Can Hate Ever Be a Good Thing? (Proverbs 6:16-19)

At this time of year, we often review the major news stories of the year. Some good, some bad, some horrific. It is a season where the message of love, peace, and joy should leave us wondering how we can help to make this world a better place in the year to come for we are barraged with news stories of tragic acts of hate perpetrated against humanity. When we see attitudes and acts of hate, in the lives of others, we innately recoil in horror and condemn such as uncivilized and unacceptable. In America, we have gone so far as to establish special laws against hate crimes.

So how could we ever suggest that there is a time when hate could be good? Certainly not the kind of hate that harms or diminishes others, but what about hate that is motivated by great love and untainted wisdom?  I know it sounds strange. Yet, because God is love (1 John 4:8), and his love is steadfast and endures forever (e.g., Psalm 118:29), there are some things that the Lord hates.

King Solomon, using a uniquely Hebraic poetic style, expresses it this way…

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 breathes out lies,
    and one who sows discord among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16-19)

Why does the Lord hate these attitudes and actions?

Because they hurt everyone involved. God, in His love, desires what is best and right for all his creatures.

As a result, he fiercely opposes the work of the enemy—who comes only to steal, kill and destroy—wherever it is found.

It is the Holy Spirit, manifesting the love of God, who brings conviction—the knowledge of our own failures—so that we might turn again to the healing love of God in Christ.

At Christmas, we hear the story again, of how God came to earth… not with haughty eyes, a lying tongue, or justified acts of revolution, to accomplish a greater “good”. He did not feel compelled to resort to the devil’s tactics, but instead manifested the love of God.

Do you ever wonder why we can spot hate in others so much better than we can spot it in ourselves? I have. Sometimes I think we point out the failures in others because it is safer than looking at, and dealing with, our own.

• Do we look down on others, or feel entitled to something better than them?
• Are we quick confessors, ready to authentically admit our shortcomings, or is it more natural for us to lie to cover up our indiscretions? What’s worse, do we lie to God thinking that he falls for our deceptive reasoning? He doesn’t lie and doesn’t fall for our mind tricks either.
• Do we objectify others for the sake of our own needs? Not many of us would want to literally kill someone else, but when we waste their lives for our own pleasure and comfort we are in some way “shedding innocent blood.”
• How quick are we to do what we can get away with, to profit personally at the expense of others? Is our focus on defending our “right” to do what we want even when it is evil?
• Do we inflate our own qualifications and minimize those of others? Do we curate information to produce the results we desire without regard to accuracy?
• Do we in advancing our own causes stir up an unhealthy distrust among the brothers and sisters? Do we delight in planting fake news, erecting strawman arguments, curating conspiracies, cultivating cynicism, and harvesting division? We hate those “mean girls” and “jealous guys” who make the lives of others miserable. Let us not be like them. God’s purposes are not advanced by tearing down others to exalt ourselves, but by trusting God himself to make our name great.

Thankfully, God doesn’t ask us to do what he won’t do himself. Jesus Christ was the perfect manifestation of the invisible God—in that he revealed the heart, character, and mission of God to mankind. He came humbly not choosing to draw attention to himself. He always spoke honestly never placating people for his own advantage, and he went about healing and undoing the works of death—both physically and spiritually.

His new command was that his followers might “love one another” and thus prove he had been in their midst. While truth divides, Jesus never sowed discord, but instead advocated for forgiveness and reconciliation (e.g., Matt. 5:23-24; Mark 11:25). However, for that to take place perhaps we need a bit more heavenly hate for the attitudes and acts of pride and selfishness that sprout up like weeds in the gardens of our own hearts.

What do you think?

Voting for Nebuchadnezzar

[This article was originally posted on my Our Long View Blog if you want to see other messages like this.]

In last week’s message, we continued a study about glory. People were created to share in the glory of God but that all changed when man rebelled against God and sought his own glory instead. The true glory of God has been substituted, replaced with a cheap, knock-off pirated type of glory. In previous weeks, we had considered the limitations of both human and national glory. Here is a summary.

