God loves truth!

GOD IS TRUTH!

Thus, God hates lying.

Specifically … “a false witness that speaketh lies.” Proverbs 6:19

The term “false witness” seems, to me anyway, to speak of some kind of “official” setting, like maybe a courtroom. Or a “serious” conversation. Or pertaining to some “legal” document. And certainly when filing an affidavit of some sore, while “under oath.”

But still, it’s wrong to lie about anything!

One’s age.

One’s intentions.

One’s past.

Anything!

“a false witness that speaketh lies.”

The adjective “false” is “sheqer” and comes from a root verb meaning “to trick, to cheat.” So this is not lying in ignorance. Or mistakenly reporting an event as you thought it occurred. This is deliberately misleading someone!

The noun “witness” is “ed” in Hebrew, two consonants, with a “pointed” vowel underneath the first. It is derived from a word meaning “to repeat, to return, to go around.” I believe the idea here is one of constancy! Saying something (here a lie) over and over again. Saying it so often that it becomes your “testimony” about any given situation. Your “witness.”

But notice, according to the Bible clause we’re analyzing, a man is a “false witness” before he ever speaks! This is his “heart” condition! And God knows the heart!

Look now at what this person (with a lying heart) does. He “speaks!”

He or she spreads their falsehoods.

And here we have a very unusual word for “speaking!” Only found 14 times in all the Bible, amazing! “Puach” means “to breath, to exhale, to blow,” then “to utter.” Thus “to speak” 6 times in God’s Word, including our Text today.

The man is “speaking” lies, spreading his very essence, his very breath, as he does!

In other words, LIARS lie!

The verb “speaketh” is also an “imperfect” (Hebrew grammar) verb … meaning the action is not yet complete! This person lies and lies and lies!

And even the noun “lies” is atypical. “Kazab” (only 31 times in the Bible) means “to lie” of course. But in the sense of “vanity.” Eventually his words will be discovered to be “vain,” empty, useless!

Truth will prevail!

“a false witness that speaketh lies.”

Wow!

There’s a “world” of preaching and a lifetime of living in those few little words!

Christianity, the religion of truth!

Christians, the practitioners of truth!

No wonder Jesus could say, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.” John 14:6

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

And the list goes on …

I will capitalize (both to identify it and to emphasize its importance) today’s “sin!”

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, FEET THAT BE SWIFT IN RUNNING TO MISCHIEF, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” This list is found at Proverbs 6:16-19.

Now let me try to explain … “feet that be swift in running to mischief.”

The noun used here for “mischief” is spelled “ra” in Hebrew, and is pronounced “rah.” But it means so much more than what we call “mischief” today! It’s the ancient Jewish word for stark “evil!” For something “malignant!” It also carries a tinge of not just BEING “evil,” but DOING “evil” as well … maliciously harming others!

The verbal expression (an infinitive in Hebrew) “running” is “rutzs,” naturally meaning “run” or “run away” 74 of the 104 times it appears in Scripture. It also 14 times means “to guard” something. Here this wicked man is “protecting, savoring, delighting in” evil!

Next … the piel (verbal unit again) stem “mahar” is translated “swift” in our verse. This particular stem (piel) means that “great energy” is being expended in this pursuit of wickedness! And 44 times the idea of “haste” is emphasized with “mahar.” But “headlong” once, as well as “rash” once! Committed to sin, regardless of logic or dissuasion, NO MATTER WHAT!

And the noun “feet” (in Hebrew “ragal,” derived from a verb often meaning “to spy!”) indicates a “curiosity” about evil! I read this week a phrase, “the taste of forbidden fruit.” These feet are headed to that enchanted orchard! Post haste!

Also the “feet” in Scripture are often emblems of one’s “habitual lifestyle.” As Paul’s famous Ephesians 4:1 passage illustrates. “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye WALK WORTHY (the feet being involved) of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.” Live seeking to please the Lord!

Truly … our Proverbs “phrase” today makes my feet want to walk in the way of the Lord!

After all, God HATES “feet that be swift in running to mischief.”

We used to sing a little chorus in Sunday School (when I was just a young boy) … “Be careful little feet where you go!” Does anyone remember that tune?

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Number four on the list … “a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations” … is not quite as precise as the first three.

But we do have to remember that (in the Hebrew mind) one’s “heart” does not just pump blood. It is also the seat of one’s thinking. Jesus believes so too. “And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man (Jesus) blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore THINK YE EVIL IN YOUR HEARTS?” Matthew 9:3-4

Solomon also, in Proverbs 23:7 wrote: “For as he (the wicked man) THINKETH IN HIS HEART, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.”

So, back to our Text, God hates anyone whose heart thinks upon evil or wicked things. Thinks on them constantly, anyway. Habitually, as a lifestyle.

“This thing doth the Lord hate … a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations.”

