Deliverance

(Pro 2:12 KJV)  To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

If you are reading the King James Version or referring to the verse I supply, notice that the first word “man” is in italics.  That does not mean emphasis.  It is just the opposite.  When you see italics in the KJV it means that the word in English does not appear in the Hebrew but is added for understanding.  I am not sure it always does that because the actual translation would be just “evil” (7451b).  It is a simple, basic word for evil and is used 664 times in the Old Testament.  Obviously the evil man would be included in that but the concept is bigger.

Also notice that this is not a guarantee that you will not go through persecution or hard times.  It is a guarantee that wisdom, when listened to and applied, can protect our walk before the eternal God.  We live in a time where I expect persecution of Christians to increase in the United States.  It has never stopped in much of the world, but we are going to get our share soon.  I hope I am wrong but if you look back through the history of the church, believers have often come under attack and the attack is not always from outside the church.

So?  We need to develop an inner road map that tells us where we are and where we should be going.  Think of it in terms of a world where you GPS stops working.  Could you get home without it?