1) Human Glory Is Momentary (Psa. 39:5; 103:14; 144:4; Eccl. 3:20; Isa. 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:24; 1 Thess. 2:6). Man’s exile from the achingly beautiful presence of true glory has too often been dealt with not through seeking reconciliation with God, but by pursuing the lesser glory that comes from other people. Man’s residual glory, having been created in the Imago Dei, has been clouded and even at his best is momentary (Psa. 39:5; 103:14; 144:4; Eccl. 3:20; 1 Peter 1:24) and not something that should be sought (1 Thessalonians 2:6). We would do well to remember that our society tends to cannibalize its celebrities.  We build people up only so that we can tear them down. As Irenaeus said, humanity's true glory is to “remain permanently in God’s service.”^[1] Why is this the true glory of humanity? Because being in a relationship with the triune God is where we find our long-sought peace, our irreducible value, and our ultimate purpose as we are invited to participate in the inter-Trinitarian life of God through the Son by the Spirit.

2) National Glory Is Temporary (Genesis 11, Isaiah 37, 2 Kings 19). The Bible tells of many nations and empires rising and falling—Babel, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, etc. They might have been impressive from a human perspective, but their power and glory were not permanent. The Bible teaches that any nation raised up by God for a purpose, which fails to give God glory by functioning justly for all may serve a temporary purpose, but is soon judged and passes from the scene of history. It is a hard truth all “superpowers” must face. We should pray Daniel’s prayer of national repentance (Daniel 9).

Then last week we considered the dangerous distinctions of self-glory in a message from Acts 12:20-24.

3) Self-Glory Is Deceptive (Acts 12:23, Rev. 18:7-8) Self-glory is not only momentary but highly deceptive, promising better than it delivers and woefully understating the true cost (e.g., Acts 12:23; Revelation 16:9; 18:7), straight from the father of lies himself. 

A powerful example of this concept is found in the life of Nebuchadnezzar recorded in Daniel 3-4.

In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar (ruler of the vast Babylonian empire) tells, in his own words, what he had learned about God through the various signs and wonders that God had worked in and around his life. Daniel 3 tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar (or “Mr. Nezzar” as he is called in the VeggieTales version) throwing Daniel’s three friends into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down and worship the huge golden statue of the king. At the end of that narrative, the king declared,

“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” (Dan. 3:28-29)

This is a statement of a greatly changed worldview... even if his despotic Near-eastern proclamation against dissent doesn't match up with the steadfast love of God revealed in the Scriptures.

Then in Daniel chapter 4, the king received another dream from the Lord which he could not understand. Daniel had interpreted the first one for him and in this case, was again enabled by the Lord to interpret the dream. This time the dream functioned as a dire pronouncement of a coming humiliation for his great pride. Nebuchadnezzar was given a slim glimmer of hope, from Daniel, if he would “break off” his iniquities through...

1. By practicing righteousness, and establishing justice for all the people in the realm. It is especially contingent upon a leader to realize that the law of the land applies to themself as a ruler and to the people.
2. By showing mercy to the oppressed. He was “to show a new sensitivity to the plight of the poor in his empire, protecting them instead of allowing the rich to exploit and oppress them.” [EBC]

If he did this, then Daniel suggested that “there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.” It might have already been too late for Mr. Nezzar. However, he seemed to have complied for a year before looking at his vast capital and all the hanging gardens it contained and taking all the credit for himself…as politicians are wont to do. At that very moment, the justice and mercy of God were declared from heaven.

Nebuchadnezzar, 
by William Blake 1794

Daniel 4:28-33 tells the story of how  Nebuchadnezzar went on a “crazy trip” that lasted perhaps as long as seven years (There is a period in his reign that contains a gap in recorded activity from 581 to 573 BC except for the siege of Tyre which might easily have been continued in his absence) before his reason returned and he blessed God instead of himself. Not only that, but he writes of his own failures and sins of pride in his own words in Daniel 4. Just one chapter earlier he would have been the least likely candidate to give glory to the God of Israel in the eyes of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But now he declared the praise of God for all the world to hear!

Every politician is a Nebuchadnezzar, who has great power that can be used for good or for ill; who is also subject to take credit for successes while deflecting blame for failures.

