Day 12 meditation’s focus is on pride which is always wickedness coming out of goodness.
A fundamental tenet of Christianity is the need for mankind to experience deliverance. Mankind needs salvation. The irony of this deliverance, however, is that man needs to escape from himself. Because of the nature of the creation of mankind and the fall of man into degradation, the creature itself is its own enemy. Fallen man must experience deliverance from what he has become. Ultimately, salvation is not the escape from an external force. The deliverance that is needed by man is a deliverance from the fibers of the core of himself. It is deliverance from that which has become wicked, the essence of his being (1 Pet: 5:6-8).
Day 12 meditation reveals the mystery of wickedness coming out of goodness.
In one of the most profound paradoxes of the universe fallen man now experiences in the reality of his being, the results of that which was created good: “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Wickedness, because of the very nature of the holiness of God (the ultimate and supreme Good One), must in some way have its beginning out of the goodness of creation. Wickedness, as strange as it may seem, evolved out of that which was good. For wickedness to originate in any other way would make God the creator of wickedness, which would be an impossible violation of the very nature of God. Day 12 meditation explains how wickedness can come out of goodness.
The following example will serve to illustrate the principle of wickedness out goodness. The king of Tyrus, because of the extreme created goodness given by God, became proud of that goodness and wickedness followed. He was created with supreme goodness: “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty . . . the anointed cherub . . . Thou wast perfect in thy ways. . .” (Ezek. 28:12-15). However, he could not handle that goodness: “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. . .” (Ezek. 28:17).
