In the second film of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight, the antagonist, the Joker, is an incomprehensible criminal. We might write the Joker off simply as a psychopath or sociopath, a man with no common human emotions or feelings that make him reluctant to do evil or feel remorse after doing so. At one level that may be true. While not feeling like you or I would feel had we done even a fraction of the evil he did, he has emotions. Those emotions are focused on doing evil. He believes that the whole world is like him. With a little push, the thin veneer of moral restraint that holds people back from the deep evil in their hearts will shatter and chaos will ensue. He calls himself an agent of chaos. He finds his purpose, joy, and short-lived satisfaction standing, somewhat peacefully, in the eye of the chaotic storms he creates. He is not a normal criminal who wants to kill and pillage for the sake of wealth or revenge. As Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred, tells him, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Some men, both individually and collectively, love evil and eagerly run toward fighting against God’s created order and creating chaos. Those men Solomon describes as having “feet that are swift to run to evil.”
In the list of six things, yes, even seven, that the Lord hates in Proverbs 6.16-19, the fifth is “feet that are swift to run to evil.” Solomon started at the head and has now reached the toe of this corrupted body. This distorted body is both the result of sin and its agent to twist the world into its image. The feet must play their part to bring to life the wicked imaginations that spring from the heart.
Our feet, like all the organs of our bodies, find their archetype in God himself. God has feet. He walks in the midst of the Garden (Ge 3.8) as well as through the camp of Israel (Dt 23.14). Though his footsteps were unseen, he walked through the midst of the Sea leading the children of Israel (Ps 77.19). Moses saw God’s feet resting on the firmament at the top of Mt Sinai (Ex 24.10). Nahum declares that the clouds are the dust of God’s feet (Nah 1.3). The earth and more specifically the Temple is the footstool of God’s throne (Isa 66.1; 60.13; Ezek 43.7). Whatever feet are in God, they are imaged in the organs at the end of our legs with five toes.
We learn from God’s feet as well as what he reveals about what we are to do with our feet the deep meaning of our feet. All of the members of our body have what we consider “practical” functions, but that is not the limit of their meaning. They are God’s works of art in which he reveals himself in and through us as living metaphors telling us who we are and our purpose within his creation. Our feet, therefore, are more than flesh and bone to keep us upright and moving. Reflecting God’s own feet, our feet are our authority that moves over the earth in order to come to a victorious rest.
Our feet assume authority over the ground. To be under the feet is to be subdued or conquered (cf. e.g., Ge 3.15; Rom 16.20; Josh 10.24; 1Kg 5.3; Mal 4.3). Our feet walk the earth because God has appointed us rulers over the earth. Our feet stand upon the ground that emerged from and is above the waters and all that swim in them. Vegetation, land animals, and birds are all created from the ground as well, and we have rule over them. (For our dominion over land and sea, see Ps 8.) Even man comes from the ground, so there is an authority that must be exercised over man by man; a hierarchy in which men rule other men whether as a loving king or conquering warrior. Our feet were made to walk the earth authoritatively in paths of wisdom to arrange the world according to God’s plan for it.
There are those who pervert the use of the feet and are swift to run to evil. The evil spoken of by Solomon includes sin but is broader than sin. All sin is evil, but not all evil is sin. Evil, broadly speaking, is disorder and chaos. God creates evil of this sort when he creates hurricanes and tornadoes (see Isa 45.7). But God does not create sin. Those who have feet that run to evil are sinning, but they are also creating evil, a disordered, chaotic world for others. A man who robs and kills another has not only sinned, but he has also created a disordered world for the victim’s family and society as a whole.
There are people who are eager to create this sort of evil. They have no hesitation. They are excited about creating evil. They are the people who want to indoctrinate your children with sexual confusion, create tyrannies in society, or are eager to engage in unjustified wars. They may also be the people who quickly take hold and pass along the latest sensational story even though it is unsubstantiated, dividing people into warring factions. Or they may be the person who hastily takes someone’s words or actions in the worst possible light, not being patient and trying to avoid evil outcomes.
As Christians, our feet are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We are to walk through the world proclaiming in life and lip the reign of Jesus Christ. With our feet gospel-adorned, we will conquer our enemies and bring the goodness of peace.
