In what follows we have, it seems, the activity of those going on in an evil way, and their sure judgment. “A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes,... Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly.” This is followed by a picture of such a one manifesting those things which it says the Lord hates.
1)Haughty eyes or “a proud look.”
2)“A lying tongue,” which shows him to be under the power of the evil one, who is the father of lies (John 8:44). The Lord Jesus was not only true, but He was the truth (John 14:6).
3)“Hands that shed innocent blood.” Violence was one of those forms of evil that filled the earth in the days of Noah and brought the judgment of God upon that generation. In Romans 3:10-18 we have what is often spoken of as a photograph of what man is before God: “there is none that doeth good,... Their feet are swift to shed blood:... There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The natural heart does not like this picture, and some say, There are bad things that come out of the heart, but are there not good things too? In Matthew 15 where the Lord tells of all the evil things that proceed from the heart, He says not a word about any good there. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer. 17:9. We are never wiser than Scripture. How much better to bow to its teachings than to reject them and have to learn by bitter and humbling experience the lesson of our own heart’s ruin. Repentance is taking sides with God against our sins. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
4)“A heart that deviseth wicked’ imaginations.” In Scripture the heart’ in one going on in the fear of the Lord is seen as the seat of affection, but through neglect of Him it becomes the seat of wicked purposes.
5)“Feet that be swift in running to mischief.” In the Psalms and Proverbs man’s whole being is spoken of as connected with mischief: the tongue (Ps. 10:7); the hands (138, 26:10); the heart (Ps. 28:3); and the lips (Ps. 140:9).
6)“A false witness that speaketh lies.” Man under Satan’s power, if he cannot kill or injure physically, may inflict a worse wrong in having someone sneak lies.
7)“He that soweth discord among brethren.” This is in contrast to the goodness of God which would lead one to repentance.
How precious that the heart by faith can look away from sin, and self, from all the evil and sorrow of this world, to Jesus, that blessed Man in the glory in whom all goodness dwells, to those “bright and blessed scenes where sin can never come.” So used to being occupied with evil down here, we cannot conceive what it will be to be suddenly caught away from it all, to leave it all behind, and to be with Christ forever — to be occupied eternally with nothing but good. Yet such is the bright reward of faith.
There with unwearied gaze
Our eyes on Him we’ll rest,
And satisfy with endless praise
A heart supremely blest.
ML 09/17/1961