Proverbs 6: Six Things The Lord Hates

Proverbs as Wisdom Literature and Practical Theology

Six things, even seven, that God hates, a little review. Proverbs, remember, Proverbs is wisdom literature. Purpose of the book is to make one wise, and wisdom is the ability to handle life with skill.

And remember, Proverbs addresses all areas of life in a practical manner. One of the unique things about this book is that it's so focused on practice. It's not so much focused on the theology, though it's rooted and grounded in perfect theology, but the way it addresses it in a very practical manner.

So this morning, we're gonna examine God's hatred. Title is Six Things, Even Seven, That God Hates. Anybody ever hear the Judy Rogers song? I had my kids used to sing that all the time when they were small.

Six things, even seven, that God hates. Okay. We're looking at this portion of scripture, Proverbs 6. A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers, who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, who spreads strife.

Therefore, his calamity will come suddenly. Instantly, he will be broken, and there will be no healing. There are six things, even seven, which the Lord, I'm sorry, I'm still in another version. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven, which are an abomination to him.

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, the heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, and a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among his brothers.

The Meaning of Abomination and the Seriousness of God's Hatred

Okay, as we've mentioned, Proverbs is a very practical book, starting with great theology, and then explains how that applies to daily life. And in doing so, it gives us some of the clearest and best warnings of scripture.

Last month, we looked at the warnings against being lazy. All right, and today we're seeing the warning of a certain kind of wickedness, and then how to identify this type of person. But first, let's look at the middle of the text.

I know this is not the conventional way to start, but bear with me. Six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven, which are an abomination to him. The Lord hates, and things are abomination. Those are strong words.

I mean, there's no, you would think that there would be no equivocation on these words, but there are. People try to minimize the impact of these particular words. But in scripture, an abomination is something to be detested, to loathe, or hated, all right?

The Holy Spirit, in his infinite wisdom, chose these words to give to the writer of Proverbs. And I think we do it injustice, we do scripture injustice, if we try to minimize and redefine these words because we don't like the fact that the language is so strong.

In fact, the same Hebrew word is used for an abomination as in verse 16. It's used in Deuteronomy 20, verses 16 to 18, to describe the false religious practices of the Canaanites. Now, remember what the Canaanites were doing.

They were sacrificing children. There was sexual perversion involved in their rituals. So you can imagine how the Lord feels towards those type of religious practices. And that's the same word that is used in our text.

And then also, the sacrifice of the wicked. Notice this, the sacrifice of the wicked. His religious practice is an abomination to the Lord. But the prayer of the upright is his delight. So that shouldn't be in there, that what is an abomination.

Proverbs 15, nine, the way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who pursues righteousness. Notice, abomination is set in opposition to love. All right, now remember how Proverbs works.

This is what, what is, what kind of parallelism is this called? Antithetical parallelism, setting one thing and its antithesis to it in opposition to one another to make the point. So the way of the wicked is an abomination.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. On the other side, you have delight of the Lord and the Lord loves him who practices righteousness. Evil plans, Proverbs 15, 26. Evil plans are an abomination to the Lord.

All right, but pleasant words are pure. Okay, what I want you to watch out for as we go through this is the sheer number of verses. Remember last week or last month, I should say, when we were discussing laziness, I made a point that you can tell the importance of a particular topic in several different ways.

One, by the wording that is used, all right, but two, also by the amount of space scripture gives to it. So that's why, for example, when we're studying prophecy and people, you have a lot of people today say, well, I don't pay attention to prophecy.

You know, everything's going to pan out in the end. It doesn't, it's not important. Yet one third of scripture is devoted to prophecy, which means that it is important. The Holy Spirit, if you say you're going to ignore prophecy, you're ignoring one third of the Bible, roughly.

All right, same thing here. I want you to see how often these words come up. Isaiah 1, 13. Now this is an, I put this verse in here for a particular reason. Who is Isaiah speaking to? Who's he speaking to?

Israel. Now look at what it says. Bring your worthless offerings no longer. He's talking to the people of God. All right. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies.

I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. He didn't even like it when they gathered for worship because what they were doing was so perverse. Their heart was not in the right place. So how then does this come in?

What about the old saying? I hate the sin, love the sinner. All right, that's something that you hear all the time. All right. Proverbs 30, 32. For the crooked man, this is not sin, this is talking about a man, is an abomination to the Lord, but he is intimate with the upright.

