REDEEMING AND OPPOSING THE WICKED
Psalm 7:11, 15-16 11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. ... 15 [The wicked man] makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. ESV
God turns the schemes of the wicked on themselves. This is a prayer we can pray for the wicked schemes of man. Of course, we should seek redemption and pursue them evangelistically, but we also have to realize that having a romantic view of the wicked does not properly serve our calling to be light and salt (Matt 5:13-16). We must remember the abuse that comes from the hands of the wicked, not merely seeing them as lost people who are victims themselves at the hands of sin and the devil. While compassion and mercy are right to feel and demonstrate, we must realize that if we do not oppose the wicked and their unholy crusades, many will suffer their injustice, for they are capable of many, many atrocities. At their hands millions of unborn babies are slaughtered, children will be indoctrinated with their sexually perverted beliefs - doctrines of demons, and these same children become the very objects of abuse that these doctrines produce. We must oppose the wicked, and oppose them with every fiber of our being. But what of the command to love our enemies?
There is a balance between loving our enemies (Matt 5:44), by seeking to save that which is lost (Lk 19:10), and opposing their immoral agendas by confronting them with truth (Jn 7:7). Jesus did both, and justice demands both. “It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the innocent of justice.” (Prov 18:5) God can turn the wicked on themselves, He’s done it before (Jdg 7:22). It is not wrong to pray that the enemies of truth would turn and devour themselves, that they would fall in the very pits they dig for the righteous, and that they would hang on the very gallows they have built for those who oppose them (remember Haman, Esther 7:10). Yet, at the same time, we should pray for their redemption, that through their utter devastation, God would reveal Himself to them and redeem their souls. We must be led by the Spirit here. We see Jesus both confronting sinful people as well as pursuing them for discipleship. He can lead us to do both as well.
