Week 3: Sneaky Sin

Isaiah 5 is a litany of woe oracles aimed at six different sins. Like last week’s oracle against vain women, this chapter is speaking directly to the Israelites, but the sins and consequences are strangely familiar.

Beginning with verses 8 and 9, Isaiah condemns people who exploit others. In his time, this looks like wealthy land owners buying up the houses and fields until there is not much left for anyone else. As a result, God promises a bad return on their crops and desolation of their fine homes. During Uzziah’s reign, Judah experienced great economic prosperity, but it would seem that there are many who are now abusing their wealth. Isaiah warns that the time is coming when God will shut their economy down.

Another side effect of prosperity, it could be argued, is laziness and indulgence. In verses 11 and 12, Isaiah speaks against those who spend their time and money getting drunk. They throw amazing parties, but have no interest in the Lord. As a result, these people who are reveling in their excess will soon have nothing, “…their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.”

The people have become so confident in their strength and in their economic standing that they are no longer ashamed of their sin. In verses 18 and 19, Isaiah describes people who carry their sin around with them like oxen pulling a plow. They sarcastically provoke God to hurry up and send His judgment (essentially telling God to put His money where His mouth is). As we know, God did use Assyria and Babylon to bring about judgment on His people.

The next verses really caught my attention. Verse 20 condemns those who call what is evil good and what is good evil. They, literally, relish sin and disobedience while they mock righteous obedience. The note in my study Bible says, “When people do not carefully observe the distinction between good and evil, destruction soon follows. It is easy for people to say, ‘No one can decide for anyone else what is really right or wrong.’”

Verse 21 calls out the arrogant, while verse 23 focuses on those who deny justice to others.

What I notice about all of these sins is that they are sneaky, insidious sins. While all sin is rooted in the heart, some are more obvious than others. We usually don’t have a problem identifying and opposing obvious sins: murder, adultery, abusing the defenseless. With these six sneaky sins, though, I think what was happening to the Israelites is the same thing that happens to us--the line between wrong and right was getting smudged. Take, for instance, the drunkards mentioned in verses 11 and 12. It could be argued their behavior wasn’t hurting anyone, that they were just having a good time, so why was it wrong? Verse 12 tells us their hearts were wrong, their partying was an extension of them having no respect for God. Another reason is because they were so caught up in having fun that they stopped working, allowing famine and hunger to creep in.

For us today, the list of obvious sins is getting shorter. Like verse 5:20 says, we, too, are guilty of calling evil good and good evil. Our lines are smearing. We see Christians responding to sin in unappealing ways. There are the public embarrassments who bomb clinics, burn Korans and hurl hate speech. Then there are those who are so afraid of being offensive that they offer hugs and donuts, but sidestep the Truth.

We are called to live between the two extremes. To call evil evil, while being living testimonies to God’s mercy. It’s important that we do this, because we know what happened to Isaiah’s audience—God didn’t take their sin lightly, He judged it. God promises to judge our sin too, be it subtle or flagrant. We need to continually return to our Savior in repentance, and if we love our society, we need to be pointing others to Him as well.

Rather than answering questions at the end of this study, let me encourage you to spend some time this week comparing the Israelites of Isaiah's day with the Christians of ours. How do our responses to drunkenness, arrogance, greed, laziness, injustice and relativism stack up to Israel's response? To God's response?

As an interesting side note, I share with you an article I read this summer about why Christians our age don’t care about Proposition 8.