You cannot separate the sin from the sinner. We are all sinners at heart. That's who we are. And it's only by the grace of God. Now, again, this can be taken too far. You know, it's not up to us to determine who the abomination is, all right?

Because according to the scriptures before salvation, each and every one of us was at enmity with God. We were children of wrath. So we need to be careful, but we need to understand and we can't minimize when we're, especially in your evangelism, you can't minimize the fact that you have to tell a person, do you realize that right now, if nothing changes, you're under a spiritual sort of Damocles, so to speak.

You've got, you're dangling over hell by a spider's thread. All right, remember Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God. People need to know that because again, you know, if you say Jesus saves, saves from what?

And so it's important that we understand it. That's why we do no favors to someone when we minimize the doctrine of hell. You're ignored completely. The perverse in heart, he's talking about a man, type of man.

Perverse in heart are an abomination, but the blameless in their walk are his delight. That's the consistent theme of scripture. Even in Revelation 21, 27, and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it.

This is talking about the holy city, okay? But only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. So Paul gets very specific as he applies the wisdom of the old covenant to salvation. Now, what do I mean by that?

Very simply, to Calvin, his favorite portion of scripture. Romans chapter nine, and not only this, but there was Rebecca also when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac, for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose, according to his choice might stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls.

Notice the twins, not yet born, hadn't done anything good or bad. It was said to her, the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated. Strong words. And remember, that's only, that's a quotation.

That's the second time that portion appears in scripture. It's originally in Malachi. The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how has thou loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau. And I have made his mountains a desolation. And appointed his inheritance for the jackals of wilderness.

And there are some people who say that when he says hated, that he merely means love less, all right? Look at what the wording says. He's made his mountains a desolation. That's not just loving a little bit less.

That's action against him. And same thing, his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness. So it's important that we understand how God views evildoers, all right? Those who are the object of God's hatred are doomed.

And we're doing no favors by reducing the gospel to God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That's true for the believer, but not so for some for the unregenerate person. And we need to communicate that to somebody who is perishing.

Just think of somebody who's drowning, all right? And there's a lifesaver there. And you just look at him and say, I love you, I'll pray for you. And then you walk away. Makes no sense. You wanna pick up the lifesaver and throw it to him, all right?

And that's what's the lifesaver, it's the gospel. The gospel is the only thing that saves men. And now we're gonna continue in this portion of scripture with the description of the wicked man. This goes back to verse 12.

The Wicked Man Exposed by His Mouth and Deceitful Body Language

A worthless person, a wicked man is the one who walks with a false mouth. Notice where it starts. The description begins with a false mouth. We should not really be surprised with that. Why do you think the writer, and again, this is speculation, but why do you think the writer of Proverbs starts his description with a false mouth?

Yeah, but why does he start there? That's my question. And again, granted, this is speculation because we don't have inspired notes. Schofield notes are not inspired, by the way. Yeah, well, that's true too, but why does he start with the heart?

Why does he start with the heart then? Yeah, it's like when I tell my music class to evaluate music, what's the very first principle of evaluating music? Listen to the lyrics. Why? Because that's profound?

No, it's the easiest. What's the easiest way to tell if somebody's wicked? What's coming out of their mouth? We can't see into their hearts. And you'll find that. You'll see this. This is a constant theme in scripture.

He begins with the most obvious. You know, if somebody's up on a platform spouting curses, you don't have to say, I wonder if that person's saved. You know? No. We did a whole section on Proverbs 4 .24 going back a number of months ago.

Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Why the mouth? It reveals the heart. And then the description continues with verse 13. Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points his fingers.

Those are three very interesting descriptions. Wouldn't you say? These are Hebrew idioms. Okay? This is why hermeneutics is so important. This is why Wednesday evenings, we're spending all this time going through hermeneutics.

I've heard people who say, well, I would never wink, you know, give somebody a wink because that's, and Proverbs says that that's a deceitful person. You know? That's not the idea. Just because, you know, just because somebody points with their finger, doesn't, all right, he's evil, he pointed at me.

You know? There are some people who actually interpret scripture in that crass manner. You have to understand, these are Hebrew idioms. All right? And they were idioms for a deceitful or wicked man. All right?

I mean, we use idioms frequently in our, you know, in our language. All right? The Hebrew idioms, if you read them almost literally, it says he's twisted. We've actually, that has actually transferred into English too.

You ever hear somebody, he's really twisted. All right? Even a pretender, a hypocrite. All right? That's the idea of somebody who winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his fingers. It's talking about a deceitful person.

