Context No. 2980 of 4322 · Isaiah

Isaiah 5:17-30: in context

17Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich. 18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope, 19who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!” 20Woe 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! 21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink; 23who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent! 24Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of the LORD of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out. 26He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly. 27No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep, neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken, 28whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. 29Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver. 30They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.

Isaiah pronounces a string of woes. Woe to those who drag their sin along like a cart-rope and dare God to hurry his judgment; woe to those who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deny justice to the innocent. And at the center: woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

That central woe is the inversion of the moral order itself. This is a society that has not merely done wrong but relabeled wrong as right, so that conscience itself is confused and can no longer tell darkness from light. And it is paired with being wise in their own eyes, so sure of their own judgment that they no longer submit it to God's. When a culture, or a single heart, begins calling darkness light, judgment is near, because the very capacity to recognize sin has been corrupted at the root.

Have I let anything evil be relabeled "good" in my own thinking, calling darkness light because I am wise in my own eyes?

Sources

Isaiah 5:20: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness."
Isaiah 5:21: "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!"
Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."