What God hates

I dropped one class in college. It was at Delta. Dropping a class, if you don’t know, is a fancy way for saying quitting. Back in the day, when we had to talk to people, it was horrible, as I had to go to the professor and get a signature to say I am quitting. It was awful, facebook and instagram didn’t create anxiety, it existed last millenium and I anxiously got the signature because I was going to fail this class. I got a big fat F on my first test. It was not F for Fantastic.

The class was English Literature from the Romantic poets on or something like that. There is nothing romantic about sitting in a 3 hour poetry class. And the tests were awful. The tests were worse. The professor gave us 5 lines of poetry, 5 stanzas, and asked, what poet wrote it. There are a lot of poets and by the way, Shakespeare was before these guys so the answer was never him.

I’m awful at poetry. It’s supposed to rhyme and then it doesn’t. It’s supposed to have beat and then it doesn’t or does it and I just can’t keep a beat. Well, I can’t but you know what else is true other cultures have different types of poetry.

You guys remember Haiku’s?

My cat stole my chair Now he must pay the mortgage He won’t wash dishes.

That’s Haiku, a Japanese style of poetry using syllables of 5-7-5

So when we read the Bible and look to it for truth from God you might be like me and want to skip the poetry, read the prose, skip to the story about Jesus. Because poetry is about feeling, symbolism, and symbols in one culture don’t mean the same in another culture.

It’s hard! Words are hard, metaphor is hard. Its even harder when crossing cultures.

Like my Dad learned that you don’t call someone a chicken when he was preaching at a Chinese church. His translator told him, a chicken is not the symbol for a coward but for a slut.

Did you know that, symbols like these are not universal. I looked up some more, in India and Pakistan an owl is considered … a stupid person. In France, a cow is … a nasty and cruel person.

Very different from us, so when we come to the Bible poetry and symbolism can be very confusing and sometimes we can skip sections because we get confused but today I want to help us do what is difficult. We open up a world of God’s word and see what God has to say to us and how are lives need to be transformed.

This is a big lift, a difficult task, and when confronted by difficult things or even easy things it is appropriate to go to God in prayer. We are at church or you are online, will you pray for someone here or someone listening, someone you see near you, a stranger, a loved one, to hear from God today.

Pray for someone to hear God today

Thank you,

Here is the poetry

Proverbs 6:16–19 NLT

16 There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, 18 a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, 19 a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.

That’s actually Hebrew poetry

Here let me make it more clear

Proverbs 6:16–19 LHI

16 שֶׁשׁ־הֵ֭נָּה שָׂנֵ֣א יְהוָ֑ה וְ֝שֶׁ֗בַע תּוֹעֲבוֹתנַפְשֽׁוֹ׃ 17 עֵינַ֣יִם רָ֭מוֹת לְשׁ֣וֹן שָׁ֑קֶר וְ֝יָדַ֗יִם שֹׁפְכ֥וֹת דָּם־נָקִֽי׃ 18 לֵ֗ב חֹ֭רֵשׁ מַחְשְׁב֣וֹת אָ֑וֶן רַגְלַ֥יִם מְ֝מַהֲר֗וֹת לָר֥וּץ לָֽרָעָה׃ 19 יָפִ֣יחַ כְּ֭זָבִים עֵ֣ד שָׁ֑קֶר וּמְשַׁלֵּ֥חַ מְ֝דָנִ֗ים בֵּ֣ין אַחִֽים׃ פ

I’m kidding. But this is sort of close to how people would have read it 3,000 years ago. That’s a long time ago. It would have no dots and numbers and all the letters would be closer. But this is Hebrew and let’s go back to the English translation realizing that if we want truth, we have to be open to looking at words in a new way

Proverbs 6:16–19 CSB

16 The Lord hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him: 17 arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil, 19 a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.

I changed the translation to allow us to see how other scholars tried to capture such an ancient piece of wisdom from God’s words and bring it to today’s English.

What do you notice upon second reading besides a general desire for me to get to my point?

Here is the point: this is all about things God hates! Tell your neighbor, God hates this stuff.

God the creator of the universe, the one with knowledge of how He made you, every bit of creation, how we are to live and enjoy everything, hates these things. Hates them.

You know what my wife hates? Leaving things on the counter in the middle of our kitchen for days upon days. You know what else my wife hates? Do you? Do you, have any idea what else my wife hates? A guess? It would be really helpful if you tell me what she hates.

Please tell me because I forget a lot and then she gets really mad when I don’t remember what she hates. I need to remember! Help please!

I’m kidding, sort of.

