I decided to write this just before bed, so I won't explain much.
I wrote a post about what I call 'a Wall of Hostility/Enmity' between men and women which began at the Fall in Eden. This 'Wall of Enmity' causes an underlying and latent disagreeableness or contention between males and females and would be classed under the 'Iniquity' category.
The dictionary defines 'iniquity' as "gross injustice or wickedness; a violation of right or duty; wicked act; sin", and it has synonyms like "abomination, evildoing, infamy, immorality, miscreancy". I can't extrapolate much from the dictionary definitions, but I can say that in the Bible iniquity often has to do with not only internal sins but sins that lie at the very foundation of a person's being.
David often wrote that he was "upright in heart", but after the scandal with Bathsheba and Uriah, David realized that while his heart was upright, it wasn't totally (100%) upright. He said to God, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5, KJV). Because iniquity has to do with foundational sin (often going back from before one's conception), David then continued, "Behold, You desire truth in the inwards parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom" (v. 5, NKJV). That can be paraphrased, "I now see clearly that You want me to be righteous (washed clean) from the inside out, and in my innermost places You [are able to] sanctify me."
The problem with iniquity is that you don't get to choose which ones you have or don't have. God told Moses, "I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me" (Deuteronomy 5:9). I live in the U.S. America operates under many 'spiritual' laws. Two of these are pride and shame. Pride draws people from out front to be more than they really are and therefore receive praise and recognition; and shame drives them from behind to be more than they are or else suffer [insert ostracism and all kinds of negative things here]. In a culture like this, people will do almost anything to avoid public shame and are therefore unwilling to acknowledge anything wrong with them, especially if those things are hidden within them far from the judgmental eyes of others.
One day, in 2008, while I was learning about iniquities, I watched the movie 'Motherhood' (Uma Thurman) with a christian friend and his pregnant wife. We'd been chatting before and the issue of racism came up. He bragged that he wasn't racist because some of his ancestors had helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. However, when the movie got to a scene where Uma Thurman's character, who was married in the movie, was inviting an Indian man into her apartment for a romantic encounter, my friend and his wife started castigating the Indian man as if he was in the wrong. I recognized this as the iniquity of racism, which he didn't know was present, visibly manifesting.
In the U.S., and all over the world, there are certain things that are not politically correct or that are just frowned on. Racism was once acceptable, however, when it became unfashionable, it didn't go away. It began as an iniquity, not as actions, and iniquities don't evaporate on their own. They must be addressed. People tend to reorder their lives to avoid those things that will bring them shame; but at the end of the day, iniquities are passed down from generation to generation. That means that even when your society makes you feel ashamed for [an iniquity], it isn't your fault. They should be addressed and worked on for your sake, not hidden, suppressed, and denied because of what everyone else might think of you. It's possible to hate a whole race of people or to resent a whole gender due to iniquities. Iniquities are like dog poop on the bottom of a person's shoe: the person walks around with a bad smell, but that bad smell is not them nor is it their fault. It is just attached to them but can be removed.
So, iniquities tend to hide out not just inside people (ie. unseen unless it manifests outwardly), but iniquities also tend to be deep, all the way down inside and cannot be uncovered by a cursory look. After many years of relationship with God, it took David a terrible scandal (Bathsheba and Uriah) and a prophet to acknowledge his sin to him before David was able to understand by God's revelation that his deeds came not just from his capability to sin like all people but from deeper inside-- a place where he was at fault before he could even commit any fault. Iniquities often stay deep inside and cause problems in a person's life-- some problems obvious and some subtle. Iniquities caused Moses not to enter the Promised Land. While some iniquities manifest obviously on the surface (eg. addictions, sexual perversions, mood or mental issues, etc.), pne of the ways they pass from generation to generation is that some of them often hide so deep inside that they remain unexposed. In the lives of christians, I think they definitely deserve 'a closer look'.
I wrote a post about what I call 'a Wall of Hostility/Enmity' between men and women which began at the Fall in Eden. This 'Wall of Enmity' causes an underlying and latent disagreeableness or contention between males and females and would be classed under the 'Iniquity' category.
The dictionary defines 'iniquity' as "gross injustice or wickedness; a violation of right or duty; wicked act; sin", and it has synonyms like "abomination, evildoing, infamy, immorality, miscreancy". I can't extrapolate much from the dictionary definitions, but I can say that in the Bible iniquity often has to do with not only internal sins but sins that lie at the very foundation of a person's being.
David often wrote that he was "upright in heart", but after the scandal with Bathsheba and Uriah, David realized that while his heart was upright, it wasn't totally (100%) upright. He said to God, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5, KJV). Because iniquity has to do with foundational sin (often going back from before one's conception), David then continued, "Behold, You desire truth in the inwards parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom" (v. 5, NKJV). That can be paraphrased, "I now see clearly that You want me to be righteous (washed clean) from the inside out, and in my innermost places You [are able to] sanctify me."
The problem with iniquity is that you don't get to choose which ones you have or don't have. God told Moses, "I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me" (Deuteronomy 5:9). I live in the U.S. America operates under many 'spiritual' laws. Two of these are pride and shame. Pride draws people from out front to be more than they really are and therefore receive praise and recognition; and shame drives them from behind to be more than they are or else suffer [insert ostracism and all kinds of negative things here]. In a culture like this, people will do almost anything to avoid public shame and are therefore unwilling to acknowledge anything wrong with them, especially if those things are hidden within them far from the judgmental eyes of others.
One day, in 2008, while I was learning about iniquities, I watched the movie 'Motherhood' (Uma Thurman) with a christian friend and his pregnant wife. We'd been chatting before and the issue of racism came up. He bragged that he wasn't racist because some of his ancestors had helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. However, when the movie got to a scene where Uma Thurman's character, who was married in the movie, was inviting an Indian man into her apartment for a romantic encounter, my friend and his wife started castigating the Indian man as if he was in the wrong. I recognized this as the iniquity of racism, which he didn't know was present, visibly manifesting.
In the U.S., and all over the world, there are certain things that are not politically correct or that are just frowned on. Racism was once acceptable, however, when it became unfashionable, it didn't go away. It began as an iniquity, not as actions, and iniquities don't evaporate on their own. They must be addressed. People tend to reorder their lives to avoid those things that will bring them shame; but at the end of the day, iniquities are passed down from generation to generation. That means that even when your society makes you feel ashamed for [an iniquity], it isn't your fault. They should be addressed and worked on for your sake, not hidden, suppressed, and denied because of what everyone else might think of you. It's possible to hate a whole race of people or to resent a whole gender due to iniquities. Iniquities are like dog poop on the bottom of a person's shoe: the person walks around with a bad smell, but that bad smell is not them nor is it their fault. It is just attached to them but can be removed.
So, iniquities tend to hide out not just inside people (ie. unseen unless it manifests outwardly), but iniquities also tend to be deep, all the way down inside and cannot be uncovered by a cursory look. After many years of relationship with God, it took David a terrible scandal (Bathsheba and Uriah) and a prophet to acknowledge his sin to him before David was able to understand by God's revelation that his deeds came not just from his capability to sin like all people but from deeper inside-- a place where he was at fault before he could even commit any fault. Iniquities often stay deep inside and cause problems in a person's life-- some problems obvious and some subtle. Iniquities caused Moses not to enter the Promised Land. While some iniquities manifest obviously on the surface (eg. addictions, sexual perversions, mood or mental issues, etc.), pne of the ways they pass from generation to generation is that some of them often hide so deep inside that they remain unexposed. In the lives of christians, I think they definitely deserve 'a closer look'.