"There are six things the Lord hates..." (
Proverbs 6:16)
Driving has a way of bringing out the worst in us.
You know what I mean.
I was driving behind a car and spotted a bumper sticker on the fender that read, "Honk If You Love Jesus!" I honked. The driver gave me the finger.
I thought about that the other day when I cut somebody off at a busy intersection. The guy started honking, waving his arms, offering unkind gestures, and yelling. Though I couldn't hear him, I read his lips in the rearview mirror. He appeared to be enunciating quite clearly and convincingly. From what I could tell, his vocabulary would make a truck driver blush. So I slowed down. That got him really mad. And then I remembered the "Love God and Be Kind to One Another" bumper sticker on my fender. If it weren't for the "Real Men Wrestle at Valley" bumper sticker on the other side, he probably would have followed me into the grocery store.
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If you're like me, driving has a way of bringing out the worst in you. Have you ever wished you had a tank? Then they'd know who really owns the road! A bazooka would be nice on occasion. Ba-boom!
Somebody gave me this "Pocket Terminator" a few years ago. It's really great. It's designed to give you the feeling of blowing away the cars and drivers that really tick you off. It's got a tommy gun. It's got a ray gun. But my favorite is the missile launcher.
I was thinking of bringing it to session meetings.
Sometimes I'm glad I don't live in California. From what I hear, folks really carry those things with them while driving on the freeways.
Yes, driving has a way of bringing out the worst in us. It's that original sin thing. We've got this inclination within us that started way back in the garden with Adam and Eve to say and do things that are really bad. And every once in a while, something or somebody brings it out in us.
Strange as it may seem, God gets really ticked off too. Some things and some people have a way of bringing out a side of God that we want to overlook. No, God doesn't sin. Yet He gets very angry about sin.
Proverbs 6:16-19 puts it this way:
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.
I like the way Eugene H. Peterson paraphrased it:
Here are six things God hates, and one more that He loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.
Knowing God is love (
1 John 4:8), it's hard for us to think of God hating. So it's important to clarify God's hatred as focusing on what rather than who. God doesn't hate sinners (who) but He hates sin (what).