Ignorance, intolerance, and hate are a dangerous mix.”
–Dan Arnold (Some Like It Hot)
“You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.”
–Deuteronomy 12:31(ESV)
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Here is one attribute of God that is seldom if ever preached on–the hatred of God. There are numerous sermons on His love, His grace, His mercy, etc., but almost none regarding His hate. Today, we look at Proverbs 6:16-19. There could be a book written about these verses, and I will try to keep this short for I don’t have the space and you don’t have the time to read.
16 — There are six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
17 — A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 — A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil,
19 — A false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. (NKJV)
God does hate, we shouldn’t try to hide that fact. Look up the things in the Bible that God hates, and then they should make you wary. As J. Vernon McGee says, “if you love sin, then you will hate righteousness.” If we do not hate the things that God hates, we have a serious problem and it is our responsibility to “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). Note that these are called “abominations” which is the Bible’s strongest expression of hatred for wickedness. McGee calls this the anatomy of evil and iniquity.
The first is a proud look. Pride is usually the basic motivation for all other sins. Man wants to be his own God; he wants to be autonomous. Have you ever rolled your eyes? Hmm, a proud look that says you know better than the person giving you instruction. What is a proud look? We could give various descriptions of it, but perhaps the best would be that a proud look is the look of Satan. McGee calls it a “phony look” for it does nothing in the presence of God. We read in Proverbs 8:13 that, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” (NKJV) One theologian wrote that his person is “a man of emptiness,” because there is no foundation to his pride; it is false and the believer should be humble before the Lord.
The lying tongue is next on the list. God is a God of truth, Satan is the father of lies. One reason God hates lies is that it shows to whom you belong. John tells us that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone…” (Revelation 21:8, NKJV) Following the lying tongue is the one who murders, the “hands that shed innocent blood.” We see that they are also included in the list found in Revelation. A day cannot go by when one does not see murder in the news, then add to that the murder of the innocents in the womb. God created man in His image, therefore, murder is taking what is sacred in His sight. The human life is sacred and the one who murders treats it so lightly and desecrates life. An interesting paradox to this is the scene in the courtroom and in the media. There is the murder of an individual, however, it seems that soon the perpetrator becomes the victim, the act of shedding blood forgotten.
An evil that is prevalent among us is the person whose heart devises wickedness. His mind schemes to devise evil; the KJV puts it this way, “wicked imaginations.” The thoughts of this person are always running to and fro thinking only of ways to do evil. This is a misuse of the mind that God has given to us. Warren Wiersbe writes, “The imagination needs to be cleansed and kept pure before God so He can use it in His service.” To waste a mind is a terrible thing, and more so if it is done to devise evil. This in turn will result in evil being carried out. Some can’t wait to perform their evil deeds, in fact, to some it is an addiction. They want to enjoy their pleasures immediately. Isaiah speaks of these individuals, “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.” (59:7, NKJV) They don’t even have to think for their mind has already played it out and they run to evil.
The last two that God hates: a false witness and sowing discord among the brethren. This false witness is similar to the lying tongue but is used more in context with leadership. The ESV says that this person, “breathes out lies.” Hmmm, sounds like some politicians. Spewing lies to get their own agenda (pride). Lies instead of truth, in fact, they would say, “what is truth” or “whose truth” for many believe that truth is relative, which is a lie in itself. “Without truth, things start to fall apart” (Wiersbe). The foundations of society begin to crumble when truth is gone or distorted. Who can you trust? John Dryden said, “Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.” This goes along with sowing discord. Lies, gossip, hatred, that breaks unity within the church is an abomination. How many times has Satan used these individuals to break the unity of the brotherhood. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1, NKJV) There is great delight in unity.