Somebody who is putting forth a false front, getting you to believe one thing. All right? And yet having another motivation of his heart. So that's what, that's what this verse is pointing to. And the description then continues to show the heart condition.

Who with perversity of his heart devises evil continually, who spreads strife. Notice how it's, how Proverbs is going. It's starting at the surface, but then probing deep. We're not to be just those who probe the surface, but we have to get to know what a person is really like.

And you see that the person who speaks falsely with his mouth, the one who is deceitful in all, it stems from the heart. Those actions are always coming from a deeper. All right? So it's perversity in his heart.

That's the heart of the matter. I didn't intend the pun, but it's there. All right? And I make no apologies for it. These people are happy to make others miserable. They love to stir up trouble and strife.

All right? And Proverbs addresses this type of man continually. You ever noticed there were a type of people who are not happy unless they're making you miserable? Yes, it does. All right? All right. Then Proverbs 16, 18, a hot tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger practices contention.

Pacifies, contention. I'm going to go through a whole lot of scripture here right now. I'm going to go through it rather quickly. I didn't intend to go through each one individually, but I put all of these in just to show you the number of portions of scriptures, even just in Proverbs that addresses this.

A perverse man spreads strife, slanderer separates intimate friends. Perverse man spreading strife. Proverbs 10, 12, hatred stirs up strife, love covers transgressions. 13, 10, through presumption comes nothing but strife.

Proverbs 17, one, better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife. The beginning of strife is like letting out water. So abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.

Proverbs 17, 19, he who loves transgression, transgression loves strife. He who raises his door seeks destruction. Second half of that. That makes sense to you? Yes, it is. It's another idiom. Okay. Anybody want to take a shot at what the idiom means?

He who raises his door seeks destruction. There's actually a twofold. And the commentators aren't all in agreement. Go ahead. Yep, that's part of it. The other part for those who take that is that they made their doorways small enough so that only one person could go in.

So like a group of people, marauders and whatnot could not enter. If you make your door too wide, you're inviting trouble. Okay. But then there's another group of commentators who have a different take.

They say that the door is the mouth. The door is the mouth to your insides. And if you, in other words, keep your trap shut. So the one who always is opening his mouth seeks destruction. All right. But that too is, that's good.

Another Hebrew idiom. A fool's lips bring strife. Proverbs 18, six. Just look at the number of these verses. Proverbs 23, keeping away from strife is an honor for a man. Any fool will quarrel. Okay. Proverbs 22, 10, drive out a scoffer and contention will go out.

Even strife and dishonor will cease. Eminently practical, is it not? Proverbs 26, 17, like one who takes a dog by the ears is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him. That's just such good advice.

In other words, mind your own business. Proverbs 26, 21, like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. Proverbs 28, 26, an arrogant man stirs up strife. 29, 22, an angry man stirs up strife.

Proverbs 30, 33, for the churning of milk produces butter. Pressing of the nose brings forth blood. So the churning of anger produces strife. I love that one. Here is just a, this is just a normal course of things.

You churn butter, you churn milk, what's gonna, what are you gonna get? Butter. You're not gonna get succotash. You're gonna get butter. All right. Pressing of the nose, you punch somebody in the nose, what's gonna happen?

He's gonna get a bloody nose. You churn anger, stir up anger, what happens? You're gonna have strife. Just look at how many verses, and that's, that's not all of them. That was just to give you an idea.

The Seven Things the Lord Hates and the Meaning of the Hebrew Idiom

Okay. Now, after those descriptions of the wicked man, Proverbs continues to highlight some of the behavior that God hates. All right. And this is back to where we started. There are six things which belong, which the Lord hates.

Yes, seven, which are an abomination. To him. That's another Hebrew idiom. Okay. The author didn't begin writing down a list of six things and then said, oh, wait a minute, there's one more. You know.

That's not how it happened. Nor is it meant to be a complete list of things. In other words, you could say, well, there's only seven things that God hates. If I'm not on the list, I guess I'm okay. No, it's another Hebrew idiom.

All right. And the idiom is meant that these are among the things that God hates. That's why it's not a definite number. The whole idea is six, even seven, is to show you that, no, this is not a complete list.

The list, you can go on and on and on. All right. But this is the smattering of it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, good insight. Yes. We see this type of, this form, not only in other scripture, but in ancient literature.

I'll give you two examples, even from scripture. There are three things which are too wonderful for me, four which I do not understand. Proverbs 30, 18. Anybody know what those three and four are? What those four things are?

