Isaiah Insights #8

Warren E. Berkley – wberkley.podbean.com

“Woes” Isa. 5

Moral Confusion

This is Isa. 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.”

In the Bible, and therefore in reality and eternity, there is good and evil. We often talk about this as an absolute moral standard. It is defined and revealed by the Creator.

If man ignores it, edits it or renames it – there is trouble. Trouble here on earth and eternal consequence.

I want to point out, what you call something doesn’t change its nature. A label is a human assignment. It doesn’t change what God has said about an attitude, practice or lifestyle.

For example, you can call a lie – white or black. You can call a lie an innocent prevarication. It is what it is in the sight of God, no matter how man may rename it.

Such label editing and attempted reversals of reality do nothing but deceive, both the ones making the “changes” and those who listen to them.

Good and evil is fixed in the mind of God. Being made in His image, our obligation is to call things what they are according to His revealed standard.

The world we live in is turning defintions and labels upside down, yet the nature of the thing renamed isn’t changed.

Sexual immorality can be called “gay, affair, romance, fling,” or any other term or phrase. It doesn’t change God’s view of it.

Marriage will always be, in the eyes of God, a covenant between a man and a woman. Killing unborn babies may be called something else in the future. The nature of the act doesn’t change.

What is bitter can be called sweet, but it taste the same.

Calling evil good and good evil doesn’t change God’s mind about it. It doesn’t reduce the consequence of it, and only serves to promote a defiant absence of discernment and discipline.

When the standard of the Creator is rejected, there is no good outcome. Especially when considered in the light of this: “The end of the matter; all has been heard, Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil,” (Eccl. 12:13,14).

God will not – on that final day – ask what we called it, how we viewed it or what name we applied. His standard will be the basis of judgment.