Isaiah 5:20
20 Woe [howy] unto them that call ['amar] evil [ra`] good, [towb] and good [towb] evil; [ra`] that put [suwm] darkness [choshek] for light, ['owr] and light
['owr] for darkness; [choshek] that put [suwm] bitter [mar] for sweet, [mathowq] and
sweet [mathowq] for bitter [mar]! KJV-Interlinear
20 Woe
to those who call evil good, and good evil;, Who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness;, Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
NASB
The second ‘woe’ in this
passage addresses the reverse views that people pursue when they reject or
ignore doctrine.
Bible doctrine is truth,
but it is more than just truth, it is the doorway which you may pass through in
order to gain access to truth.
Without doctrine you have
no access to truth. God is truth and
without access to God, then truth eludes you.
Truth is often referred
to as light, with darkness being the absence of light, or total darkness.
Good is that which is
decent, moral, acceptable, respectable, upright, noble, virtuous and so forth.
Evil is the opposite of
good, being the immoral, the disrespectable, and so forth.
Bitter and sweet are also
two opposites, with good or light being the sweet and pleasant, and sin being
the bitter or disgusting or objectionable.
So, truth is that which
allows us to see life clearly and you know where you are relative to everything
else, or at least you have the ability to figure things out. You can see in the light, which should be
obvious.
Darkness is the total
absence of light, and in total darkness you cannot see anything. But more than that, you cannot even know
where you are with respect to anything else. You have no orientation to self,
to others, to life and especially to God.
When a person is
indifferent toward God, toward doctrine, toward all that has been God designed
for reality, then they live in a world of disorientation. This is not limited to criminals or people who
you most generally think of as bad, but includes a lot of righteous types that
believe that they can cruise through life on their own merit and have no need
for God, or even Gods methods or requirements.
So, when truth is not in
the soul, then the lies take over.
Realities do a flip flop and everything is turned upside down. They prefer the bitter or the objectionable. They prefer the lies. They prefer being lost and do not even
consider themselves as being lost. They prefer their own ways as opposed to
Gods ways. The even call their ways,
Gods ways.
And therefore we have the
second ‘woe’ in this passage. Why? Because this will all lead to the most
sorrowful miserable, anxiety filled, lustful, empty, unfulfilling life
imaginable. The sad reality of all of
this is, that the person probably will not know that they are free falling
through life until they hit the bottom.
And that bottom could very well be their death.
God gives us many
examples in life to be able to understand how this sort of thing works. You probably have seen shows on television
that have addicts that reject truth and do not believe that they have a
problem. Others attempt to intervene,
but that help is rejected.
Well this is a good
example of how the spiritual life goes, when truth is rejected, when people
refuse to study daily, when people refuse to confess their sins regularly, when
people simply do not accept Gods spiritual design. Then they function just like an addict, only
in the spiritual realm, or rather outside of it.
They reject their
obligations in life and that leads to a dysfunctional life, a dysfunctional
marriage, a dysfunctional family, a dysfunctional job, dysfunctional
priorities, and on and on. And
especially a dysfunctional relationship with God.
The little things become
important and the important things become a nuisance to them, and that is how
lives and marriages and families and careers and jobs all fall apart.
And the worst of it is
when these types of people pursue the ridiculous and become belligerent,
stubborn, and even violent in their pursuit of the dysfunctional, and refuse to
change. They bring harm to themselves,
but they also bring harm to others, and, they don’t care. They just want their own way, no matter
what. In their mind, you are wrong, they
aren’t.
Therefore, ‘woe.’ And that is a very bad repercussion to an
empty and messed up spiritual life.
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