I don’t know about you, but when the Lord says that He hates something, I pay attention. If there’s anything I don’t want to do, it’s to hurt His heart by engaging in things that cause Him pain. In fact, these verses from Proverbs 6 provide a powerful insight into the character of God by telling us what bothers Him the most. They also explain why Christ reacted the way He did when He encountered the money changers at the temple. Though any oppression grieves His heart, wrongs done in His Name are an even greater abomination. This is the reason the “temple trolls” were especially distasteful to Him — they were charging movie theater prices for items commonly used in worship. Just like theaters get $10 for a box of candy that should only cost $.99, they were inflating costs by tens of times what they should have been and padding their pockets with the profit. Even worse, because many of their customers had traveled a long way to worship, they were forced to pay what was demanded of them. Understandably, Jesus was livid about the greed that pervaded His House, and He angrily disrupted the fraud, turned over the robber’s tables, and drove them out of the temple. He despises injustice, and as we seek to become more like Him in attitude and action, we should, too.

My friend, you serve a Savior who fights back against greed and deceit. Though He is patient and longsuffering, He is swift to overturn wrongs committed in His Name, and He bids you deal honestly and fairly with others. In whatever you undertake, seek to model His kindness and justice, and refuse to use anyone for your own selfish gain. In Him, you have everything that you need, so you can surrender your drive to get ahead at all costs and trust Him to give you the desires of your heart in His perfect time.