Sermon: God Hates These Things

You can open your Bibles to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6. We're going to start at verse 12. This is our series, Wisdom from Above. It's a verse-by-verse working through the book of Proverbs, God's wisdom.

Proverbs 6 and verse 12. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech. Winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger.

With perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord. Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him.

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil. A false witness who breeds out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together as His people. Lord, we come before You as redeemed children, forgiven under Your grace. In Christ, chosen before the foundation of the world, loved by You, given mercy.

And yet Lord, we come to Your word here to learn things about Your character and what You hate, what You loathe, what You call an abomination. Lord, I beg of You to please meet us today in this place under the hearing of Your word.

That You move God by Your Spirit, that You would teach today Your people. That You, Lord, would grant to us repentance, the kind of hatred and loathing that You have for these sins. This is not the way the world ought to be.

And so we pray, God, that You would give us a hatred, the holy hatred that You have for these things in our hearts, in our minds, in our midst. We pray, God, that You would sanctify us by Your Spirit.

Heal us. Heal us individually. Heal us in our families. Heal us in this body in any way, Lord, that You see fit according to Your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. There is a temptation in coming to a set of verses like this that are clearly so powerful, that display the holiness of God, the character of God, in such a way that we often have tried to avoid in our lives.

That it's just so clear that God abominates these things, that He actually has a holy hatred for these things. And it's very easy to come to a set of texts like this and try, as you hear it, to think out there.

Out there in the public square, out there in the marketplace, out there in the media. To think about that guy that you know that is like that. I mean, it's rather easy if you look in our century in the West right now to see so much of what God hates here in the text, what He abominates.

So much out there. It's not hard to put a finger on or to put a pin in and say, yeah, I know exactly what that looks like. I can put a name to that person. I can put a name to that gang. I know where they operate.

I know what that's like out there. It's very, very tempting to hear a set of texts like this and to try to find out who it applies to out there, rather than actually doing the hard work that we ought to do as God's children, who are under His grace and have peace with God.

The hard work of actually examining our own hearts and our own minds and saying, where are these things remaining in me? Where are these things at in my life, in my family, in my life in the church? Where are these things in my life?

How am I identified with any of these things? That's the way to approach this text. This is God's wisdom. It's how do I live? This is what God is like. This is what God is like. And He is giving to us the wisdom from above.

This is how I've called you to live. This is how you ought to live. And I think supremely, this is how Jesus is. When you think about Jesus, He is God incarnate. He is also the very embodiment of divine wisdom.

This list of texts here is something that Jesus opposes. And you can see in the life and the ministry of Jesus, you see in His teaching, you see in His interaction with others, that He is the embodiment of wisdom.

He is the opposite of all of these things and all of His interaction. And you see in His character, Jesus is that wisdom. And so we start this text with the worthless person. In verse 12, chapter 6 of verse 12, the Word of God says, A worthless person, a wicked man goes about with crooked speech.

Now the word here for worthless, a worthless person, is the word in Hebrew, belial. Sound familiar? Heard that word before, belial? This is actually used a number of times in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, and in different variations in translation.

You'll have belial translated as worthless. You'll have it translated as wicked. You'll have it translated as ungodly, worthless. You see it in Proverbs, chapter 6, verse 12, 19, 28. And in particular, you're familiar with this one.

In Psalm 101, verse 3, the text says, I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. No wicked thing before my eyes. No worthless thing before my eyes. Just think about what that means in relation to the Psalms.

And when we sing that, and when we delight in that truth, not setting any worthless thing before us, what does that mean when we say it? No worthless thing before me. And the text says, using the very same word, that it is the worthless person, the wicked man who goes about with crooked speech.

Worthless, the word belial, is also used in the New Testament. So it's, you know, Old Testament word, Hebrew word belial, but it's also used in the New Testament as a name for Satan himself. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 15, the Apostle Paul says this, very famous, you know this.

