Rabbi Schneider - Things the Lord Hates
Yahweh is a person, and we can grieve Him and hurt Him. And I want to continue down this trail today by taking a deep look in Scripture, according to Yahweh Himself, about the things that humankind can do that hurt Him. "There are six things which the Lord Yahweh hates. Yes, seven which are abomination to Him". So what's the point? Yahweh said, "You've grieved me" in Genesis chapter 6. The Lord said, "You hurt me" in Ezekiel chapter 6.
And now we're saying, what are the things that you and I need to guard our hearts against so that we don't find ourselves amongst those that hurt and grieve Yahweh and His spirit? Don't you want to know that? Don't you want to know what hurts and grieves God? So you can guard your life from it? and know that as you do, put into place those measures to keep your relationship with Yahweh connected. It means that oftentimes you'll be separated from other people because the world is going one way and God's children are going another way.
So realize there is a price to pay and just get ready to pay that cost. And when you do pay a cost to love Him and be in fidelity to Him, even if that means you're rejected by the world, you should rejoice because you're sharing in the sufferings of Jesus, who was rejected and crucified by the world. Jesus said, "If the world rejects me, they're going to reject you". And we've been chosen not only to reign with Yeshua, but to suffer with Him. So recognize that to be separate from the world, to be different, to be separate because of your fidelity to Yahweh means that you're going to be excluded by the world.
Jesus said, "If you were of the world, the world would love you". If you act like the world, if you dress like the world, if you talk like the world, if you entertain yourself with the world, Jesus said the world's going to love you because the world loves its own. If you're of the world, Jesus said, the world would love you. But because I chose you on the world, said Yeshua, therefore the world hates you. So I just want you to get ready. If you're serious about your relationship with God, you've got to count the cost and recognize that there's a price to pay and make a decision to happily bear the cross, the cross of the world's reproach because of your love for Jesus. And know that there's a great reward coming.
So here we go. What hurts Yahweh? "There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven, which are an abomination to Him". And now we're going to list them. We're going to go through each one. "Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers". Seven things Yahweh hates. Let's take a look at them.
Number one, haughty eyes. What does this mean? To carry yourself with a puffed-up heart, to look down upon other people, to judge other people. Just pride is basically what it is. But if you think about it, how many social contexts have you been in where either you had a haughty spirit or somebody that you were with had a haughty spirit and the person that you were with had a haughty spirit and you just kind of like rolled with it all.
But God hates it. Because you and I, we are what we are by the grace of God. Whatever we have that's good, we only have for one reason, because Yahweh gave it to us. Are you smart? You don't look down upon people that aren't maybe as intelligent or as gifted to you in some type of intellectual context, because you know what? You're only who you are because the Lord made you that way. We are humble. We humble ourselves. Everyone's our brothers and sisters.
So Yahweh hates when His people carry themselves with a haughty spirit, you know, putting others down. You understand what that is. Haughtiness. Then the Lord continues. A lying tongue. Six, Yes, seven things which the Lord hates. The next one he lists is a lying tongue. Are you aware of things that are coming out of your mouth that aren't really authentic or true, but yet you say them because you want to fit in?
I'm not putting anybody down, but I want you to examine yourself just as I am continually examining myself. Are you even laughing at jokes that people say that you don't even think are funny or even are an insult to God because you just want to be accepted? You know, when you laugh at a lie, you become a liar, even if it's just a gesture. Even if you nod your head to something that's untrue because you don't want any emotional tension in a relationship, any social tension, you've become, in a sense, part of a lie. It's a lying spirit.
And you know what? This is a problem that many of us have to be careful about. Exaggeration. Exaggerating a circumstance. Exaggerating telling about a circumstance. Exaggeration is lying. And if we say something that's not true just because we want to appease people around us or because we're afraid of the consequences of telling the truth, you know what? We're living in the spiritual dynamic of a lie. We must be truthful. The Bible says that the church is the pillar of truth in the earth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
I want you to be aware, and even as I apply this to my own life, I want you to be aware of the words that come out of your mouth. Are they authentic, and are they true? Are they truly true? And sometimes you're in a situation, you don't know, well, how can I tell the truth? Because if I tell the truth it's going to create this conflict. If you're committed to telling the truth, I believe from experience, God will give you the wisdom to tell the truth in such a way that it doesn't cause destruction but brings the whole situation forward deeper into the light.
And then the Lord continues here: Hands that shed innocent blood. Now, what does this mean? It means taking advantage of innocent people. It could even happen in the business world. I've seen business people take advantage of individuals that were mentally challenged. I saw a man years ago, this was when I was like in my low 20s, selling this really expensive garment that looked hideous on someone that was mentally challenged. Shedding innocent blood. Taking advantage of innocent people, you know, for our own financial gain.
We need to be careful how we treat other people, especially people that are too vulnerable or too naive to know how to protect themselves. How do you treat people that might be challenged in some way, whether it's physically, or mentally, or emotionally? This is so important. I mean, God is for the underdog. God is for the challenged and the disenfranchised. We need to be so careful with how we treat people. I believe this concept of shedding innocent blood conveys the idea of making sure that we treat those in society that are very vulnerable with love and respect and sensitivity. Do you do that? Do you do that?
