Divine Disgust – The Crooked Heart

Divine Disgust – The Crooked Heart.

“Enough! How long will you defend the evil-doers? How long will show kindness to those who do wicked things? You’re here to defend the defenseless, to give justice to the weak and fatherless, to maintain the rights of the oppressed and needy. Your job is to rescue the powerless and stand up for them, to deliver them from all who exploit them!” (Psalm 82:2-4).

As we continue to grow in our relationship with God, we discover that we yearn to progress in loving what God loves and hating what God hates.  If we are not growing in those two areas of God’s character, it’s doubtful we even have a relationship with God to begin with. Following the example of Jesus in the gospels, loving the sinner while hating the sin itself is crucial to our growing in the character of the Lord. If God finds certain behavior morally disgusting, but we find it acceptable, then we are not where we should be. It might be surprising to realize that God can have hate in His heart. We know that God is full of love, that He is in fact Love. But hate? That is a difficult concept to digest. But think about it more, and it starts to make sense. Like the Father He is, God loves us so much that He hates whatever might be destructive to us, whatever might come to harm us or our relationship to Him. God’s hatred for evil comes out of His eternal protective instinct. Another thing to think about… God is purely righteous, virtuous, filled with goodness through and through. Out of His goodness, He established a moral universe. Since the profoundly tragic fall of mankind, the overall moral universe remains, but immorality has to be dealt with and judged. Because of the way God created the world, there are rights and wrongs, the moral and immoral, the righteous and the unrighteous. God hates the wrongs. It’s no wonder the early Christians called them the ”deadly sins.” God wants to give us life, the evil one wants to give us death. God hates whatever might be deadly to us. God hates whatever in the world was not a part of His righteous plan for the world. Simply put, God’s hate comes out of His righteous love for us and His world. Yes, God hates. But He hates whatever is worth hating. God speaks plainly in His Word about what He loves and what He hates, about what God embraces and what He rejects. The category entitled “Divine Disgust” is intended to be a biblical catalogue of what God hates, what God finds abominable. Naturally, as we are becoming aware of what God hates, we will also learn what God loves. The truth is, if we are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus and thus the character of God, we show our fearful love of God by joining Him in hating what is evil. (Proverbs 8:13). Or as the Psalmist says, “Let all those who love the Lord hate evil! (Ps. 97:10).

“Those with a crooked (“iqqesh”) heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those who are blameless (“tamiym”) in their ways are His delight (urasownow”).”

There are a few important Hebrew words in this interesting proverb, and three of them are noted above. These two words, for crooked and blameless, can be interpreted in many similar ways while still arriving at the same basic truth. That third word, for abomination, is translated above. So it turns out that this interesting proverb can be translated many different ways and still arrive at the same basic truth. Here are some of the legitimate variations:

• They who are perverse in heart are extremely disgusting in the eyes of the Lord, but He is very pleased with anyone who walks with integrity.
• Deceitful hearts are utterly vile to the Lord Yahweh, but those who are undefiled are a source of pleasure for Him.
• God will stand against those with a twisted mind, but He will take pleasure in those with a sound, healthy mind.
• The Lord detests the people who have purposely developed a perverted heart, but he takes joy in those with unblemished hearts.
• Yahweh will remain in opposition to anyone with a warped or distorted heart, but He will extend goodwill towards the person who is sincerely upright in his ways.
• The Lord will be an enemy of anyone with a deceitful mind, but He will show favor to the person who follows the right way.
• Depraved hearts are abhorrent to Yahweh, but dear to Him are those whose hearts are wholesome.
• God can’t stand those who are perverted, but He relishes those who are upright.
• Devious people are disgusting to the Lord, but He favorably accepts those who are innocent and genuine.
• “The Lord hates the stubborn heart bent toward evil, but He treasures those whose ways are pure.” (TPT).

There are three Hebrew words for “delight” in the Jewish Bible (the O.T.):

1. chaphets: to lean towards; to incline towards; to delight in; to take pleasure in; to be pleased with; to have favor for; for example, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of His servant.” (Ps.35:27).
2. anag: soft, tender; delight; high degree of pleasure; heart is soft towards that which is delightful; heart is tender towards that which is pleasing; for example,“Delight yourself in the Lord.” (Ps. 34:7).
3. Urasownow: to take pleasure in; to show favor towards; to be pleased with; to delight in; to reveal goodwill towards.

Imagine the Father as He smiles in delight while enjoying His Son carrying on the Family tradition. Imagine the Creator taking pleasure as he playfully fashions creation, dreaming up everything from the ostrich to the octopus to the platypus. Imagine God as He delights in watching His beloved children grow, learn, and mature. Imagine Yahweh as He takes pleasure in sharing His character with the world He has made, multiplying His goodness.

