Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, part 19

Woe #4

Isaiah 5:20 says,

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!

Such people have an inverse moral code, the opposite of the divine nature as expressed in His word and law. What God defines in His law as sin, these people claim is good. What the word of God proclaims as truth (“light”), these people denounce as evil (“darkness”). What is sweet to God the people treat as a bitter pill.

Instead of men conforming to the image of their Creator, these expect the Creator to conform to the desires of their own heart. Jesus said in John 3:19,

¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

This is the condition of mortal flesh since the time of Adam. Children of the flesh have corruptible hearts, and some have degenerated to unfathomable depths, especially when induced by the doctrines and practices of witchcraft and satanism. The long-term historic trend is that of degeneration, and if it were not for the presence of the remnant, every nation would soon become Sodom and Gomorrah.

But the divine plan is to leave a remnant of grace in the earth to prevent this. To counter the sin, iniquity, and wickedness in the earth, the Holy Spirit working in the believers and especially in the remnant will prevail as the Spirit is poured out in the timing of God (Isaiah 32:15).

Woe #5

Isaiah 5:21 says,

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!

Isaiah gives no explanation for this woe, but it will become clearer when we later compare Isaiah’s six woes with Jesus’ woes in Matthew 23. Then we will see that Jesus explained this woe in Matthew 23:29. In that woe, the Pharisees’ practice of adorning the tombs of the prophets after they had killed them was the example of being “clever in their own sight.” Jeremiah 4:22 KJV describes this well when he says that “they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

In more modern terms, we see that people and governments are experts in hiding their sins and crimes. They have many public relations programs that are designed to hide their sins and give the appearance of righteousness. That, in fact, is the cornerstone of most politics today. They follow the wisdom and cleverness of Edward Bernays, who established the first Public Relations firm in the United States.

Bernays (1891-1995), the nephew of Sigmund Freud the psychoanalyst, was known as “the father of propaganda.” His mother, Anna Freud, was the younger sister of Sigmund. Bernays’ 1928 book, Propaganda, included a famous quote:

“Whatever of social importance is done today, whether in politics, finance, manufacture, agriculture, charity, education, or other fields, must be done with the help of propaganda.”

He was certainly “wise” and “clever” in the art of manipulating public opinion to hide from their eyes the sins of his clients. So also the Pharisees had whitewashed and beautified the sepulchers of the prophets that their forefathers had killed, honoring them posthumously as a propaganda ploy to try to absolve Jerusalem and make themselves appear righteous.

Woe #6

Isaiah 5:22, 23 says,

²² Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, ²³ who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!

This is not so much a condemnation of alcoholics as it is about the judges in Isaiah’s day. The judges were the ones who “justify the wicked for a bribe.” This is about the court system and its injustice. The rich, who could afford bribes, and the powerful men in government, who had appointed the judges with instructions to favor themselves in any court case, had subverted the judicial system.

That problem was not unique in Isaiah’s day. No doubt such injustice had been prevalent throughout the world, but Israel was supposed to be different. The law instructed the judges not to take bribes or even to drink wine while they were on duty, lest their minds be clouded. We read in Exodus 23:6-8,

⁶ You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute [legal case]. ⁷ Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty. ⁸ You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.

This is affirmed in James 2:1-4,

¹ My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. ² For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, ³ and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

One does not have to judge in a courtroom to be a judge. We all make judgments every day and are accountable to the same law of God. We need to be well educated on righteous judgment, even if the judges sitting in the courtroom (“the bench”) often judge unrighteously.

Divine Judgment

Isaiah 5:24 continues,

²⁴ Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble and dry grass collapses into the flame, so their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah’s first metaphor comes from Deuteronomy 4:24, that our God "is a consuming fire.” When He went before the army against the wicked ones of Canaan, He said in Deuteronomy 9:3,

³ Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

Nonetheless, this “consuming fire” is impartial, for fire burns all flesh, regardless of genealogy or nationality. The judgments of the law were to fall upon the Israelites too if they acted as the Canaanites who had been driven out before them. Hence, Isaiah applies the metaphor of fire to Judah and Jerusalem.

The second metaphor was “their root will become like rot.” While the prophet was speaking about the people themselves, he used a farming metaphor. The law in Deuteronomy 28:22 speaks of divine judgment in terms of mildew and blight, and the prophets show how this was actually fulfilled. See Amos 4:9 and Haggai 2:17.

The reason for divine judgment, of course, was that “they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” It is one thing to have an erroneous interpretation of the law, and quite another to reject and despise the law itself. Many argue that Jesus put away the law and replaced it with the law of love. They forget that the entire law hangs on love—love of God and love of one’s neighbor. No one can put away the law and still claim to be led by love. The law defines love as God sees it.

I have heard men tell me that the law was satanic, that Moses received it from Satan. One man even told me that Yahweh was Satan. Fortunately for him, he did not know what he was saying, for such statements are blasphemous.

The point is that the church’s treatment of the law today is based on the same attitude that the people of Israel and Judah had long ago. Human nature has not changed. The flesh hates the law and cannot hear the word of the Lord (Romans 8:7). We must be diligent, then, to recognize the carnal nature of the flesh, for that is not the way to be led by the Spirit.

That which is begotten of God does not commit sin (1 John 3:9). Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Hence, it is only the flesh man that is lawless. If we identify with the new man that is begotten by God, we will not follow after the lusts of the flesh.

Our behavior manifests either the fruit of the Spirit or the bitter fruit of the flesh. While the law can only regulate behavior and cannot make anyone righteous by its dictates, the law is still the righteous standard by which we are to judge our fruit.

The Old Covenant makes man’s will responsible to bring forth good fruit; the New Covenant makes God’s will responsible to bring forth good fruit from us. In both cases, the righteousness of God is the same, but the means to that goal are vastly different. The Old Covenant holds men to their vows of obedience and their ability to refrain from sin; the New Covenant holds God to His vow to make us obedient by the inner working of the Holy Spirit.

The word of God given to Isaiah is thus still relevant to us. Failure to keep God’s law is still the reason for divine judgment. We simply need to know which Covenant will succeed in bringing forth the fruit that God requires.