He says, what accord has Christ with belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? So the contrast there. Christ versus Satan, and the believer versus the unbeliever. The contrast.

That word belial, identifying Satan himself. And so it's very clear if you take the Word of God as a whole, this worthless person is a person who is motivated by Satan. This is a person who is influenced by the demonic.

And so it is a worthless person, a wicked man, somebody motivated by Satan who goes about with crooked speech. You see, this person is a wicked person, as it teaches. He goes about with crooked speech.

What's that mean? You're familiar with this. Some of you guys have been around this world, this fallen world, long enough to have run into the person who has that crooked speech. Their words aren't straight.

They don't actually speak the truth. They try to flatter you. They speak what they speak through a smile, through rotten teeth. They lie. They flatter. Flattery is, by the way, a sin. Flattery is a sin because you're saying things to people that you don't actually believe.

You're manipulating them. It's crooked speech. It's not a straight line. Just consider the ministry of Jesus. Jesus being the very embodiment of wisdom. You never see in the ministry of Jesus that when He speaks to people, He speaks with crooked speech.

Jesus always speaks in a straight line. He says what He means, and He means what He says. And so this person being described, this worthless person, this wicked man, they go about with crooked speech.

They're saying things in a calculated way. Just consider that for a moment because you wouldn't normally use it that way. To say something in a crooked way almost seems like it's off. Like it's not hitting the target.

It's not actually calculated. But the wicked person, the one motivated by Satan, actually is doing what they're doing in a very calculated way. Their intention is to take you down. Their intention is to harm you.

There's secret hatred in their hearts. And so they smile, and they speak to you in a way that is crooked. They don't mean what they say. They're calculated in the sense that when they speak, their actual intention behind it is to find some way to wound and to destroy.

Some way to wound and destroy. We know what scripture says about our mouths. I mean the book of Proverbs. Oh my goodness, if we read the book of Proverbs more, and we digested it and meditated upon it, we would heal in so many ways in our minds, in our hearts, in our relationships, in church bodies.

We would avoid church splits many times. If we would just walk according to divine wisdom. If we got control of our tongues and what comes out of our mouths. If we spoke in a straight way and not a crooked way.

If we actually learn how to tame this thing that's in our mouths because it sets fire and it destroys. Sounds familiar, right? Go to the text of the New Testament to James. More on the tongue. The crooked speech.

The worthless man.

The wicked man who seeks to destroy. In James chapter 3, the brother of the Lord says in verse 1,. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with a stricter judgment.

With strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

Look at the ships also. Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder. Wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire. A world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beast and bird or reptile and sea creature can be tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and Father.

And with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water?

Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives? Or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. And there's James' wisdom literature applying exactly what we see in what we have from wisdom from above in the book of Proverbs.

Exactly the same thing. It's our tongues. It's our mouths. And how does God describe the person who has crooked speech? How does He describe them?

You are worthless.

You are worthless. Belial.

Wicked.

Ungodly.

What you do with your tongue matters to God. And He's not fooled by our attempts to fool others. When we actually have the wrong intentions and we set fire to the church, or we set fire to our families or relationships with our tongues, we're not fooling God.

And you're going to see in a moment, God promises that He will actually respond. And when He responds, it'll be swift and it will be permanent. He is not deluded in the way that we can delude our neighbor with our crooked speech.

And what does God describe in terms of the person who has that kind of speech? Who is calculated to wound and destroy? Describes them as worthless. He describes them as wicked. In verse 13, more is said about the worthless person, Belial, the one motivated by the father of lies.

In verse 13, the text says, He winks with his eyes. This is interesting. He winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger. And you think about a person doing this, it's kind of almost like cartoonish, right?

Thinking about a person who's, you know, pointing with his feet and like this. It's kind of cartoonish. But the point is, is that this person is using gestures and body language to manipulate and cause trouble.

In other words, they're doing it with a facade.

