Proverbs 6: 16-19 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Read: Genesis Chapter 39 This is the story of Potiphar’s wicked wife who pretty much did all of these things which God detests. Although she did not shed Joseph’s blood she did cause him to go to prison, which could have resulted in the shedding of his blood for sure…yet, he was innocent of all the things she had charged him with. She is not a person of good character. Despite her actions, and the harm 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Joseph being imprisoned…Joseph did not sin. He did not say, “Well, whatever, everyone in the world is against me, so I might as well be the person that they have decided that I am!” He did not engage in a self-pity party. He decided to stick with God and just make the best of his circumstances. In the end, his attitude of doing his best despite his circumstances turned out very well for him. God blessed him for his determination to follow the Lord’s will with his character.
Now, although this is not a popular view in the eyes of the world…let’s consider Potiphar’s wife for a moment…she did all of these bad things. The Bible clearly tells us that God hates these things….so can it be inferred that God hated Potiphar’s wife? Absolutely not, God has a hatred of the things that she did, but not of the person of Potiphar’s wife. She was still a person who was a well loved creation of God.
Most of us, as we go through life, meet at least one or two people who have done the things that God hates. It may even be ourselves at one time or another who have done these things…though we like to think not.
Yet look at these things one by one:
1.) Haughty eyes….this is someone who thinks too much of themselves, they think they are above others, and that the same tules don’t apply to them as to the “other folk”…that is the sin of PRIDE! I believe that it can be said that we all at some point in our lives suffer from this sin. If you have ever judged another person in a condemning way, then you have been prideful. That may seem harsh, but think about it…God did not make you the judge…Jesus Christ is the judge….
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 The people of every nation will be gathered in front of him. He will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.
34 “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, my Father has blessed you! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me into your home. 36 I needed clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
37 “Then the people who have God’s approval will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger and take you into our homes or see you in need of clothes and give you something to wear? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “The king will answer them, ‘I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did for me.’
41 “Then the king will say to those on his left, ‘Get away from me! God has cursed you! Go into everlasting fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me into your homes. I needed clothes, and you didn’t give me anything to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t take care of me.’
44 “They, too, will ask, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or as a stranger or in need of clothes or sick or in prison and didn’t help you?’
45 “He will answer them, ‘I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you failed to do for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do for me.’
46 “These people will go away into eternal punishment, but those with God’s approval will go into eternal life.”
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)Copyright © 1995 by God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group
2.) Lying Tongue…well we don’t need an explanation of this do we? We have all done this….told a lie when the truth would do…sometimes, the lie is as simple as answering, “NOT ME!” when asked if you know who did something. (This particular answer is prevalent in all households with children…in fact, I was once cleaning one of my customer’s houses and one of the children had written it on the wall…I thought, “Oh, so “Not Me” lives here too!”)
3.) hands that shed innocent blood….now it is hoped that we are not guilty of this for sure…though..if it were applied to the blood of an innocent animal instead of a person..it would probably be more than likely that again a vast majority of us would be guilty. After all, if you drive a vehicle then at some point you are going to probably hit one of those “Kamekaze Squirrels” (or some other animal) that runs out in front of you when they are already across the street…they turn back and go and run under your car’s wheels!
I do not know if God would apply that thought to animals, and I will leave it up to you to decide it. I, personally, feel mighty upset when I know an animal is killed, though it doesn’t stop me from eating meat. Scripturally, there is a basis for the idea of the animal’s blood being innocent blood as the sacrificial system of Judaism used animals to represent atoning sacrifice. Though it was also understood that animal blood did not actually clean away anyone’s sin…it was a representation of the act of how bad sin was to God that blood had to be shed to atone for it. It was also a means to see to the feeding of the priests and their families. Anyway, I will leave that to each person to decide whether this applies to the blood of animals or only humans.
4.) A heart that devises wicked schemes…Wow! This is another doozy! Have you ever decided to do something that you knew was wrong? Well, here it is…a simple version of the heart that devises wicked schemes. A wicked scheme is a plot to do something wrong…either to yourself or to someone else….it is a plotting out of a sin before hand. For instance: You decide that you want to go into an adult book store after work. There you have it….you are at work, and you have decided to go and do something later that God would not approve of your doing! That is a simple example of devising a wicked scheme! In the world’s eyes there is nothing wrong with that action, but as a Christian you have to look at things from God’s perspective, and he tells us to avoid sexual immorality. Our culture is full of it….and it is very popular…the television shows are full of all of these issues.
5.) Feet that are quick to rush into evil… This is talking about a person who hears an idea that is to do something wrong, but jumps right into doing it anyway…not taking time to consider how that wrong will affect themselves or those around them.
It could be as simple as deciding to temporarily “borrow” something that is not yours without asking first even with the intention to return it.
There are many ways to be “quick to rush into evil” but the main thing is that we need to be alert to what God considers to be evil..even things that seem at first to not be evil can become so at times. Gossip is a prime example of a way to be quick to rush into evil.
