Proverbs 6:16-19

 

A 20 week old fetus, as seen at the Body Works Exhibit

Taken from The Message

^16-19 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.

These six things are enemies to God, in fact these seven things are detestable, an abomination, to the Lord.  Let’s look at them:

Arrogant eyes: Here the word for arrogant means “exalted , lifting up”. As we lift ourselves up through our own ideas and ideology,  imagine interacting with the world from your self imposed high places.  Imagine that you HAVE TO look down on everyone else when you have raised yourself up above them.  

Arrogant: having an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or ability.  We can see that this would stop the Body of Christ from working together…you can’t join hands and hearts when others are lifted out of reach.  Arrogant hearts seem to come at life through the lens that they are always right, and don’t seem to have a teachable spirit.  It is hard to learn, and have fellowship,  with one that has elevated self .  They are always out of reach and looking down their noses upon the masses at their feet.. Arrogance is not unifying, but dividing. Arrogance stakes one sheep against the herd- isolated, alone and easy pickin’s for the enemy.

Jesus came and donned human sandals, walking through the dust of earth to interact and save His Bride.  What right, under what circumstances could we feel justified to elevate ourselves?  It seems that the second we think we “have arrived” we are really just getting started. 

Arrogance divides it does not unify the Body.

A Tongue that lies: I always tell my kids that as long as they tell the truth, I will back them and be behind them.  The second that they lie, I can’t trust what comes out of their mouth. I don’t think that white lies are ok, or lies that get us out of sticky situations.  Lying is lying and once there is a  step over that line – nothing can be trusted that comes from these lips.

You know, this call of holy obedience to the ordinary is not the easy path.  But easy doesn’t change the world or transform the heart. It is easy to call in “Sick” to work when you are exhausted and just need a day off.  But, that is really a little white lie.  There is no such thing- a lie is a lie. Start walking towards the door of seduction that is labelled “Acceptable lying” and soon truth and lies become so intertwined they are intangible as separate entities.  The house of cards is fragile when it is built through a liars tongue.

A liar can never be trusted and will divide the Body of Christ.

Hands that murder the innocent.  I have to take you back a few weeks to a day that I took my art students to a museum exhibit called “Body Works”.  There were bodies there that went through process of plastination after their death.  There were babies, starting at week old embryos. They had babies there that were 12 weeks old – still a legal age for abortion. I wept over the cases as I thought of these little babies being torn limb from limb as they are extracted from the safety of their mother’s womb.  I wept at the 20 week old human forms that I looked at that would not be considered a viable life. Perfectly formed, beautiful little, innocent babies are being dismembered and discarded in medical waste. I wish everyone that is going into a clinic would see these little bodies and know what the little miracle looks like that is growing inside.  Would that change the mind of a mother’s heart for her unborn child? Would adoption be an alternative?

What if you had an abortion when you were younger?  If a family member had an abortion? A friend?  There is grace and healing and forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb.   There is always forgiveness offered when we enter into His courts through a repentant, contrite heart.

To see these, actual babies that have died, and how perfectly formed they are, one has to question what we are allowing as a nation, and the Dr’s that are performing these “operations”.  Murdering the innocent.  Solomon’s words take on a whole new meaning for me today as I ponder the little lives that helped educate others through the birth process, from3 week old embryo to a precious little full term baby.  There little bodies were donated to science to educate us. I wept and wept as I was “educated” to the medical practice that is allowed in our world.