You see, the worthless person, here's the key thing.

The worthless person on the outside seems like they're not so worthless. Like they're not actually wicked. They're pretending to speak straight, but it's actually with a different intention. It's crooked, it's calculated.

And they're doing stuff subtly, secretly, winking. Hey, take a look at this. Winking, gesturing, using body language. It's all a facade. They're pretending to have manners and to care about you. Pretending.

They're putting on the God face. They're putting on the Christian smile. I'll just say bluntly, and I've been in ministry for a long, long time, many, many years. I've seen God do absolutely incredible things in people's lives and transform the world.

I really have.

In the body of Christ, there are no better people in the world than God's people. I believe that with all my heart. There are no better people in the world than God's people. But I will tell you this, honestly, from the heart.

Some of the most spiritually deadly people that I have ever come across, and that have even come across our fellowship, had the best smiles. They had the best smiles.

They could play the game.

They could put on the Christian face. They could smile. They could seem very godly. And there were times, many of you guys have been here, where we've had to exercise church discipline on people. And in one particular case I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of a person that we loved so dearly.

Just so bright and so sweet and big smile. And we discovered that this person was just wrecking relationships with women. Gossiping, slandering other women. Almost at every opportunity, every time there was a gathering of women, she was slandering some other woman.

She was bringing down this woman's dignity, this woman's dignity. And we had to bring all those women together at one point for a private meeting with this woman to confront. And when we confronted and there was witnesses and evidence,.

There were tears.

And then as soon as that meeting was over and repentance was feigned, she went on for the next couple of weeks doing exactly the same thing. And what was her story? What was her story to the people she was making excuses to?

With all the wreckage she left behind in our church body. What was her story? Oh, I wasn't. Oh, big smile. Big smile. I wasn't doing those things. You can't prove that. Well, we had to sit as pastors with the wreckage.

We had to sit with the broken hearts. We had to sit with the evidence and the testimony of all of the women who were hurt by this woman. But you would have never have seen it with her public persona. Because the speech was actually crooked.

Because there was winking with the eyes and signaling with the feet. There was body gesturing. There was the facade of godliness. And again, some of the most spiritually deadly people that I've come across in my life have the best smiles.

They look godly. They act godly. And God describes the wicked person, the worthless person who goes about with a crooked speech. They use their body language. And it says this in verse 14. It says, with perverted hearts, they devise evil.

With a perverted heart, they devise evil, continually sowing discord. This person, according to the text, is plotting. They're actually plotting. They are planning this. Crooked speech, discord. They plot.

They have a perverted heart.

But here's the problem.

This is the problem with the worthless person, is they don't look so worthless. And you might think that you're not a worthless person. You may think that you're not this wicked person. But if you have a perverse heart that devises evil plans against somebody in the body of Christ or out there in the world, then you're worthless.

That's how God describes you.

You are worthless.

If we live a life of that in perpetuity, it can only be described by God as a worthless person. If you have those intentions in your heart to wound, if you have crooked speech, if you don't speak straight, that's how God describes it.

He's giving the definition. This is a worthless person who does these things, who has the facade of godliness. They keep the outside looking good, but there is a secret plot going on. They're devising.

They're scheming. They're plotting to injure, to wound. God help us. The word here for discord in the book of Proverbs, actually, this word is used 18 times throughout the Old Testament. 18 times. 15, 15 of those times is right here, book of Proverbs, discord.

You can read in Proverbs 15, 18, 17, 14. There's a couple 18, 19, 21, 9, and 19, 22, 10, 23, 29, 25, 24, 27, 15, 28, 25, and 29, 22.

It's throughout.

And there's different variations of it. It's the kind of person who's a contentious person. It's the wife who is constantly contentious, constantly fighting. And the text will say things like, it's better to go live out in the desert on the top of the roof than with a contentious wife, someone who's causing discord.

