Proverbs 15:9-10
‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord (Wisdom). But the prayer of the upright, is His (Wisdom’s) delight. The way of the wicked, is an abomination to the Lord; but He (Wisdom) loves him that follows after righteousness. Correction is grievous to him that forsakes the way; and he that hates reproof, shall die — hell and destruction!’ Proverbs 15:9-10.
The first four sentences above have many parallels in the Prophets. It is always interesting to trace connections between the latter — and Proverbs’s frequent mention of “Wisdom.”
Not only ‘the sacrifice’ but the very ‘way’ of the wicked, is an abomination. His common course, natural as well as moral. Such is the course of a rebel against God. All his doings are the corrupt stream flowing from a corrupt fountain. Then, every step of life is hateful to God!
The second sentence above may also be translated: ‘But those who pursue righteousness, He shall love.’ This indicates that God’s righteousness must not only be nodded at, but actively pursued in our lives. Only then, do we realize that God indeed delights in us and truly loves us.
It is of the greatest significance for the sinner to put before his eyes very clearly, that as long as he does not walk in the right way — he can establish nothing worthwhile. The Lord does not ask of him and cannot either accept anything from him — unless he first receives the gift from Heaven offered to him in God’s Wisdom the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ is received by faith, the whole of life is changed. Then alone the service of love is pleasant for God, and lovable in His eyes.
‘Correction is grievous to him that forsakes the way; and he that hates reproof, shall die!’ Here God says that whoever resists being corrected, shall die. Shall die in his sins, and go to Hell.
There is no surer step to ruin, than this hatred of reproof. But correction turns back the one who had forsaken the way.
‘Hell and destruction are before!’ She‘ool and ‘A:baddoon. In Wisdom literature such as the Proverbs, these two proper names are combined as synonymous with the region of death. And Jehovah exercises control over them — hence ‘Hell and destruction are before the Lord.’
Once more, we here behold an Omniscient and Omnipresent God. Every recess of Hades, the state of the dead and the place of the damned, are before the Lord — before His eye; open to His cognizance. There is no depth within, that He cannot fathom.
Would men dare to indulge their vain thoughts — their light notions, their trifles, their impurities — if they really believed the Lord searched their hearts? Would they not rather be afraid even to think before God, what they would shrink from doing before men?
On the other hand, the Lord loves him who keeps on following after righteousness! Do you?
