Day 428: Does God detest sinners? – Deuteronomy 25 vs 13 – 19
13-15 Do not have two differing weights in your bag – one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house – one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.
17-18 Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. 19 When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! Deuteronomy 25:13-19 New International Version
I've heard people say that God 'hates the sin but not the sinner'. But, as with many of these short punchlines, it's not the whole truth. There is a sense in which you can’t separate an evil action from the person doing it. An example of this is in verse 16 of today's reading.
The crime there is that of deceit where someone uses different weights and measures when buying or selling something. It's a picture of all the dishonest deals that take place in the world and it would include mega companies as well as the small trader. And the Bible says that God detests not only the crime, but the person doing it! This becomes even clearer, and very serious, when we look at verse 19. What was the reason given in vs 17-18 for the severe sentence passed upon the Amalekites?
They were the first of the Canaanite tribes to attack the Israelites after they came out of Egypt, and did so when the people were most vulnerable. In a way, they are symbolic of God's enemies through the ages. They had no fear of God. They were also guilty of the sins God denounced in Leviticus 18 – sins that included lewdness, fornication, adultery, incest, homosexuality, Satan worship and child sacrifice. And God said to the Israelites; “Don't defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Everyone who does any of these detestable things – such persons must be cut off from their people.” (Leviticus 18:24&29) Once again we see that you can't separate the evil being done from the people doing it.
This is a very unpopular truth in the world we are living in. Yet it is a truth that people who don't fear God need to hear. Some falsely believe that if it turns out after all that there is a God, this God will surely overlook the minor misdeeds of their life. They think that while some of what they did was wrong, they themselves are basically quite good people. But the Bible teaches that sinful actions flow out of sinful hearts. The doer of sin is as wicked as the sin that is done. Both are detestable to a God who is holiness personified.
Listen to how the apostle Paul puts this truth. He says: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts and a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.” (Romans 1:18-31) God detests these things as well as those who do them.
But there is a light that shines brightly through all this darkness for Paul also said: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” The detestable will be saved if they repent and yield to the Lordship of Christ.