greenbaggins
Puritan Board Doctor
Isaiah 5:20-21 (ESV): "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! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!"
It struck me today as I was reading Keil and Delitzsch's commentary on the passage that these two woes are inter-related. To be specific, a person cannot call evil good and good evil unless they are also being wise in their own eyes. They therefore reject God's revelation both in nature and in Scripture. One has to do that to call evil good and vice versa. Being wise in one's own eyes is just the same as saying their own ideas are more right and true than God is. These are those who will call salvation joyless and the judgment of God salvation (as Ridderbos says). When morality is completely lacking, their foolish hearts will darken, and they will suppress the truth by means of their own unrighteousness. They see their own sin as a tool to use in further rebellion against God.
It is not difficult to step from an individual's thinking this way to a nation doing so. A nation that calls the murder of the unborn "healthcare," and calls abominations "pride" is clearly calling evil good. This same society will judge Christian morality as bigotry, thus calling good evil. Woe to America (and many other similar nations)!
And yet, I often feel that Christians these days are giving themselves a pass on their own sin because it is so easy to see the sin of the culture. Should not the outward pressure of culture compel us to love one another yet more deeply? And yet, we sometimes fight each other worse than outsiders. I know I have done this. Let not Christians become self-righteous, but rather mourn over the evil in America and other nations. Let us remember that Lamentations is in the Bible.
It struck me today as I was reading Keil and Delitzsch's commentary on the passage that these two woes are inter-related. To be specific, a person cannot call evil good and good evil unless they are also being wise in their own eyes. They therefore reject God's revelation both in nature and in Scripture. One has to do that to call evil good and vice versa. Being wise in one's own eyes is just the same as saying their own ideas are more right and true than God is. These are those who will call salvation joyless and the judgment of God salvation (as Ridderbos says). When morality is completely lacking, their foolish hearts will darken, and they will suppress the truth by means of their own unrighteousness. They see their own sin as a tool to use in further rebellion against God.
It is not difficult to step from an individual's thinking this way to a nation doing so. A nation that calls the murder of the unborn "healthcare," and calls abominations "pride" is clearly calling evil good. This same society will judge Christian morality as bigotry, thus calling good evil. Woe to America (and many other similar nations)!
And yet, I often feel that Christians these days are giving themselves a pass on their own sin because it is so easy to see the sin of the culture. Should not the outward pressure of culture compel us to love one another yet more deeply? And yet, we sometimes fight each other worse than outsiders. I know I have done this. Let not Christians become self-righteous, but rather mourn over the evil in America and other nations. Let us remember that Lamentations is in the Bible.