Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to
those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light
for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
The prophet Isaiah
righteously condemned a shamelessly immoral licentious and rebellious nation
that preferred the ways of the wicked to the blessings of God. They would pay
the price of judgment for their vanity and pride. God was angry with them because
of their arrogant and prideful haughtiness in the face of warnings concerning
the coming judgment of God. Many of the Jewish people were sinning openly and
recklessly. They had dulled their consciences through their own vain delusions
and presumptions. Even when God sent a prophet to warn them of the consequences
of their sin, they refused to listen. Isaiah told them that God would judge
them for their sin, but what was their response? Humility? Repentance? Sadly,
neither. They laughed and said, “If God
is going to judge us, then let Him do it now! We’ve seen no evidence of His
hand, so if He is really going to do something about our sin, let Him do it now
so we may know it’s true.” What made this haughty response so wicked was
that these were not Gentiles. They were the children of Abraham, and yet they treated
God with unmasked disdain and ridicule.
They had slipped so far from
their covenant obligations that they twisted the very definitions of good and evil.
That which was good they called evil; and that which was evil they called good.
We can just imagine their corrupt leaders describing their adulterous affairs
as necessary and justified, while they condemned good men for their admonitions
against such behavior as divisiveness and intolerance. We don’t need to look beyond
our current culture for signs of this particular evil. Every day, good is
painted as evil and evil is cloaked under the pretenses of good.
Those who are willing to
dare God to judge them, and to call light darkness, are capable of just about anything.
They often can’t be reached through admonition and rebuke because they listen
to their own counsel or the advice of the wicked. They sometimes dull their
minds with pleasures such as intoxicating drink or drugs. They can’t be trusted
to execute their duties faithfully because they often bring condemnation down
upon the innocent rather than indicting the guilty. A society that has reached
the point where this is common fare among its civic and spiritual leaders is a
society that could be on the brink of judgment. Its collapse is only a matter
of time. Justice hasn’t come yet, but there is hell to pay when it does.
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