Proverbs 15:11

Proverbs 15:11 "Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?"

In its most basic definition, a proverb is a one-sentence moral principle.  Within the Book of Proverbs, there is an occasional short story or string of sentences that provides a moral principle but generally-speaking, a proverb is a short statement that can be easily rehearsed, repeated and remembered.  In Scripture, the proverbs are unique in that they don't rely on anything around them to help better explain them.  Unlike any other book in the Bible, context is relatively insignificant in this book.  The proverbs are designed to provoke immediate thought that opens the eye to spiritual realities.  They don't require years of Bible Study or a degree in theology to understand them.  You don't have to set aside hours and hours to further study or investigate them.  They are uniquely powerful in that one sentence can instantly get you thinking about something that is both spiritually profound and personally practical.  This proverb is one of the best examples of that fact.

Any time we read or hear the word, "hell," we perk up.  That’s why people use the word when cursing or cussing – it’s something that usually gets our attention.  Anytime we are confronted with something so grave and intensely sobering, our brain goes on high alert.  Even without any context or backstory, this simple statement grabs our attention and gets us thinking.  Our mortal minds think about the underworld and the devastation within it.  Our limited minds immediately but unhappily think about the flames of hell and the misery connected to them.  We go to a place in our minds that we tend to avoid at all costs.  Hell is a thought we try not to think about.  It's a place we try not to consider.  We wish it didn't exist.  We hope it doesn't really exist.

For most of us, destruction is similar.  Except for the deeply-dark and twisted souls among us, humanity generally doesn't want to think about the tragedies and atrocities of life.  Most of us don't want to be confronted with the destruction our world entertains.  People don't want to be reminded that there are always millions of people suffering in our world and that over 100 people die each minute of every day.  Here in America, we almost never talk about the destruction hunger causes around the globe each day.  Approximately 9 million people die each year to hunger-related causes.  We don't want to see, think or talk about the fact that a child dies to hunger-related causes every 15 seconds.  The average person doesn't want to be confronted with the destruction abortion causes unborn children.  Our stomachs turn and our eyes close when pictures or videos are presented of such destruction.  Talk to someone about the evil and inhumane things done during the Holocaust and they will ask you to stop.  Bring up a serial murderer and the details of his crimes and people will walk away.

We just don't like looking at horrible crimes or tragic losses of life.  We don't like thinking about mass graves throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.  We don't like looking at images of body parts scattered over a beach from some heinous crime.  We don't like seeing bloody crime scenes.  We get real uncomfortable looking at the consequences of fire on the human body.  We don't like looking at towns wiped out by tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires or flash floods.  Destruction is hard for us to process.  We tend to avoid it as much as we can.

Don't get me wrong, people are attracted to news and drama.  Our curious brains are attracted to anything and everything that is new but that doesn't mean we want to follow on-going tragedy or keep processing destruction.  In fact, most people who follow criminal cases or who watch true crime shows are not watching it because of a fascination with destruction and death.  Those who follow criminal cases or watch true crime do so primarily for a natural thirst for justice.  If criminals weren't being caught or if murderers weren't being punished, there would be no market for true crime.  Destruction is a big part of our entertainment industry but only because most of the time, a hero prevents further destruction or because some ultimate good comes out of destruction.  If all of our shows, movies, games, books and documentaries were all about destruction without any justice, solutions or lessons learned, people would stop buying, watching, reading and playing them.  We'll take a look at destruction but only if we feel on some level that good can come from it somewhere somehow.

Destruction makes it on the news each night but never without some course of action working to address it.  When there is a tragedy of epic proportion, we want to forget all about it.  We don't want to remember it.  We don't want to relive it.  We don't want to think about it.  This is why individuals affected by certain tragedies create memorials so that the instincts of others don't cause those tragedies to be forgotten and, in the process, forget their loved ones.  Thoughts of destruction ruin our day.  Destruction too big for us to process.  It's too complicated for us to remedy.  How can we enjoy our strip steak when children out there are starving?  How can we watch our football game when women out there are being trafficked?  How can we laugh with our families when so many other families have been torn apart by war on other continents?  How can we embrace that precious moment with our spouse watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean knowing thousands of other spouses are going to bed without their spouse because of cancer?

We don't want to contemplate destruction.  We prefer it to stay as distant and as hidden as hell.  We prefer to be ignorant about them both.  It's too hard to be happy when being informed about the realities of hell and destruction.  That is what makes us so different from God.  We can choose to be ignorant.  God can't.  He is omniscient, meaning He knows all things.  He can choose to forget something but at no point can God say that He doesn't know something.  Otherwise, He wouldn't be omniscient and that would be a Biblical contradiction since Scripture states He "knoweth all things" in 1 John 3:20.  We can cover our eyes and ears to the destruction taking place in Ukraine, in Gaza and in Mexico but God can't.  We can convince our minds to stop considering and contemplating a place called Hell but God can't.  As the all-knowing, all-hearing and all-seeing God, He can't hide from the realities and tragedies of our world.  He gladly accepts worship while sadly processing rebellion.  He gladly accepts our love while sadly enduring our hatred.  He enjoys holy fellowship with His people while watching extreme violence among all people.  He listens intently to our precious prayers while hearing the screams of the victims of war.  He celebrates souls that turn to Christ while mourning the lives lost to natural disasters.  Nothing is hidden from God.  Job said it best when he said, "Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering" (26:6).  We can put a lid on hell and destruction but God can't.

What does this have to do with us?  Outside of making us very uncomfortable, how does this proverb apply to us?  It's meant to reinforce the sobering truth that we can't hide our hearts from God.  If Hell and destruction can't hide from His omniscient mind, we can be sure that our hearts can't evade it either.  If God can't be ignorant about the most uncomfortable things in life, then He surely won't be ignorant of the conditions of our hearts.  If God won't avoid seeing the souls in Hell, despite the heartbreak, then He won't avoid seeing the evil imaginations of our hearts, despite the heartbreak.  If God won't avoid looking at the destruction caused by human trafficking, despite the anger, then He won't avoid looking at the deceit and self-righteousness in our hearts, despite the anger.  If God won't avoid considering the microscopic cancer cells in a person's body, despite the discomfort, then He won't avoid considering the deeply hidden feelings of bitterness and resentment in our hearts, despite the discomfort.

Early in this chapter (15:3), Solomon put in plainly when he wrote, "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."  This particular proverb says the same thing but much more intensely and much more personally.  Not only does God see everything but He sees the worst of everything.  This ultimately teaches us that He's not afraid or intimidated by anything in our hearts.  If we ever feel like we can hide something in our hearts from God, this proverb is meant to immediately correct us.  If we ever deceive ourselves into thinking that there are things in our heart that God may not detect or things that He wouldn't want to detect, this proverb is meant to wake us up to the spiritual reality that nothing is hid from God.  We may be able to hide feelings from our spouse, family or friend but never from God.  Some children and some spouses play off of the inability of their parent or spouse to accept evil.  Because some people can't handle "Hell and destruction," they convince themselves that all is well; they create a new reality for themselves (despite being fantasy) where everyone is good and everything is wonderful.  These people can be easy to hide evil from.  God is not at all that way.  God sees things exactly and precisely as they are – even the hard things like "Hell and Destruction."  For that reason, God will always see our hearts exactly and precisely as they are. That is meant to be the spiritual motivation we need to get and keep our hearts clean.