But Scripture is clear… God takes special delight in those who follow Him and love Him and serve Him. God-followers are His “special treasure” (Deut. 7:6), His chosen people, and therefore have a unique destiny. Those who reject God are still loved by God, but the Lord has not included them as His “precious possession.” (Ps. 135:4). Let’s look at it this way… Good parents unconditionally love all their children, and never stop loving all of them. But they take special delight in those children who have made good decisions, who continue a family tradition of righteousness and goodness, reflecting the values of the parents. The point of the Christian family is to spread God’s light, and those people who decide to participate in that process provide a special delight to God. Parents don’t reject the family rebels, it’s just that the rebellious ones don’t give the parents quite as much to delight in.

I believe that there is something interesting to keep in mind: Believers have to contend with the wiles of the devil. And the evil one loves the idea of taking God’s gifts are warping them, twisting them, perverting them into tools of the enemy. For examples:

• God has gifted us with heavenly vision, and the devil would like to make us spiritually blind to God’s insights, and unable to see the needy around us who need God’s love;
• God gave us the ability to listen to God and to others, and the devil is in the business of blocking our er canals to make us deaf to words of wisdom and divine direction;
• God gifted us with speech, but the evil one loves nothing better than to make it easy for us to speak with cruelty, ignorance and foolishness;
• God has provided millions of nerve cells for us to participate in the ministry of touch, just like Jesus, and Satan wants to twist that gift for healing and innocent pleasure into hands of violence, impurity and unrighteousness;
• God gifted us with the astounding gift of the mind and clear thinking, and the devil desperately tries to diminish the mind of Christ within us and replace it with uncontrolled deceit, anger, and depravity;
• God gave each of us the miracle of the human body, and instead of using our bodies for works of righteousness and virtue, he wants us to use our bodies dishonorably and irresponsibly.

Character Description of the Devil. Does this look like the sort of person you would find trustworthy? Would you want to befriend or even become a casual acquaintance of this sort of person? Is this the sort of person you would ever invite into your life even to a minimum degree? The right answer is NO… He wants to assume the throne of the Most High God; he hates the truth; he wants to take life out of people and replace it with death; he accuses the innocent and slanders the godly; he tells nothing but lies; he loves to thwart the purposes of God and hinder the gospel; he loves to antagonize the followers of Jesus; he is poised to tempt those in their weak moments; he is always prowling for those who are vulnerable; he is a master of disguise; he counterfeits that which is good and perverts what is pure; he spawns evil through those who are fooled into following him; he would deceive the whole world if he could; he loves to mar and deface that which is beautiful; he loves to be smooth and alluring and convincing in his temptations; he overflows with ambition and pride; he wants to embrace all the glory due to God and desires for all to worship him alone; he will be accountable to no one but himself; he is the original trickster, sneaky, and plays dirty; he knows now that Jesus came into the world to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and works extra hard to bring as many as he can down with him to his eternal doom.

Titles in Scripture for the Devil. One look at these titles and names given to the devil, and there can be  no question about why he is slated for eternal damnation: the Father of Lies (John 8:44); the Adversary, Satan (1 Peter 5:8 and over 50 times in NT); the Ruler of Darkness (Eph 6:12); the Accuser of the Brethren (Rev. 12:10); the Enemy (Matt. 13:39, Luke 10:18-19); the Slanderer, the Devil (given 38 times in NT); Ruler of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2); the King of Death (Heb. 2:14); Prince of this world (John 12:31); the Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24); the Great Dragon (Rev. 12:9); the Ancient Serpent (Rev. 12:9, 2 Cor. 11:3); the Angel of the Bottomless Pit (Rev. 9:11); the Tempter (Matt.4:3); the false Angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14); the Roaring Lion (1 Peter 5:8); the Ruler of Demons (Matt. 12:24); the Evil One (Matt. 6:13); the Murderer (John 8:44); the Daystar and Son of the Morning, Lucifer (Isaiah 14:2); the Shining One, Lucifer (Isaiah 14:2); the Worthless One, Belial (Deut. 13:14, 1 Sam. 2:12, Ps. 18:4, Ps. 41:8); the Deceiver of the whole world (Rev. 12:9); the Destroyer, Apollyon (Rev. 9:11, Ps. 17:4, 1 Cor. 10:10)).

Remember, the crooked heart is the product of the devil with our cooperation. We need to ask our good Father to take what is crooked in us and turn it into God’s highway, straight and true. That will bring pure delight to the Lord.