Verse of the Day Devotion: Isaiah 5:20 

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” – Isaiah 5:20      

This verse speaks as heavily to the culture today as it did back in Isaiah’s day.  This is the fourth woe God declared through Isaiah to the Israel.  There were men in that day who declared what was considered good was evil and what was considered evil was good.  John Wesley in his commentary on Isaiah put it this way, “To them – That take away the difference between good and evil; that justify wicked men and things and condemn piety or righteous persons.”  They glossed over evil deeds and habits and accept them as acceptable, while they look down upon those who cling to God and His works.

Isaiah goes on to add the following. “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” Isaiah 5:21.  This is how they concluded what was right and wrong.  By how they viewed the works as apposed to how God declared them.  They felt they knew better than the prophet and therefore rejected his warnings.  And in doing so, rejected God’s words in the process.  Because of this, the remainder of chapter five, verses 24-30 is the declaring the judgements upon those who sinned in this manner.  Here are verses 24-25 which gives an indication of the judgements declared by God through Isaiah.  “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. On this account the anger of the LORD has burned against His people, And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down. And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this His anger is not spent, But His hand is still stretched out.” Isaiah 5:24-25.  

Today, we need to ensure that we do not fall into the same sin as our focus verse declares, those who call evil good and good evil.  There is much of this going on in our culture today.  Leaders in some of today’s churches affirming abortions as a good thing and acceptable to God.  Churches where transgenderism is taught to our children either in story times, or in church services themselves as was done in a church in Cincinnati, OH.  There are teachings heard in some church’s that are against what the scriptures teach and leads to causing members to go astray and believe false teachings. 

If we hear anything that falls into the sins of our focus verse; calling things that are good, evil and things that are evil, good, it is important that we raise this with the church leadership and have them deal with it.  We should address those who have taught it and help those who heard it to understand that this is wrong.  This is not easy to do, but to ignore and not address these issues will have the same result as accepting it.  We must stand against these things.  God did declare this woe to the people of Isaiah’s time, and I believe He will declare the same judgement to those today who do the same.  Let us be careful and study His word so we will know when others confound the distinctions of right and wrong, and we do not fall into this error ourselves. 

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.