The way of an eagle in the sky. All right. The way of a serpent on a rock. The way of a ship in the middle of the sea. And the last one, the way of a man with a maid. Can't understand it. And the whole idea, I use that when I do my lessons on marriage and courtship and all.

What happens when a man is struck by a woman? His head gets muddled. You know, he doesn't think straight. He walks into walls, gets all googly eyed. And you guys over there, don't laugh because you may not be there yet, but you'll be there pretty soon.

You haven't been struck by a woman, with a woman yet, not by a woman. Okay. Yeah. All right, but notice there are three things too wonderful for me, four, which I do not understand. All right. We see it in Amos, thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment.

All right, you see. So it's another, again, remember, especially in Psalms and Proverbs, it's abounding in symbolism, idioms, poetry, and it has to be taken that way. If you try to interpret it in a super literal fashion, you're going to miss the intent of it.

And you're going to miss the beauty of it. I love when I read, you know, Proverbs, the way of an eagle in the sky. Well, think about that, way of an eagle. Isn't that truly a marvelous thing? You see the way that eagle, how they know how to catch the updrafts and they just soar and whatnot.

Serpent on a rock. How in the world does that thing move with no legs? Think about it. And it's fast, all right? And even more, you ever see a sidewinder? You know what a sidewinder is? It's a snake and it actually moves sideways.

And a ship in the middle of the sea. Yeah, beats me. And that's the whole idea. So, and you're meant when you read these things, especially when it deals with nature, to stop and to think about God's creation and how wonderful and fearfully everything is made.

Then you come to man and see, you know, again, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It's amazing. So what are these seven things that are on, that have made this proverbial list? Haughty eyes. Again, this is where he begins with haughty eyes.

Psalm 101, whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart. Notice, haughty look, arrogant heart. There you see body language. We can say that Proverbs deals a lot with body language.

That's why I refuse to do counseling over the telephone. Because if you're really going to counsel somebody, you got to be looking at them. I want to look at them in the eye. I want to see what their body language is.

And in fact, when I was a sergeant in homicide, every once in a while I'd hear one of my detectives, you know, talking on the phone and they'd hang up. I'd say, was that a witness you were speaking to?

Yeah. Smack him right upside the head. Say, hang up that phone and get in your car and drive out and interview them properly. You cannot interview somebody properly on the telephone. Okay. And especially in any counseling situation, you have to be in the same room and watch.

Proverbs is filled with those type of admonitions about watching a person, analyzing their body movements. Why do you think this is in there? These are warnings to the believer to beware of these type of men.

Haughty eyes and a proud heart. This is still the same sentence. Next one is lying tongue. Yes. Kind of like the rolling of the eyes. You ever start telling somebody something and they just think that you really don't know what you're talking about and they know and you can look at it in the eyes, you know, there's all kinds of things you can do just with your eyes.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, the rolling of the eyes. In fact, Jim Carrey, I never expected to be quoting Jim Carrey in a Bible study, but Jim Carrey once said, he said, behind every man is a woman rolling her eyes.

I was rolling more than my eyes. My heart just flip-flopped. Proverbs 5 .6, thou doest destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit, again, a lying tongue. I mean, this is such an obvious one.

Revelation 22, 18 to 19. I put this in here just to show you that it's not just somebody who lies, but here you have everyone who hears the word of the prophecy and adds to them, adding to the word of God or taken away from the word of God.

It's the same as lying. Hands that shed innocent blood. Again, this is a, I'm sure I put hands that shed innocent blood and everybody's sitting here and now says, whew, at least I'm free. I got a freebie on this one.

Not quite. You have heard the ancients were told you shall not commit murder and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.

You ever get really angry at somebody? You killed them. Yes, you're a murderer. You're all murderers. Me too. A heart that, I'm just putting up these last two verses. A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness of others' lies, and one who spreads strife among his brothers.

They've all been encapsulated in the previous verses, so I'm not gonna do each individual one. I think by now you get the idea. It's really the description of every unregenerate heart. It's our doctrine of total depravity, right?

And the T is true, right? T is true. And then after these descriptions of the things that God hates, we're shown the result of wickedness. And again, this is where we need to place our evangelism. Verse 15, therefore his calamity will come suddenly.

Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing. There comes a point where God says, enough, I've given you enough chances, no more. Remember Proverbs is a book of wisdom. Don't ignore the warnings.

Any questions?