Oh wait, don’t say she gets mad in my sermon is something she hates.

Memory is important!

There are things every person hates, some big and if you do them than there are consequences. Your spouse, your kids, your neighbor. My neighbor is so nice to me that he mows our lawn. I’m always avoiding doing anything my neighbor hates. If I avoid what my neighbor hates and what my wife hates, I really need to avoid what God hates.

But like I was saying with my wife, how will I remember what God hates.

And now we see why this poem is written the way it is. It is written for easy memory. No one for thousands of years had Bibles easily available to them. They had to hear it and memorize it, so this poetry si designed to be heard and memorized with a number system - six and plus one, seven. That is to help memorize what is said.

This whole poem is using a hebrew idiom of six, and six plus one.

Proverbs 6:16 NLT

16 There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests:

Idioms are weird because they don’t mean the same thing when taken literally. They actually are bizarre.

Some American Idioms:

“That dog won’t hunt” “A few fries short of a happy meal” and”I wasn’t born yesterday”

We often say that dog won’t hunt or talk about fries in a happy meal when no dogs are around and no McDonalds can be seen. They mean something else,

“that argument doesn’t work,” “that person has poor mental health and I am not naive.

in this Hebrew idiom of 6 and 6 plus 1, it is “these things are bad, but these last two, they are horrible!”

Proverbs 6:17–19 NLT

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, 18 a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, 19 a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.

And the poem has another memory system built in. You might be familiar with the system as well.

Let me try it, Everyone who is able stand with me. Stand up, ready?

“If I sing “ Head, shoulders, knees and toes, kness and ?” Finish it everyone.

Such a silly way that we use to teach little ones the names of the body parts. still

Let’s read the scripture again, but point out the body parts.

Read and point to the different body parts mentioned in the scripture.

Proverbs 6:17–19 CSB

17 arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil, 19 a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.

Did you notice that number six doesn’t have a body part with it, and neither did number seven? Because while we proceed in the poem we are getting to the things that are really important. They are all important but important-ter.

See in verse 19 we have no more body to point too. These are extremely important.

But let’s go through each one and start at the beginning with arrogant eyes, haughty eyes, in verse 17

Proverbs 6:17 NLT

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent,

This such a weird one, because it is also symbolic and cultural. So here is how I might say it

“Eyes that look down on other people”

When we treat someone like we are more important, powerful, relevant, we sin against the creator of that person, we sin against God.

Jesus rebuked the disciples when they looked down on children, trying to keep them away from Jesus

Mark 10:13–14 NLT

13 One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. 14 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.

When a sinful woman, a woman everyone knew was doing bad things approached Jesus to worship Him the religious and moral leaders of the day rebuked the woman and Jesus because of it.

Luke 7:36–39 NLT

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

Luke 7:44–50 NLT

44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?” 50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Jesus called you, a sinner to himself. He forgives you. Changes you, makes you news, You are born again, never forget Jesus made us new, Jesus heals us after our sin, We are to love.

We fall into looking pridefully in ourselves and looking lowly on others to easily, because the world works on the way that some people are more important than other people. If the governor or the president comes here right now, tons of people will come with them. If a famous musician, athlete or actor comes everyone will care. Even if the pastor of a church where many, many people attend comes here others will want to be here. They will matter where as you and I are just here.

We cannot look at the world in the same way with haughty eyes. Prideful eyes, allow us to treat people as less than or to think of ourselves as more than. Thinking of ourselves as more allows us to deny love to others. Its why we say every week the scripture from Philippians that we should look out not only for our own interests but “also for the interests of others”

Especially those our culture doesn’t look up to like the disabled, those on the edges of age, those with no money are looked down on but they cannot be with us! Everyone matters.

The things God hates moves from our eyes we move to our tongue. The lying tongue.

Proverbs 6:17 NLT

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent,

My friends the best way not to lie is to keep your mouth shut

Proverbs 10:19 NLT

19 Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.

But a mouth trying to get away with stuff will lie. God hates that. Don’t live your life more worried about what others think about you, about what you can do if people don’t know. Live your life in the open and honestly. Keep your mouth shut.

Look at your hands

Proverbs 6:17 NLT

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent,

Don’t murder people. If you are surprised that Jesus doesn’t want you murdering people, well we got a lot of work, please, please, please attend every Bible study we got but congratulations the Lord spoke to you today that person you were thinking about murdering, don’t do that. God hates that.

Luke 6:27 NLT

27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.