And it says it about the drunk man who can't control himself, who's causing discord. But this is something that God actually speaks quite a bit on in Scripture in terms of discord. But this person, the worthless person, is a person who is devising evil.

They are plotting. They have a perverted heart. And the end of all their activity is that they sow discord. They sow discord. They break the unity. They disrupt all the peace. Now, God is a God of peace.

That's the way he made the world. It's a fallen world, yes. But he's still the God of peace. That hasn't changed. And so God hates these things. He considers it worthless and wicked and evil and vile to create discord, to plot and to speak in a crooked way, not straight, to be deceptive.

Now, notice the end here of the worthless person. Verse 15. It says, therefore, listen, therefore, because of all of this, because of all of it, because of the facade, because of the manipulation, because of the plotting, because of the crooked speech, it says this, therefore, calamity will come upon him suddenly.

In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing. See, that, I think, is pretty much all of our problem in terms of living in a practice of sin or perpetual sin, in some sense, is we don't actually think the judgment of God is going to fall, right?

We push it off into the future, like, I'll deal with that later. Like, I'll get what I want to do now. I will satisfy my lust. I will injure.

I will wound.

I will hurt. I won't think about the consequences because I'm going to push that off into the future, into the distant future. And the word of God here in his book of wisdom is that when this judgment falls, it's going to fall suddenly.

And when it falls, it is going to be complete. It's going to be total. It's going to be comprehensive. There's no way to recover. It's beyond healing. I believe that's what is being described here is ultimate judgment, final judgment.

It's the kind of thing that we see in the New Testament, those fearful words. Go to Luke. Gospel according to Luke, chapter 12. In the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 12, starting in verse 13. Now, this is kind of a different story about rich fool.

And it's just the word of Jesus here, I think should be something we reflect on. It is terrifying. In this parable in verse 13 of chapter 12, it says, Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

And he told them a parable saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones.

And there I will store all my grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. And here's the terrifying words. They are terrifying.

But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you. That kind of stunning response from God. This night judgment has come now. And the word to the worthless person, the wicked man, the one who has crooked speech, the one who plots and devises this evil against neighbor, the one who uses the facade of the Christian life and godliness.

God says that when that judgment comes, it's going to come suddenly. And it will be beyond repair. You will not be healed. It's going to be permanent. It's the kind of words that we read in the New Testament from the Lord Jesus.

We need to think about them in Matthew 7, 23. And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. It's the kind of word we see from Jesus in Mark 9, 42 through 50 about hell.

It's better for you to cast it, to pluck out your eye. It's better for you to... All these things are... You can get rid of those things, but you do not want your body and soul burned in hell forever.

Jesus is teaching there. What you need to be concerned with is your eternal state. Jesus teaches. So what's the word to God's people from his wisdom here?

For all of us.

I don't want to be a worthless person. I hate that. To have your photo placed there in the text. Yeah, that's me. Worthless. Crooked speech. Person who's plotting evil. The person who keeps the facade of a Christian life and godliness.

But actually has this other intention. Like this hidden pursuit to wound and to destroy. This person who actually is causing discord. The word here is stop being an ungodly troublemaker. Stop causing discord.

Don't be the worthless person who causes discord. We should hate that in our midst. The kind of disunity and disruption of peace and discord that's described here by the worthless person. It's not to say...

Listen. It's not to say... This is important. That there isn't a time, a righteous time and a good time... And a commanded time in scripture for us to have disunity. You can see it in the New Testament.

You can see it with Jesus and the covenant breaking leadership of Jerusalem. Clear disunity. Clear demarcation and a line between Jesus and his message and what he's doing. And what they were saying and what they were doing.

Wisdom embodied. Jesus confronts theological error. He confronts their man-made traditions. He says, you're voiding the word of God for the sake of your tradition. Jesus doesn't pull... He doesn't pull any punches when it comes to actually fighting for the truth and standing for righteousness.

And that's the distinction. When there is disunity, it needs to be disunity that we actually are obeying God in because there's a breaking of scripture. There's a breaking of principle. There's a breaking of wisdom.

There's something that's clearly commanded by God. So we have to have disunity like, for example, the disunity caused in Corinthians.

Where the apostle Paul talks about,.

You guys think you're being so gracious to this guy who's living in sexual immorality. Even the pagans know you're not supposed to do that. Here's what you have to do. When you gather together, you cast this person out.

Why? It's not to destroy his soul. Paul's hope there is what? So that his soul would be saved. You see, it's out of love for this person. Not to hurt. Not to put him under your boot. Not to make them feel just terrible about themselves as a person so I can feel good about myself.

What's the point of that disunity? It's commanded by God because God's clear in His word. But the worthless person doesn't have that mind. The disunity they're creating is a disunity that actually is motivated by haughtiness.

I'm better. I want people to see me as better. I want to be the one that's right. I want to be the one that's vindicated in the arguments. I want everyone to see me as the one who wins the prize. I want the trophy.

And so the worthless person causes all this discord and division that actually God hates. He hates that division. I think much can be said about this in terms of church splits that occur. You ever been a part of a church split?

It's a heartbreaking situation. It's horrible. Before we planted Apologia Church, we were a part of a church that sort of collapsed. Not because of us or anything. It was because of sin in the camp. It was actually a pastor's wife who was incessantly gossiping and wouldn't stop gossiping about other women.

So prideful. I'll just speak straight here. So prideful. Just wanting to be the focus of attention. Wanting others to see her as the most important is really what it came down to. And the elders of the church confronted it.

And the elders of the church said, Get this right. Repent of this. We'll give you some space and some time to do it. It didn't happen. It only got worse. And so they eventually said to the pastor, You need to step down.

You need to step down because this is incessant gossip and it's hurting other women and those sorts of things. And so that church went through just a hard time where they were just thriving and doing well.

And it went from, I don't know, 800 to 1 ,000 people on a Sunday to it squished back down to like 200 people maybe. All because of what? Pride. Pride. Wanting to be the center of attention. Wanting to be seen as the best.

Wanting to be seen as a person who's right. Wanting to be seen as a leader. Right? Putting everyone else under the foot. And how many church splits could be saved if we would just walk according to God's wisdom and we would despise this in ourselves?

We despise this sort of a thing where we're looking to take other people down. Right? You ever have a conflict with somebody in the church? In the body? You ever find yourself just wanting to get people on your team?

Wanting to take down that person's dignity? Wanting to make sure everyone sees them as the bad guy? Wanting to see them as wrong and you as right? And so working, plotting, scheming in conversations to make that person look bad.

Make them look wrong. There is the worthless person. There is the person sowing discord. There is the woman and the man with a perverse heart who is plotting and scheming and trying desperately to harm.

And God says that judgment's going to come and it's going to be sudden and it will be without repair. You won't be healed from it. That's the word.

Next.

In verse 16. Here it is. Famous. Famous, right? Famous text. A lot of people know this one. I'd say it's probably one of the most famous texts from the book of Proverbs. There are six things that the Lord hates.

Seven that are an abomination to him. Six things that the Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to him. And you admit, right? You go to a text like this and you ask the question, why the six and then, oh, it's seven.

And the reason is, is this is actually a Hebrew idiom. It's a Hebrew idiom. It's like saying there's a few things that God hates. Here's a list of a few of those things. Okay, it's just an idiom. It's actually used in a number of ways in the Old Testament.

It'll be used in different ways. And like there's two and three, six and seven. It's just an idiom. It's basically saying here's a list of some of the things that God hates. Some of the things that God hates.

Now, as you open up a text like this, in modern evangelism, if you're preaching this over the bar stool at many mega churches, people would start getting very uncomfortable. I'm sorry? Say that again?

