April 12, 2025 - Proverbs 15:8,9 - "An Abomination Unto the Lord"

Proverbs 15:8,9

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: But the prayer of the upright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: But He loveth him that followeth after righteousness."

The LORD led Solomon to reflect on the condition of all men, and in this passage, he makes two distinct statements about what is an abomination to the LORD. He doesn’t begin where men typically begin, for men often regard their religion, duties, or religious activities as something good, but that is not necessarily the case.

The very first thing he says in verse 8 is, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD." We have to understand what it is that God considers right and just and what is the object of His disdain, anger, His wrath, and His justice. An abomination is what God loathes or hates. When you consider the disobedience of Adam in the garden, it wasn't just that he disobeyed, but he chose another way to come to God. Ever since, all fallen creatures, which we all are in Adam our representative, will never worship God aright unless He, by His Grace, is pleased to teach us the Way of Righteousness. Stop and consider, anything that we offer up to the LORD is going to be out of a heart that is fallen and sinful, and in and of itself would be an abomination unto the LORD. Even as we gather to worship, ask the LORD's blessing, how is it that God can hear any of our prayers, because everything about our being and who we are in our nature is an abomination to the LORD.

The second part of verse 8 says, "the prayer of the upright one is his delight." Don't think to yourself, "I'm upright, so I am His delight." No,! This is Solomon by the Spirit of God, considering who man is in his nature, himself include, and declaring Who was his Hope! His Hope is in that Upright One. Only One is upright, and that is the LORD Jesus Christ, Who alone is without sin, and perfect. When He came into this world, it was to identify with those sinners that God purposed to save from eternity, but it required of Him an intercession that was just and right.

"...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16). There is only one prayer of a righteous Man that avails much—and that is the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. From all eternity, there was never a moment when Christ was not the delight of His Father. And those whom Christ was appointed to represent were, because of Him, also the Father’s delight. This is why the Father sent Him into the world: to fulfill and accomplish everything required by His law and justice, so that He might be just in justifying—that is, declaring righteous—those for whom Christ paid the debt.

For emphasis, it is repeated, "The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD," Apart from the Sacrifice of the LORD Jesus Christ, there is none righteous, no, not one, Romans 3:10-12. Everything about the sinner is an abomination unto the LORD. It's not that God looks down and sees some that He likes better than others, and declares them better than others. When it says, "The way of the wicked," that's everything about us, no matter how we may look on the outward. It is all an abomination unto the LORD.

Then we read, "but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness." Isn't that what our LORD Jesus Christ taught on the mount when He said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6)? Who is this Righteousness? Proverbs 15:8 tells us that the prayer of the Upright is His Delight. There is only One in Whom God has His Delight and that's in His Son. He's the One Righteousness that God loves and by Whom He declares righteous those who are in Him.

If we want to know if we're loved of God, it says, "He loveth Him that followeth after righteousness. First, God loves His Son, Who perfectly pursued and fulfilled His righteousness. It is singular here—Christ alone came, earned, and established the righteousness that God accepted. On that basis, He once and for all imputed that righteousness to those whom He elected before the foundation of the world. He is the Hope. Apart from Him—and apart from this Way of Righteousness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ—no sinner can be regarded by God as anything other than an abomination and a stench in His nostrils.

People do not see themselves as they truly are before the holiness of God. They protest and ask, “What kind of God would send sinners to hell?” The answer is this: the Righteous God sends sinners to hell because He loves His justice and must deal with all sin accordingly. Unless His law and justice have been fully satisfied, there is no hope—even for those considered the best among men. In truth, there are no “best” sinners. "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away," Isaiah 64:6.

Solomon writes this with an awareness of the depravity of his own heart, acknowledging that had it not been for God's grace—had God not viewed him in that One Upright One, His Delight, the Lord Jesus Christ—he too would have been an abomination before the LORD. And so it is with us. Were it not for God’s electing, redeeming, and sovereign grace in Christ, we would be the same.

"Upon a life I have not lived

Upon a death I did not die

Another's life, another's death

I stake my whole eternity

Not on the tears which I have shed

Not on the sorrows I have known

Another's tears, another's grief"

Horatius Bonar