OK, love others, even people we hate. Let’s keep moving in the things God hates

Proverbs 6:18 NLT

18 a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong,

So we look know to our heart. In hebrew idioms, the heart thinks things. I know of one Christian writer who pushes the issue of the cardiac muscle retaining intelligence but that isn’t necessary. it’s a figure of speech. There is truth in figures of speech.

In our culture we usually would say our mind is plotting. In America, we might say, someone is “sharpening the knives” or “hatching a plot” just because there are no knives, no sharpeners or no eggs involved doesn’t make the idiom less true.

We are not to plan to do evil. We aren’t to hatch a plot for evil.

What is evil? See we plan on many things. You might even plan things others don’t want, but that doesn’t make them evil. Good and evil are determined by God.

It is not evil to look up a cheaper price at the dealership when your trying to buy a car. They don’t want you too but that doesn’t make it evil. It is evil to think of ways you can take the keys and steal the car.

Evil is not determined by things people don’t like. It is not evil to water your lawn. It is evil to use the hose from your neighbors house so that they get charged for the water you use.

We live in a day and age when people from political parties are equating their desires with Godly good and anyone who disagrees as evil. Its not just politics I have seen it happen often in the workplace, in the community. Be careful my friends. Let God determine evil, let us run away from evil and not toward it. So we went from eyes to the feet but when we get to the feet we have to remember to avoid prideful eyes, thinking that we know good and no one else does because that make us run to evil to create plans because we think we are better than others. God hates all of this. And then we come to the 6th and the 7th thing. Remember these are the most important parts of the poem.

Proverbs 6:19 CSB

19 a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.

Both of these are about breaking up the bonds of human relationship. Notice that false testimony is not the same as lying, because lying was named earlier.

Here it is specifically about being asked to testify, like legally. Think about the ancient world. They didn’t have DNA, finger prints, video cameras, what a person said carried a lot of importance. Contracts would be formed between fathers or before the elders of the town at the gates. Your word tied you to the community. Even with all that evidence in our world, what we say still carries a lot of weight. Yes, today, we have to check all the other things because so many people do what God hates. Back then, when legal court was held before village elders what a person said was vital. It bonded the community together. Without true words before the village elders the truth doesn’t happen and we don’t have justice. And God loves justice.

God still loves justice.

By the way, the Bible does not have an understanding of truth as sharing everything we know. Remember when Jesus was asked questions, which we know he knew the answer to, by those in power who wanted to use the answers for evil, Jesus didn ’t answer.

Its ok to keep your mouth shut. It is not okay give false testimony.

We do not run to evil. And we don’t try to stir up trouble, we don’t try to cause fighting in families or even in our church. We work for peace. God hates those who act like a producer in a “reality” show, trying to stir up arguments, manipulations, putting selfish boredom before love. We look to bring peace.

God hates when people purposefully divide up a family, purposefully divide up a community.

God hates it.

As my study pointed out,

“Critically, these 6, and 7 sins disrupt community life as much as they break covenant with God. Pride isolates through self-exaltation; lying destroys trust; murder violates the sacred; scheming poisons relationships; eagerness toward evil demonstrates spiritual weakness; false witness undermines justice; and discord fractures the bonds holding people together. The final sin—sowing discord in a family—emphasizes how evil always destroys community solidarity, with “brothers” referring both to family members and those living in community with one another”

Do you do what God hates?

Let is sit there and be read.

Do you do what God hates?

Pride isolates through self-exaltation; lying destroys trust; murder violates the sacred; scheming poisons relationships; eagerness toward evil demonstrates spiritual weakness; false witness undermines justice; and discord fractures the bonds holding people together. The final sin—sowing discord in a family—emphasizes how evil always destroys community solidarity

Maybe you realize God hates what you are doing. God hates it. You know what it’s like when people do things you hate. You avoid people who do what you hate. You yell at people who do things you hate.

Before you deny it, God sees you while your driving.

You might even wish or work towards others to get a “piece of what they deserve.”

If you do that to those who do what you hate, what will God do to you?

Repent.

I tell you Repent.

Repent, call on the Lord Jesus. Turn from your wicked ways and know,

Romans 5:6–9 NLT

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

You the repentant, the one who did what God hates, God will punish this sin, and He did, and God took the punishment.

Now the sinful woman, as I said earlier, when she became aware of the amazingness of God loving her, enough to make justice where there was none, to fix what she had broken, She worshipped Jesus

Luke 7:37–38 NLT

37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

Jesus calls you home. Not to live a life like everyone else, but living out what God loves.

Luke 7:47–50 NLT

47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?” 50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”