THE WOE IS OURS -- Devotional for August 20, from "Good Seeds"

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. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine, and valiant in mixing strong drink; who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of the righteous. (Isaiah 5:20-23)

The best thing about being a leader – whether you are a parent or a president, a teacher or a pastor, a CEO or a ranch foreman, a ruler of a small country or the King of the World – is to see your people living well, in harmony with one another, and with nature and nature’s God. What joy a shepherd would have, to oversee such a flock as that! But this is so seldom the case, for in every societal group there are those who call evil good and good evil, and convince the rest that he’s right. The hardest job a leader has is having to identify evil teachings, and teachers, and then to speak out woes and carry out punishment upon those feeding upon and destroying the flock. There are wolves in sheep’s – or grandmother’s – clothing, who if not removed will make room for chaos, and chaos’s god, to move in and reign supreme. The evil we’re talking about is not overt crime, but rather ethics and morals that have been turned on their heads, as described in today’s passage. Now, if it were the surrounding heathen nations that Isaiah referred to, that would be bad enough; but no, he’s talking about his own people, God’s chosen people! Wasn’t it God Himself who said, “Therefore MY PEOPLE go into exile for their lack of knowledge” (verse 13)? Turn hundreds of pages and years ahead from these words of Isaiah’s God to those of the Son of God, and hear yet more woes upon those who should know better, the Jewish spiritually elite: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows, even while making a pretense to pray for and care for them; woe to you also because you travel on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when you succeed, he becomes twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:14-15). Do we think God enjoys enumerating the heart crimes of His people? No! It breaks His great, loving heart. But if He’s talking to us, we’d better listen – America had better listen, for we find ourselves in the very climate Isaiah describes. Whether in fiction or real life, it is difficult to find a true hero today. The “good guy” has a mouth and morals that shame all decency. He gets drunk, sleeps around, beats people up, curses his boss – and yet we and our children fawn all over him. We ought to know better, but if we continue to follow such leader-heroes as these, the woe is ours – and so, too, will be the exile!