Gossip…is a very common weakness…a person or group of people can start discussing someone in what seems and has the intention to be a caring manner and it end up being a gossip festival instead. Whenever, it goes from how is someone doing? into “he said,” “she said,” or “they said” or “I heard”…then it pays to be alert this may be turning into a gossip festival…instead of a caring conversation….gossip harms people because it is not the truth…it is a bunch of speculation…yet many times people don’t give it a thought and rush right into it instead of stopping and thinking first.
6.) A False Witness – who pours out lies….Well, when I picture a person who does this…it is a very untrustworthy person. After all, a person who lies once is hard enough to deal with, but picture how hard it is to deal with a person who lies so easily that the lies just run out of their mouth like water in a river. This is a person who not only lies, but they lie in order to ruin someone’s character….they are uncaring about other people altogether. The thing is that one lie leads to another in order to cover up the first lie…after a while it is hard to keep up with all the lies that have been told. At some point, the lie used to protect oneself can end up being a lie that hurts another person.
Have you ever worked for a company and had the managers tell you to “tell this person or that person…that I am not here right now!” whenever a person they didn’t wish to take time to speak with would call. Now, I am sorry, but no matter how you look at it, this is telling someone to lie and that is not right behavior for a Christian at all. We are not to lead others into sin. The thing is when you look at this particular lie…it is an easy one to do…many people don’t think about it….it rolls right off the tongue as it seems harmless, doesn’t it? Funny thing is that this kind of a lie can be altogether avoided and the situation taken care of very kindly by telling the person on the phone, “I’m sorry, that person isn’t available right now. May I take a message?” See, there is an absolutely truthful way to handle the same situation that doesn’t require anyone to do something that God hates. There are always very truthful ways to handle things that people might lie about, and not even make the person feel bad.
I once heard someone suggest that it is hard to tell a friend that their dress is very ugly when they are of the opinion that it is because they don’t wish to hurt their feelings. The thing is a person either likes an outfit, or they don’t. You can always say that you are sure it will look good in the right setting, or that you don’t think it is quite their style. Again, no lie needed, right? You can be truthful without being as blunt as a rock with people. The thing is to be considerate of other folks and make sure you protect their character and feelings as much as possible without lying. That is just a way of loving someone.
Notice, that God mentions lying as two of the seven things that he doesn’t like?!! That is because God is a God of Truth…so of course he hates lies of any kind!
7.) A man who stirs up dissension among his brothers…(now this applies to women who stir it up amongst their sisters also)…Dissension is discontent, and disharmony, disunity, and disagreement…God does not like people who sow those seeds amongst others. This is another situation you see quite often. There is another way to say this…one bad apple ruins the barrel. This is to say that you can have a group of people who are really in unity and they are working together with a common goal and a common loving spirit and in comes one person who doesn’t like something or someone.
Let’s use a clear example: You have a club and they all have a common goal…to enjoy a certain activity together. Each year you get people in the club who volunteer to be the officers. One year you get a person who volunteers for one of the offices, and really seems very nice, and helpful and then one day they blow a gasket in the middle of a club activity. What happened was that they had overloaded themselves, but didn’t gracefully know a way to back out of all they had volunteered to do and it was too much for them. So after blowing a gasket and quitting in a very public way that person goes home and then sends out email, or gets on the phone and starts calling all the other members to bad mouth everyone else that they were working with in their club….pretty soon…everyone in the club is very upset…especially those who have been unfairly bad mouthed…then a lot of the club members quit…others have hard feelings…it takes years for that club to recover.
The person who blew a gasket was not causing dissension up until they started calling and emailing the other members and bad mouthing others…then they were stirring up dissension. They were actively, purposefully, working at making others to be discontented within a group.
A person who goes about stirring up dissension is like a poison to a group of people. It is an active wrecking of the peace which God is wanting us to have with each other.
There are certainly times when we disagree with each other, but there are correct ways to handle that situation. Going behind a person’s back that you are in disagreement with and talking badly about them is not the correct way to deal with that.
Proverbs 16:28
28 A perverse person stirs up conflict,
and a gossip separates close friends.
Matthew 5:23-24 (NIV)
23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
The thing about making peace with someone is that you cannot do that behind their back…the only way to make peace with a person is in front of their face and talking to them.
To see how God promises to care for you when you have a right attitude, an attitude and behavior that glorifies him….read Matthew 5:1-16
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Now, if we are to be the light of the world, then we cannot do things that are done in darkness….otherwise, the light goes out! All these things that God hates…they are things of darkness that are not done on the up and up with a good attitude…they are all done with the attitude of pride and hatred…not with humbleness and love of our fellow man. Yet at any one time, we have all been guilty of at least some of these actions…haven’t we?!! God still loves us, even then. Just as he loved Potiphar’s wife, yet hated her actions. So what can we do when we are guilty of these things?
Well, the answer is listed for us in the Bible, over and over…”repent and turn back toward God.”
Acts 3:19 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,