Jeremiah 17:5-10 — Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings

I wrote, yesterday, about terrorist attacks in France. There is no doubt that those attacks were wicked. In some ways, though, they are understandable. There’s another kind of wickedness though, that recent events have laid on my heart, and it is inexplicable — at least to me.
On Thursday, five-year-old Phoebe Jonchuck’s father dropped her from a bridge into Tampa Bay and killed her.
In May last year, Ebony Wilkerson drove her Honda Odyssey van and her three children into the Atlantic Ocean in Daytona Beach. As onlookers rushed to rescue them, the three children (aged ten, nine and three) were crying and saying, “Our mommy’s trying to kill us, please help”.
In White Springs, Florida, on Monday the Kornegays left daughters Misty (15) and Nicole (11) at home with their three-year-old sister. According to police, the older girls broke into their parents’ locked bedroom got the couple’s gun, loaded it and shot their sixteen-year old brother while he slept on the living room floor.
These crimes are horrible to me, and impossible for me to understand. I find these verses from Jeremiah to be a comfort — especially “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings”. In my mind it connects to “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:” (Matthew 15:19 KJVA).
These wicked crimes happen because there is something broken in the hearts of those who commit them. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand it — but Almighty God does, and He will reward the wicked according to their ways.