Now, what does the verb “devise” mean? Spelled “charash” in Hebrew, it means “to plough, to engrave, to cut into something.” Then it comes to mean “to imagine” something. TO THINK UPON A MATTER SO MUCH THAT IT BECOMES SECOND NATURE TO YOU. YOU SELDOM GET IT OUT OF YOUR MIND. YOU ALLOW THAT WICKED THOUGHT TO “MAKE A RUT” IN YOUR MENTAL LANDSCAPE!

Wow!

Even the word “wicked” is interesting here. “Aven” indeed means “wickedness,” but is derived from a root verb meaning “to pant!” So it represents sin about which a man gets “excited!” He is that “fervent” (to the point of breathing hard) in his pursuit of unrighteousness!

And “imaginations?” Long noun, “machashabah.” Once (yes, only one time in the whole Bible) I noticed it means “inventions!” Six times it means “purposes.”

Yes, today there are people who “invent” new ways of being wicked.

New avenues of leading people astray!

Ways of alluring people away from God and His Word!

And … GOD HATES THEM!

Let’s pray. “O Lord, let our hearts think on good things! On things true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. We sincerely ask this in Jesus’ Name.” Based on Philippians 4:8.

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Remember, you can visit our “personal” Page each morning too! I’ve named it “Standing with the Bagwells.” How else might you learn that this morning’s Lesson is being written from a motel room (Holiday Inn Express) in Reidsville, North Carolina? Where I am preaching a Revival Meeting.

Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven “Things God Hates.”

Today we discuss the Bible concept of “innocent blood.” Particularly the wrongful (abominable) “shedding” of innocent blood.

Proverbs 6:16-17, read these two verses. “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and HANDS THAT SHED INNOCENT BLOOD ….” And the list goes on! Another way of saying, “More tomorrow!”

The noun (Hebrew) used here for “hand” is “yad.” To give you a fuller “sense” of its meaning, the very word is also translated “power” 12 times in het OLD testament (King James Version).

It can also indicate a hand holding something, here a “weapon” one supposes. Since bloodshed is in the context. (The Hebrew word for an open hand is “kaph,” translated “hand” 127 times but “palm” 5 times and “hollow” 3 times.)

God hates … hands that shed innocent blood.

To “shed” blood (in Hebrew “shaphak”) means “to pour” it upon the ground, or somewhere. The “time” idea here (a participle) hints at habitual action. This person is a serial blood-shedder!

Murder!

Manslaughter!

Homicide!

Maybe even suicide!

God hates such!

But, exactly, what is “innocent blood?”

The expression occurs 19 or 20 times in Scripture.

It means to harm someone (invasively so, wounding them) who does not deserve to be so treated. Like little unborn babies! Like the clerk at a convenience store who was working that Friday night the robber attacked! Like a terrorist bomber might kill (an unsuspecting bystander) at a bus stop!

God, in the Pentateuch, expected Israel to punish murderers who had so shed “innocent blood.” According to Deuteronomy 19:13 “innocent blood” cries out to God for vengeance, retribution, punishment upon the perpetrator.

Judas Iscariot himself, in feigned remorse, claimed that he (by selling the Lord Jesus) had “betrayed innocent blood!” Matthew 27:4 is the reference.

Unsolved murders in our culture, that innocent blood, just may be asking God to judge our land. Here’s God talking to the first human murderer: “What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Genesis 4:11

Yes, blood is that “special” to God.

By the way, Jesus’ Blood saves us from sin.

And anyone who rejects that pristine “Innocent Blood” … will pay for their rebellion eternally!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

God actually hates “A LYING TONGUE.”

So says the Bible, King Solomon nonetheless, in Proverbs 6:17. This deceitful thing is number two in a list of seven abominations, in God’s Eyes.

The noun “tongue” is pretty simple, “lashon” in Hebrew. Pronounced “law-shone,” with the accent on the last syllable. While once the word is translated “flame” in the King James Version of Scripture (how appropriate, a “fire”), most often (98 times) it is expressed “tongue.” But 10 more times it is “language.”

The modifier “lying” is spelled “sheqer” (“sheh-ker,” this time accenting the first syllable). It fundamentally means “deceit or deception.” Something “false.” The Greek Septuagint uses the word “adikos” for “lying” here, a tongue that’s “not righteous.” Or genuinely “evil, wicked.”

Our words must be quite important to God. Because in this list, this short compilation of “Things God Hates,” possible “sins of the mouth” occur yet again! “A false witness that speaketh lies,” certainly involving more verbal perversion! And just maybe “He That Soweth Discord Among The Brethren” uses the mouth as well! That would be three out of seven. No wonder Jesus taught: “But I say unto you, That EVERY IDLE WORD that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For BY THY WORDS thou shalt be justified, and BY THY WORDS thou shalt be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37

So the “crux” of today’s Lesson?

Be truthful!

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote: “Wherefore putting away lying, SPEAK EVERY MAN THE TRUTH with his neighbor.” Ephesians 4:25

Yes, God still hates lying.

If fact, “God cannot lie,” according to Titus 1:2.

And for emphasis, Hebrews 6:18 declares: “It is impossible for God to lie.”

Enough has been said.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell