Life Ministries

Proverbs 6:16-19  “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

    I want to look briefly at these seven things under principle #11. How would you explain the difference between things you don’t like, and things you hate?  Sometimes we use the word “hate” when we ought to say “dislike.” For instance: “I hate it when someone drives too slow on the freeway”…or do you “dislike” it?  Do you dislike adultery or do you hate it? Do you dislike child abuse, or do you hate it?  To dislike something means that you may not like it but you can tolerate it; however, to hate or detest something goes much deeper than that.

    Proverbs 6:16-19 tells us that these are not things God dislikes, but things He hates! He detests them. The list is not all inclusive. It is only a representative portion of the whole. We know that Solomon could have listed far more, but they would all probably fall under one of these categories.

First, let’s look at “Haughty eyes.”  From Proverbs 21:4 “Haughty eyes and proud heart—the unplowed field of the wicked produce sin.” From Proverbs 16:18 – “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

    This is to say; looking from above down with disdain on those who are beneath you in value and significance. It indicates a swelling kind of pride that fills the heart and shows disdain for others, as if they were of less significance. Pride is the first thing God hates and it's listed first because it really is at the fountain of all kinds of sin. All kinds of sin, no matter what the sin, is reflected in pride; the attitude of disobedience and rebellion against God's Law. Everything else is sort of built on the basic iniquity of pride, or self-will. 

    Pride can be hidden in the heart as well as openly displayed. This is what causes racial, financial, and social prejudice. It is the Pharisee, who says, “Thank God that I am not like other men”…Over-valuing ourselves and under-valuing others is called “haughty eyes” and God hates it! Proverbs has a lot to say about eyes, and it links them here to a proud heart. “Haughty eyes,” says the writer, “produce sin.” So if you want wisdom, you don’t want haughty eyes.

    The word haughty comes from an old Anglo-French word, “haut”, which means “high,” and which comes from the Latin word altus, from which we get our word altitude. Putting all that together, we find that haughty eyes are the kind of eyes that look down at other people, as if the one looking down is “higher up” than or above others. At the heart of this again is the problem of comparing—we don’t just look down, we look down at other people as if they are lower or lesser than we are. Somehow we feel we need to prove that we are worth something, if for no other reason than to make sure we can identify someone who is worth less than we are. But, of course, that’s foolish. It leads to hurting others as well as ourselves.

    God says, “Don’t look down, look up. You are so worthwhile to me that I gave my Son so that I could have you for my children.” God doesn’t do this with haughty eyes; he does it with eyes of love. Our desperate need became his loving opportunity. Wisdom means we want to do the same with others because we have seen that look of love from God in Christ.