Continuing on, God hates a heart that devises wicked plans. I mean, think of the media today. Think of our major media outlets, our news channels, always thinking about how to spin something out there to create controversy. All it does is it brings society from one degree of evil into another degree of evil. Looking for ways to scheme and to create chaos, to bring forth that which is the spectacular, thinking of an evil plan to bring forth the spectacular into the new cycle, just so they can get more reviews and the destruction that's caused to society. God is going to crush all this and destroy it. He hates it, hates it, hates it, and we can't have anything to do with it.
Paul said, stay away from conversations that really are just wicked, conversations that lead to nothing profitable. But he said, Instead, speak forth that which is edifying. And God hates feet that rapidly run to evil. What does it mean to rapidly run to evil? I just think of gossip. How many times... I mean, even yourself, do you have to resist gossiping about somebody else? Many of you do. You know what? Resist it. A lot of times, I want you to hear this, a lot of times we try to escape our own issues, the pain in our own life, our own emotional disturbance, we try to escape ourselves, listen now, by gossiping about other people.
And this leads us to rapidly run to evil, to do things that are evil, because we're trying to escape the lack of peace that we have in our own life. Yahweh hates this. He sees right through it. The Word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. And it divides the soul from the spirit. God knows exactly what's going on in your life and why you do the things you do. And you and I need to get a hold of ourself and develop enough self-awareness that we can understand why we do what we do. And begin to separate our motives so we can abide and stay in Him.
And this has to do with the next thing that Yahweh hates: Being a false witness who utters lies. It's so heretic. And it's all over the place. It's all over the place. I mean, if you think about this concept of feet running to evil and being a false witness and spreading lies, and the next one, spreading strife amongst others. Just look at social media today. It blows me away sometimes. I'll put something out there on social media with the best of intent and sometimes something that I think is just really gorgeous because it's the beauty of God. I mean, I've released segments before on the beauty of God. And yet there's people out there and they criticize it. It's like, what? What?
I remember one YouTube live that I did on the beauty of God. And I was wearing a hat that I had made up of all the colors of the rainbow. Because I was talking about an encounter I had with Jesus in which He manifested himself to me in living color. And I've had this hat for 10 years because of my earliest experience with Jesus in which He manifested Himself to me in association with color. And so I was wearing this hat talking about the beauty of God and talking about how I just had this encounter with the Lord and He manifested His beauty to me through electric living color.
And one of the comments was right away, "If you've had that hat for 10 years, why didn't you wear it on television before"? And it's like, What? We're talking about the beauty of God. And yet to the pure, all things are pure. But to the defiled person, everything is defiled and the lens that they see from is defiled. The point is, beloved, that this is what we see on social media today. So much hate. So much hate and division. And it's just like this is from the power of darkness. And we need to see it for what it is and separate ourselves from it. Not get involved in conversation about it. Not have anything to do with it. Push it away and keep your eyes on Yahweh like a racehorse that has blinders.
And you have to resist. Because evil is alluring. Listen, isn't there something in us? We want to gossip. In our heart, there's something in us that want... we want to say something about somebody which we know isn't right to say. We want to contribute our two cents of the conversation and speak something negative about a situation or a person. We have to recognize that we need to close the door to that and not say it. Again, the last thing that Yahweh hates is a false witness who speaks or utters lies and someone that spreads strife amongst others. We have to guard our tongue. James said, if you could control your tongue, you'll control the destiny of your life.
One of the first and most important things that we should do as believers, beloved, to get on track with Yahweh, to get power released into our life, is to control our tongue. We can be sensitive to the spirit and have a sense of I should or shouldn't say it. That's what we need to do. So you'll read that for yourself. I want to continue on now, moving from the negative aspect of what hurts Yahweh, what grieves Yahweh, what Yahweh hates. I want to move forward now into who He is and focus on His glory, focus on His beauty.
Now, how do we know, moving on from where we've been, who this great, glorious, beautiful God of ours is? Who is Yahweh? He's a person and He's sensitive, but who is He? Well, my beloved friend, I believe one of the greatest portions of Scripture is found in the book of Shemot, or Exodus 33. In Exodus 33, what we have here is that Moses is crying out to this one that He had met at the burning bush, Yahweh, to show Him His glory. Moses is saying to Yahweh, Show me Your glory. Yahweh commissioned Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt into the promised land and into the desert to worship Him, but Moses is insecure about this call.
So he keeps on asking Yahweh to help him to know that He's with him. Moses says, "Show me Your favor. Help me to know Your favor is with me". And Yahweh says, my favor's with you. And finally, the conversation between Moses and Yahweh comes to the climax when Moses cries out, "Show me Your glory". And Yahweh says to Moses, "No man can see my face and live, Moses, but I want you to go into the cleft of the rock and call upon my name, call the name of Yahweh, and I'm going to pass by in front of you. And you won't be able to see my face, but you'll see my back, and I'm going to proclaim my name to you".
So Moses goes in the cleft of the rock, and he calls upon the name Yahweh, and Yahweh passes by and proclaims to Moses His name, and Moses is filled with the revelation knowledge of who this person, who this Yahweh is.