I am amazed that a man who was basically the ruler of the world was humbled by the justice of God and restored by the mercy of God to the place where he could testify,

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven,

and my reason returned to me,

and I blessed the Most High,

and    praised and honored him who lives forever,

                      for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
                    and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
   all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
    and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
    and among the inhabitants of the earth;
    and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

…Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, 

praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, 

for all his works are right and his ways are just;

 and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. (Daniel 4:34-37)

Don't you wish our political leaders could say the same thing?

Nebuchadnezzar had a dark and violent past, he had taken the best and brightest of conquered nations captive to acculturate them to Babylonian ideals, and he had even enforced idolatrous worship. But he learned his lesson (after these seven years of exile), for the common good, and became a leader for whom I could vote. 

I have actively avoided campaigning for any particular candidate, but I am praying that our leaders today—Democrats, Republicans, Independents—will experience their own Nebuchadnezzar moment, lift their eyes towards heaven, humble themselves, and give glory to God so that they might rule well...with mercy and justice for all. 

---

[1] Joel C. Elowsky, ed. John 11-21 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture). Vol. IVb (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 176

"Choosy Moms Choose Jesus"?

I saw a church reader board sign recently on my commute. This is not uncommon as I like the “Dad-humor” mixed with a spiritual perspective so often expressed in such places. However, this one had me choking rather than chuckling. It simply read, "Choosy Moms Choose Jesus." OK... kind of catchy but also kind of wrong. Marketing Jesus by appealing to pride, exclusivity, consumerism, insecurities, and peanut butter? Well, I think he's OK with the peanut butter (cue the Washington Carver story).

If I were to write a blog post engaging this idea, which I am not likely to do… I would say that this well-intended reader-board wisdom is deficient on so many levels. In fact, I could probably list three or four ways right off the top of my hot head.

First, we don't choose Jesus, he chooses us. The Bible is pretty clear about this, and he didn’t choose us because we were “all that,” but because he is the kind of God that is outward-focused in his love. We were not in a place to help ourselves or with a ton of options, in fact, we were poor, sick, and weak. Here are a couple of passages that speak to this.

• Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? (James 2:5)

• For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

• (See Romans 11:5-6; 16:13; Col. 3:12;1 Thess. 1:4; 1 Peter 2:9-10; John 6:43-44).  

Second, even by bumper-sticker standards, this statement seems very impersonal and not very creative. Is Jesus merely a product to be bought, sold, selected, or rejected? Is such objectification a sign of spiritual maturity? No. He is a person to whom we must relate. He pours out his love on us—while we were yet sinners—and we must respond to that love one way or the other. However, our "choosiness" is not an advantage here. Honestly, there is much in the life of discipleship that is not easy and also much that is not held in high esteem by the court of public opinion. Having said all that, what does it say about "choosy Moms" by blatantly ripping off the Jif™ Peanut Butter marketing campaign? Perhaps choosy moms should choose more original tag lines, lest their children learn to plagiarize! Jesus is the creator of all so instead of copying the ideas of the dominant culture we would do well to be more creative and less given to accommodate the voice of another.

Third, the saying intends to play on the pride of a "choosy mom" and get her to choose Jesus to maintain her own sense of competence and bolster her self-image as a good mother. Ironically, it markets the programs of the church by appealing to a part of our person from which we must repent in order to fully experience the grace of God. It would seem to me, that the church’s reader board shoots its gospel mission in the foot with such a proclamation.

Fourth, the consumerism that is a great weakness of the contemporary church is in evidence here. People are often in a church for what they can get for their marriage, their family, and their own self-fulfillment instead of embracing and being embraced by God's family (the church) as they share life together over the long haul. That is a tragedy of a non-Trinitarian view of God being manifested in the church. We too often follow the "monad in our mind" that spins everything as revolving around us instead of realizing that we are only who we are in relationships with others. The church is a place for us to “...one another” because they need it and God is just that way.

“The concrete means by which the church becomes an echo of the life of the Godhead are all such as to direct the church away from self-glorification to the source of its life in the creative and recreative presence of God to the world.”[1]

Well, those are some of the seed thoughts I might try to communicate if I were to write a short blog about something as trivial as a reader board sign. I think I’ll make a peanut butter sandwich instead.

[1] Colin E. Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (New York: T & T Clark, 1997), 81.