Who hates? Not God. God doesn't hate. God is a God of what? Every evangelical knows that verse, right? They know two verses, John 3, 16, and that God is love.

Right?

That's it. I know those two verses and God is love. The idea that God, the Holy One, the One who gave His Son on the cross for sinners, would hate anything is something that is repulsive to the modern evangelical.

My God doesn't hate anything. He's perfect. He does not hate. And it just goes to show the ignorance about the character of God. And it goes to show the ignorance of our Bibles. God does hate. And when He hates, He doesn't hate like you and I.

He doesn't hate with an imperfect hatred or an immoral hatred. God doesn't hate like us.

His isn't incomplete.

It's not insufficient. It is a full, comprehensive, perfect, holy hatred. And Scripture does teach that God hates. He does hate. In Scripture, we see in Psalm 5 -5, the text of God's word says... The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.

You hate all evildoers. You hate all evildoers. This psalm is a song of worship.

Right?

I mean, this morning I was checking my messages and I looked at something... And a local megachurch popped up. Their live stream. And so I was like, oh, it looks like a Coldplay concert. What's happening here?

So I clicked on it. And I'm telling you, like, just the crazy... I mean, you could have gotten like a seizure from the lights and all the crazy stuff.

And it was like...

It was just like going crazy. And I was thinking to myself as I'm watching it. I'm like, this thing is like very... First of all, kudos to you.

Very well produced.

Great cinematography.

But I got to a point.

I'm like 30 seconds in. And I'm like, this looks like an absolute rock concert. But then it dawned on me that all these crazy shots going around. These singers and this cool shot behind the drums. Like, you know, up close.

And like...

He's like smiling at the camera. You know, sort of a thing. I was thinking to myself, the whole time this is going on during worship. Like, everyone's trying to worship. And you've got camera guys running around.

People with microphones. And all of this stuff. And it... I don't even know where I was going with that. Sorry, blue... Here's where I was going with it. Sorry. I'm getting there, Pastor James. Here's my point.

They're singing songs. And it's all about like uplifting. And it's all this like lights and show. And this is awesome. And yeah, we sing.

And we think like, oh, OK.

Yeah, I mean, we should be celebrating worshiping God. And I have a problem with the cameraman distracting like that. I think that's kind of weird. But like, could you sing in that service?

That song?

Because it's meant to be sung as worship. This is supposed to be something about God's character. And His holiness. That causes God's people to worship Him. That He hates all evildoers. He hates them.

I think most of the time in our lives, if we're honest, when we hate, we hate with an immoral hatred. It's truly sin. We have to repent of it. It's like murdering somebody in our hearts. Yeah. But there are other times, even as sinners, where I think we do hate with a righteous hatred.

Think about your response to the two gay men that adopted boys and then did things to their bodies and then sex trafficked them. Do you hate that? Is that repulsive to you? Do you loathe that? That's a righteous kind of hatred.

That's a good hatred.

Right?

That's an appropriate response. I must, as God's image bearer, hate that with a perfect hatred. The kind of hatred that He has for it. But the text says He hates all evildoers. Psalm 5 .5.

Or the popular one.

We could do this for a long time. But the popular one. We know it because we're good Calvinists. Romans 9 .13. Even as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but what? You know you're in a reformed church and everyone's like, I got that one.

I've seen the late flowers debate. Romans 9 .13. Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. That is quoting God. He says, I loved him and I hated him. And Dr. Bonson, when he spoke on this, brought this up.

What a mess we create as Christians at times when we think we need to protect God's reputation. We're like, oh no, no. He just means he loved Esau a little less.

Right?

Like he loved Jacob, but he just loved Esau a little bit less. Now that's not what the text says. It says he loved Jacob. He hated Esau. And never forget, whatever you think. And again, Bonson brings this up.

Whatever you think about the love less situation and all the ways you try to minimize the damage of the text. Esau went to hell. So it sounds like hatred to me. He chose to give grace to one and judgment to the other.