WOE TO THE UNJUST

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against His people; His hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised. He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, He whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily! Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal strap is broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hooves seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, there is only darkness and distress; even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

Isaiah 5:22-30

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today we have reached the end of Isaiah, Chapter 5 and the conclusion of the list of six woes that so far have included the greedy, alcohol abusers, unrepentant sinners, evildoers, and the self-reliant. All five prior woes have had one common theme: they resulted from people (the Israelites in this case) turning their backs on God and willingly choosing sin and wickedness instead. And although the Old Testament times were more than 2,000 years ago, we see today where countless people are repeating the mistakes of the past and in doing so, still experiencing the woes that accompany their choice of iniquity over righteousness.

So what is woe number six, the final of this formal list, centered on? Look again at these verses straight from the word of God for us today:

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against His people; His hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised. He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, He whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily! Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal strap is broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hooves seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, there is only darkness and distress; even the sun will be darkened by clouds. Vv. 22-30

Our God, the Maker and Creator and Master of all things, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, is the supreme Judge of everything. And since God is perfect in every way, He is perfect in the way He administers justice. He expects us to be likewise, to be just in the things we do and the decisions and choices and judgments we make.

But there’s one big problem with that happening. For we are all human. We aren’t God and thus we are subject to temptation that can easily snare us, pulling us away from the Lord while dragging us down the road of sinful behavior that includes injustice. In the case of the Israelites, that road led them to allow the guilty to go free for a price, trading the truth for personal gain. It also led them to find the innocent guilty, indicating that there was no real sensibility in the application of justice. What was wrong was right and what was right was wrong in the eyes of the judges. In a prior devotion from the word of God, we learned that this is the primary symptom of an evildoer and so an unjust person would fit that category, one who willingly commits evil in the sight of a God who hates it.

Well, as we have seen prior, God does hate sin and will levy punishment on anyone who chooses to commit it in His sight vice turn from it and pursue right and righteous living. In the case of the Israelites, that judgment came in the way of marauding invaders who wreaked havoc and destroyed first the northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah, taking custody of the people and hauling them away into exile. The Lord lifted a banner for the Assyrians and they in turn came swiftly in power to consume the northern part of Israel. They also advanced on the south but were turned away there because the Lord has something else in store for Judah and its main holy city of Jerusalem. For the Babylonians were called on to carry out God’s judgment on the south and take the Israelites away, not forever, but for seventy years of captivity. While there was hope for Israel, it would be for future generations, not for the sinful ones who lived in a way that brought God’s judgment on the nation.

Friends, the message today is that God will not leave unjust action unpunished and woe will come on anyone who fails to do what is right when it comes to administering fairness and impartiality while judging. Honesty and integrity are not only expected but commanded by the Lord.

So how do we ensure we are just in the way we assess matters, always making the right call as to whether things are right or wrong?

The answer is simple really. For the only way we can know we’re making the right choices in regard to anything in life is when we know the Lord has been a partner in helping us make those decisions. Lean not on your own understanding as we are told to do in Proverbs 3:5 and instead lean on the Lord for truth and wisdom and, of course, determinations on justice.

He’ll never lead you wrong.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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