil or wicked, and we simply feel sorry for them. We feel this way because we believe they have a mere lack of understanding or they are missing a skillset. If only a person could be educated in the way of righteousness, then there would be no need to judge them or call them to repent. While this mindset comes from a place of hopefulness and grace, it misunderstands what the Bible points out - the wicked are on a completely different path with a different set of goals and values shaping those goals.
Look at several Proverbs that point this out.
Proverbs 10:32 - The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.
This proverb begins by talking about what is acceptable, saying that this is what the righteous person knows. On the other hand, what do the wicked know? It doesn't just say the opposite - what is unacceptable - but something more pointed - what is perverse. In other words, the wicked are not just lacking righteous qualities or righteous skills; they are pursuing something altogether different. They have a different goal in mind - perversity. We can find this distinction in other proverbs as well.
Proverbs 11:3 - The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
The Hebrew word used here for integrity is only found elsewhere in the Old Testament book of Job. Job was a man of integrity. The individual habits of his heart and actions of his life added up to a complete whole, each making sense woven together with the other. Treacherousness is a disintegration. Another old saying gets at the same meaning, "He cut off his nose to spite his face." Crookedness is the value that acts as a guardrail along the road to treacherousness.
One of the places where this word is used is in Judges 9:23 where the leaders of Shechem are said to deal treacherously with Abimelech. They intended to repay his evil with evil. In that moment, re-education was not the necessary remedy. They have purposed themselves to an evil goal. Crooked values lead to treacherous action. The proper response is to call everyone to a righteous goal, a righteous path. That is the complete turn-around called for in repentance.
Understanding that wickedness is not merely a lack, but a chosen path helps us make sense of other proverbs. We know this is an important theme because it keeps getting repeated.
Proverbs 11:5-6 - The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.
Proverbs 11:19 - Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die.
Proverbs 11:20-21 - Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the LORD, but those of blameless ways are his delight. Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.
The righteous and the wicked have separate destinations (life or death) because they have separate goals (steadfast in righteousness or pursuit of evil). Separate goals lead to separate outcomes. Both the righteous and the wicked have goals. We shouldn't assume that the wicked have no motives or that they end up where they do by accident.
As we keep looking we find that the righteous and the wicked have different expectations about life's outcomes. Only one of them ends in good.
Proverbs 11:23 - The desire of the righteous ends only in good, the expectation of the wicked in wrath.
Proverbs 11:27 - Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it.
Proverbs 12:8 - A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised.
When we accept this idea of two diligently pursued paths, one leading to good and the other to destruction, it brings the meaning of another proverb into focus.
Proverbs 12:10 - Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
The righteous is so much on the right path toward a right destination with right values that the inconsequential things in his life are recipients of his good - even his beast. But the wicked, being on a different path with different values, even their attempt to do the kindness of mercy results in cruelty.
There is an apocryphal story of Joseph Stalin gathering his comrades together and plucking the feathers from a live chicken. After doing this, the story goes, the chicken was too hot in the sun and too cold in the shade so it pressed itself against Stalin's boots. He gave it a crumb of grain and the chicken began following him. Then Stalin is supposed to have said, "That is how to govern our people."
Every crumb of grain for the chicken was meant to look like mercy, but in reality, that mercy was born of a great cruelty. The mercy of the wicked is cruel.
It's easy to look back at history's tyrants and draw a heavy line separating the righteous and the wicked. The proverbs won't let us stop there, though. They force us to be more personal than that. This collection draws a heavy line in front of us as its readers. There is nothing for us to do but ask ourselves which one are we? Who am I? The righteous or the wicked?
We're afraid to face this question because if we're honest, our most diligent efforts tend toward that wicked path of self-reliance, self-justification, and self-preservation. If we are called to repent and take a different path how do we find it? How do we travel on it? One more proverb here can help us.
Proverbs 12:12 - Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit.
First the bad news. If we need a diagnostic in order to search out our own motivations, look no further than what you covet, that is, what you deeply desire. (When the Ten Commandments forbid coveting, it is not forbidding all desire. That's Buddhism, not Christianity.) The tenth commandment expressly forbids deeply desiring that which belongs to your neighbor.
This proverb says that the wicked not only covet something belonging to their neighbor, but they covet the evil things that belong to their evil neighbor. It's like seeing that your neighbor is a bank robber and wishing that you had thought to rob a bank the way he did. That's different than looking at your neighbor who did an honest day's work for an honest day's wage, and wishing that you had that honesty and those wages.
Here then is the stark good news. The promises given to the righteous are greater. The root of the righteous bears fruit. Of course, the ultimate righteous root is the one who is described in the book of Isaiah as both the root and shoot out of the stump of Jesse, the Messiah.
We obtain a righteous root that bears fruit when we direct our lives toward him - Jesus Christ. United to Jesus, we are connected to one who cleanses us of our unrighteous coveting and puts us on the path of the righteous.
What's in your heart? Do you desire the spoils of evildoers, or is there something inside you saying, "How could I find honest wages for honest work?" That good desire is not something that comes naturally, but it's placed there by God as a gift. It's a good desire. Follow that diligently to its end and you'll realize that you need a righteousness outside of yourself to carry you on a righteous path with righteous goals.
When you see that you'll realize that it's not a skillset you need or moral education, but a Savior. Jesus is the one righteous person in history who said that he came to save. He didn't give us a path to follow and find salvation at the end of it. He gave us himself as both the path and the destination. He is the righteous root who causes each of us to bear fruit when we put our faith in him.