Thought
for the Day – Friday 14th August
‘16 These
are six things the Lord hates,
seven things that really disgust him:
17 arrogant eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that run quickly to do evil,
19 a false witness who breathes lies,
and a person who spreads conflict between brothers.’
(Proverbs
6: v16-19)
The book of
Proverbs is full of interesting passages but the one included today is
particularly interesting. We know God
hates sin but this passage highlights the types of sin that God possibly hates
most. It would be a lengthy exercise to go
into each of these in detail here but I will put forward some brief examples
for your consideration.
When thinking of
‘arrogant eyes’, my mind takes me to some of the baddies that feature in movies,
particularly in films about the second world war but I’m choosing to include an
amusing story instead, in relation to this particular verse: ‘A young woman said to her Pastor, “I have become aware of a
sin in my life which I cannot control. Every time I am at church I begin to
look around at the other women, and I realise that I am the prettiest one in
the whole congregation. None of the others can compare with my beauty. What can
I do about this sin?” The pastor replied, “Mary, that’s not a sin, why, that’s
just a mistake!’
I have become more aware in the past few years that the news
we get each day is the news that those who run Television and newspapers decide
we should get. It can be filtered in a
manner that suits the owner’s agendas. In
this case, maybe the ‘lying tongue’ could also cover manipulating or withholding
the truth and this also extends to politicians.
‘For hands that shed innocent blood’ Earlier in the week, we
briefly considered the wonders of creation.
In this day and age, we have people breeding lions so that rich people
can come to Africa and pay lots of money to shoot them and take their ‘trophy’
back home. We still have Chinese people
paying poor Indians a pittance to kill tigers so that the Chinese can
manufacture medicines containing tiger bone.
Both animals magnificent examples of God’s creation being abused/driven
to extinction for profit.
‘A person who spreads conflict between brothers’; this is
essentially a gossip, a stirrer and a person who gets their kicks seeing and
creating conflict or bad feeling between others.. This person could be regarded
as a catalyst of conflict or someone who can create a reaction without actually
appearing to take part.
An old testament reading every bit as relevant today as it was all
those years ago when it was written.
We thank you Lord that you
love us despite our weaknesses and despite the times worldly temptations get in
the way of us doing the right things. We
thank you that you are a forgiving God.
Help us avoid being in any way associated with the seven actions that
scripture teaches us you hate and, if it is within our power, help us to help
others avoid the same. We would also ask
that you would come into the lives of those in authority, of those who are in
the position to influence society and cause them to tell the truth and make
decisions for the greater good and not for personal gain. Amen.
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