The Things That God Hates (3) // Wisdom That Works, Part 9

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

There are two things that most of us really hate. Firstly - someone who lies, who bears false witness. And secondly, someone who sows discord in a family - and not only do we hate those things but God hates them too. With a vengeance. And if God hates them, well, maybe they’re worth steering clear of, don’t you think?

There are some things that my beautiful wife, Jacqui, hates. She hates it when I show indifference to her new shoes that she's just bought. She hates it when I'm a bit too hard with our daughter. She hates it when I don't take the time to listen to her and understand her.

There aren't many things like that but those would be just about at the top of her hit parade. Now I'm your typical male and just quietly between you and me, shoes, well you know, to me shoes are something you put on your feet to stop them from getting cut up and dirty and cold and the only reason to buy new shoes is because your old ones have a hole in them.

I can hear all the women saying, "See, typical male." Well, I'm sorry, I am. So over the years I've been trying to learn not to do things that I know Jacqui is going to hate. I still do sometimes of course as I'm sure she'd tell you, it's still very much a work in progress for me. But I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that I don't want to do things that upset her.

I love her and so I'm trying to learn not to do those things, a slow a learner as I may seem to her to be. And it's the same with God. There are certain things that God hates. He hates them with a vengeance. They're an abomination to Him and I don't know about you but I love God and the last thing I want to do is to do the things that God hates.

So, over the last couple of days in this series of messages called Wisdom That Works we've been looking at the 7 things that God hates. Let me read them again to you, Proverbs chapter 6 beginning at verse 16:

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to do evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely and one who sows discord in a family.

Now we've managed so far to chat about all of those except the last two, the lying witness who testifies falsely and the one who sows discord in a family.

Now law courts are not a place where I've spent a lot of time. Once for a car accident when I was aged 19, several times with soldiers who'd been charged with this or that when I was an officer in the army and once to be sworn in as a Justice of the Peace.

I've never, for instance, been at a murder trial or anything serious like that but I can imagine the gravity of proceedings in a serious trial. There's a lot at stake, justice itself is at stake, that there should be a fair trial with a burden of proof resting with the prosecution. The defendant is on trial; his or her whole future depends on the outcome.

Imagine if an innocent person were convicted and to some extent the victim or the victim's family or both depending on the nature of the alleged crime, in a sense they feel a bit on trial too. For them a large part of the process of healing and recovery involves justice being done.

So imagine in a highly charged, high stakes trial for a major crime with so much at stake, imagine that a crucial witness lies. And as a result there's a miscarriage of justice either in one direction or in the other. That's something of an abomination isn't it? We can totally understand why God would hate this and yet people lie all the time in day to day life.

They say and do things in the work place that will get their work colleagues in trouble. They tell the boss one thing when something entirely different has actually occurred. "Oh well, that's not the same as lying under oath in a murder trial."

But what God's saying to us here through Solomon in this Book of Proverbs, what He's saying is, "oh yes it is. It is exactly the same thing. It is an abomination to me when you as a witness bear false witness. It is something I hate."

I trust you find that a bit of insight into Gods nature and Gods wisdom as sobering as I do. Last week we saw Solomon kick off this wisdom book of Proverbs with a statement that:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I trust that it’s become clear why he said that. You know we start bearing false witness quite early in our lives. Of course I never blamed my sister for something I'd done wrong, not much. Of course I did and I'm sure if you had brothers or sisters you've been both on the receiving end and the dishing out end of that little equation.

And that leads us to the last of the seven things in this list of things that are an abomination to God. Someone who sows discord in a family. Families are such a precious thing. Hard sometimes isn't it to be part of a family? Whether it's a husband, wife with stresses and strains of modern life tearing away at their marriage. Conspiring, seemingly, to pull them apart.

Or the pressures of bringing up the children and holding down a job and paying the mortgage and putting food on the table. And as I remember it's not particularly easy being a child growing up in a family either some days.

As we move into those teenage years we want to spread out our wings and have our own way and yet we're still subject to the authority of our parents which is why so often there is conflict in families.

I guess the point that I'm making here is that there is already so much going on in life that puts pressures on our families and the last thing a family needs is pressure from within. The last thing a family needs is a husband and a father who is so domineering that his wife's personality is being suffocated or his children are being provoked.

The last thing a family needs is a mother who doesn't show respect to her husband and who undermines his authority in front of the children. And the last thing a family needs are children who deliberately set about rebelling against and dishonouring their parents.

In each of those cases it's about sowing discord into the family and it's like sowing seeds for weeds. Those weeds grow and they thrive and they take over the good fruit that should be growing in a family. I know that relationships in families can be highly charged and that's why, listen to this, that's why God hates it when we sow discord in families.

Husbands, love your wives. Wives, honour and respect your husbands. Mums and dads nurture love and discipline your children and children, obey and honour your parents. This is not complicated. And in living out our lives that way, in a family, that's how we honour God, that's how we show that this family who believes in Jesus, who professes a faith called Christianity is different from the rest.

Is a family ever going to be perfect? No. Am I ever going to be 100% perfect father? No. I'm me and I'm going to make mistakes just as you do. But friend when we set about being peace makers in the home, when we turn the other cheek, when we discipline our children out of love rather than out of anger and resentment then what we're doing is we're sowing good seed that will bear good fruit.

I know that this is a journey this wisdom thing. I know it's frustrating and I know that to sow peace rather than discord involves sacrifice and pain sometimes. But it's pretty obvious isn't it? All seven things in that list that God hates, that list of abominations, each one is obvious. Let's listen to it again one last time:

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are abominations to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely and one who sows discord in a family.

My friend, none of those are complicated. None of those are rocket science. None of those are up for grabs or up for debate or they shouldn't be in that list. They are clear, they are unequivocal, they are wrong and God hates them.

I want to encourage you to take this list on board. Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16 to 19. The seven things that God hates, they're an abomination to Him. Hey, let’s avoid them.