Hitchhiker’s Guide (25)
I, Wisdom, dwell in shrewdness, and cunning knowledge I find. Fear of the LORD is hating evil. Proverbs 8:12-13a Robert Alter
Hating evil – Doing good isn’t quite enough. It matters, of course. Micah makes that clear: “He has told you, mortal one, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). mišpāṭ, ḥesed, ṣānaʿ hālak. Crucial. Critical. But not quite the end of the story. If you fear the LORD, you will hate evil.
śānēʾ—“an emotional attitude toward persons and things which are opposed, detested, despised and with which one wishes to have no contact or relationship. It is therefore the opposite of love. Whereas love draws and unites, hate separates and keeps distant. The hated and hating persons are considered foes or enemies and are considered odious, utterly unappealing.”[1]
Strong enough?
What are those things that you hate? In the modern world, we tend to be repulsed by the idea of positive hate. We think all hate is hateful, perhaps even sinful. Oh, there’s plenty to go around these days. Just about every political stripe offers some “enemy” to hate, but we righteous ones, well, we think we’re better than that gross emotion. We want to love our enemies. We might hate bad things (sort of) but we carefully draw the distinction between the act and the actor. Love the person, hate the deed—and all that nonsense.
Proverbs seems to take a different approach. If you fear God, you will (you must) hate evil. And what is that?
ra’—what is “wrong in regard to God’s original and ongoing intention and detrimental in terms of its effects on man.” [2] That’s a lot. Anything contrary to God’s intention and harmful to Man. Anything.
Do you need to make your list? Do you need to write down all those things you do that are not in alignment with God’s intention and are harmful in some way to your fellow human beings? My list might be pretty long. The more I think about my choices, the more I realize that I have compromised. And then, of course, the yetzer ha’ra jumps to my rescue and diverts my attention to some unfulfilled emotional need. I forget—and continue on my way without s’not ra. I wonder how my life would change if I really hated those things that God hates.
Step 25: Learn to hate what must be hated
Topical Index: śānēʾ, ra’, hate, evil, fear, Proverbs 12-13a
[1] (1999). 2272 שָׂנֵא. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 880). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Livingston, G. H. (1999). 2191 רָעַע. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 854). Chicago: Moody Press.
Even as we are to love with a “perfect” (complete; finished; whole) love— and that includes loving one another— we are to hate evil with a “perfect” hate; Why? Because evil is antitihical to the love of God, which constitutes the nature of God’s very being. Yet, although we are “reconstituted” in Christ as “a new creation,” both perfect love and perfect hate must be developed in the renewed human nature by God’s transformative process— spoken of by the Apostle Paul as the “renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23)— that we may learn (both by instruction and experientially) “what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
And how was God’s perfect hatred of evil revealed to mankind? Through the concrete act of God becoming man in the midst of Israel in the context of history in order to assume our human nature upon himself, making our sin and and death his own in order to save us from sin and death. Thus, through atoning reconciliation (the sacrifice of Christ in his death on the cross) the barrier of our enmity to God was broken through and torn down to restore us to union with him in love (and at the same time bring about our communion with one another) in Christ.
But often, (as this that follows exemplifies), the dynamic of our transformative process is as shown by example experientially in the life of the Apostle Peter:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death!” And he said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me!” (Luke 22:31-34)
Nonetheless, in Christ we do now have a power provided us (as the re-newed and redeemed Peter also experienced at Pentecost/Shavuot))— the very power of God, serving to advocate and as counsel for us, and sent as the indwelling Spirit (by the risen and exalted Christ)— this Spirit’s power is the very perfecting power of God… power for the perfecting of both love and hate in holy righteousness.