The Hebrew verb for craves and desire is “awa” in this proverb and evil is “ra”. Evil is that which is opposed to God and His purposes as Pharaoh and his Egyptian god Ra during the time of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. Therefore, this proverb states that a wicked soul is one that desires that which is opposed to God and His purposes. Do I have a wicked soul that craves resistance to and combats with the Lord God and thus does not give mercy to my neighbor? (4:16-17, 10:23, 14:21-22)
To answer I could consider my obedience to the Laws given by God through Moses to determine if my mind, heart, will, and imagination are opposed to God and His purposes. However, before the Mount Sinai covenant and its Laws, Pharaoh opposed the Lord God and His purpose as did the wicked people who built the tower of Babel, those who lived before the worldwide flood, Cain who killed his brother, and even Adam and Eve who sinned in the garden. So before the Law are more basic characteristics determining whether I possess a wicked soul.
As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:12-14 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned– for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.”
Death declared that they were opposed to God and His purposes even though they did not break God’s Law. So what is more fundamental than the Law? Is it sin?
Then the LORD said to Cain before he killed his brother, Abel, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:6-7)
Cain’s problem was not sin for sin was merely waiting to enter him. After all, sin is an action that is opposed to God (including violations of the Law) by surrendering to the power of evil rather than God. What did the Lord God see in Cain that he warned him about? What made him angry and his face downcast? This action is enabled by that which is within and Cain and I are to master it. This is what God meant when he said, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33) So I have a wicked soul if God is not in me. The solution is to allow God to live in me. Then I will not be a wicked man who craves evil.
