¹² Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
¹³ who have left the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
¹⁴ who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵ whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.

Proverbs 2:12-15 NIV

The scripture describes several types of men that wisdom can save you from.

1. wicked men
2. men whose words are perverse
3. men who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways,
4. men who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
5. men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

And in the list we can see something about the damage wickedness does, and the problems wisdom can solve.

1. Wicked men look at weakness and wounds and see an opportunity for wealth. Wise men see an opportunity for growth. If you heal the boy, the man will emerge. If you invest in the boy, the city will change. But if you exploit the boy, or abuse him, or lie to him and send him off to fight your wars, you inflict a bitter man on the world. You raise up the unembraced child who will burn the village down just to feel it’s warmth.
2. Men whose words are perverse often deny the power of those words. We live in an age of stochastic terrorism, which is, in the words of dictionary.com, “the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.” If we put endless venom into the atmosphere, at some point, someone will pick it up. Many of us are being radicalized in real time, thinking we are patriotic, or enlightened, or people of conviction. Many of us are being radicalized in our approach to relationships, thinking we are becoming liberated. And the more radical we become, the more reasonable atrocious behavior seems. Meanwhile the instigator is chilling in a plush home that our rage financed.
3. Men who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways remind us that doing the wrong thing is always a choice. It may be a choice our circumstances made more attractive, or more likely. It may be a choice we’ve seen generations of other men take before us. It may be the choice disappointed people have predicted we’d make since we were kids. It’s still a choice. And that means it’s a choice we can choose not to make. We can start new family traditions. We can buck trends. We can break generational curses. We can be the exception to the rule. Some people become drunks because alcoholism runs in their family. Other people never have a drink for the same reason. Some people join a gang, because it’s what all their uncles did. Others study hard and get a great job, because they can see that all their uncles are in jail or dead. Our choices may not be as easy or attractive as our neighbors. We still have a choice.
4. Men who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil give us an opportunity to consider the motivations that lead to self-destructive behavior. At the end of Breaking Bad, a show about a terminally ill high school chemistry teacher, Walter White, who uses his intellectual understanding to become a fantastically successful meth dealer, he is confronted by his wife, who starts to say, “If I have to hear one more time that you did this for the family…” He interrupts her to say “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it…I was alive.” The fact that some people find a path reprehensible has little effect on the choices of a person who gains significance from it. We often wonder how a person could do something that harms others. And the simplest reason is that the sense of worth, or pleasure they gain from it, is more real to them than the pain they experience knowing someone else has been harmed. Sometimes the harm doesn’t bother them at all, because they are making themselves or someone else happy by harming a presumed enemy, or accomplishing an imagined goal.
5. Men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways will eventually be exposed, but they can do a lot of damage before they are. This is a story arc that deserves attention. The crooked, devious man is generally not only practiced in swindling the naïve. He is also practiced in evading the law. He knows how to surround himself with cronies whose fingerprints are on the gun and signatures are on the documents. We’ll all stay trouble-free for awhile, but when it’s time to pay the piper, or even just the bill, the crooked and devious OG will make sure you’re the one paying. They’ll be dining and dashing to their next gig.

Ultimately, there are two dangers here.

We need to protect ourselves from following these men.

And we need to protect ourselves from becoming them.

So wise up.

And stay safe.

(Photo Credit Jean Van Der Meulen)

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