April 25 The God of Hate

April 25

The God of Hate

Ro 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved,

but Esau have I hated.

No!  No!  No!  God is a God of love. Everyone knows that. The Bible says so.

1Jo 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God;

for God is love.

So why the title “The God of Hate”? The purpose of today’s meditation is not that God hates people and is a fierce God filled with wrath. The purpose is to try to bring some balance back to our thinking.

The United States is rapidly moving into a culture where there is only one point of view. It is a culture of loving everything and everyone. I recently saw an ad on TV where a company ran an ad that offended the morals of a large part of the country and they received thousands of complaint letters. The letters were each rolled into a tube stood up on the floor where they were arranged to spell the word “Love”

See they responded to hate with love. That is the common response to Biblical thinking. If you are against murdering unborn babies (euphemistically called Abortion) then you hate women, do not believe women should have a choice, and are a mean, hateful, nasty, person.  The sad thing is there are so many church denominations that teach abortion (oh they call it “choice”) is a right of women. Even sadder the highest court in the US government agrees with them.

The exact same thing is happening with Sodomites. Oh dear that is an offensive term, I should have said Gay and Lesbians. But since the Bible calls them Sodomites and they were referred to in our laws as sodomites it seems like the most accurate term.

Laws are being passed that accept and protect the rights of sodomites. If you speak out against their vile and abominable sexual practices you are a hateful, unloving person. There are more and more churches that accept the sodomite life style as normal and wonderful and teach that God loves them and anyone who doesn’t love them is ungodly and hateful. Our courts continue to punish anyone who refuses to treat them as normal.

Bible believing Christians are being slowly boxed in by laws, the culture and liberal churches. Other religions are allowed to practice their beliefs, wear religious based clothing, do or not do what their religious beliefs teach. At the same time Christians are being denied the same freedom of religious expression. What happened to prayer at Commencement or religious comments in valedictorian speeches. Where are the ten commandments that used to hang on walls in public buildings. The government through 501c3 legislation even prohibit pastors in Bible believing churches from discussing a list of forbidden topics. I wonder if the same thing applies to mosques and other cults.  Even our soldiers cannot do or have certain things that would be offensive to the muslims in nations they are trying to protect. But our prisons must supply a Koran to Muslims that are incarcerated. And that is offensive to me!

All the above to say Christians are being squeezed out of the modern culture. The word love covers everything, except people who do not get in step with the popular culture of the day. It’s OK to hate them. But we must love sodomites, people who murder unborn children, and idol worshipping cults. The big lie is to try to justify all this by saying “That is what God would want us to do because God is a God of love.”

But God is also a God of judgment. The Bible says he hates some people.

Pr 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.    

The word abomination means “Intense hatred” according to Mr Webster.

So here we see God hates some things. A proud look, like you see on the faces of some teenage singing idols that are “loved” by millions, or some politicians, etc. 

A lying tongue. Lying is so common as to be expected from politicians, advertisers, and anything that deals with money or romance. More and more it is seen as normal and not a bad thing. But God hates it so much it is repeated in verse 19. A false witness that speaketh lies.

Hands that shed innocent blood. Does that mean God hates abortion?

The meditation for today has not been much fun to read. Sometimes we need to do the hard work of faith. Our God is a God of love and also a God of judgment. Our culture does not want to recognize that and would appreciate it if Bible believing Christians would just agree with them and forget all that Bible stuff. Popular theology teaches that God loves the sinner and hates the sin. But I think the fire and brimstone He dumped on Sodom did more than kill sin. It wiped out all the people. His judgment withheld the promised land from the disobedient people in the wilderness until they had all died except for two that were obedient. Even Moses didn’t make it! The Bible is filled with God's judgment on people.

It is not a new problem. Men have been trying to substitute good for evil and evil for good for centuries.  Christ was speaking with some Pharisees (big time church leaders of his day) about how bad they were. They did their best to justify themselves and when they couldn’t they tried to trick him into saying something that would make Him look bad. His response is our mediation for today.  

 Lu 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.