“Woes” In Isaiah

Isa. 5:22-23

Perverters of Justice

This is Isa. 5:22,23– “Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.”

One way to get to the point of this form of evil is, imagine you are accused of a crime but not guilty. You and your attorney work together to collect and organize evidence, interview witnesses and set your case in good order.

The day of the trial comes, and as the judge enters to take his place at the bar of justice – you and others present discover, before he came to bar of justice, he visited the bar!

The judge appointed to consider your case is drunk and you realize that in this condition, he is not an administrator of justice, but a perverted of justice.

He is not only drunk with alcohol. His drunken state is a symptom of a deeper inner intoxication. He is high on his appetite, stumbling around in his ego and utterly lacking of good character and wisdom.

If he is a champion of anything, it is mixing drinks and consuming the product of his carnal talent.

Isaiah conveys from God, judgment against the judges, who were caught up in their power. The claim to renown was not justice but being heroes of drinking wine.

Let’s not turn this into an indictment against all who serve in the halls of justice. But let’s be aware that power can corrupt those with undeveloped conscience. While this propensity occurs across all classes and ages, it is especially repulsive  when men who are charged to lead, to judge, to enforce divine law, are champions of craving, carnality and evil.  God, through Isaiah, judges the judges.

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