Calling Evil Good and Good Evil
What is right? What is wrong? We live in day and age when such questions seem to have no definitive answer. For many people, the determination of right and wrong lies solely upon the individual and is, therefore, very subjective. What is right for one person may seem wrong to another person. What is wrong for one person may be considered right by another person. This state of ambiguity exists, in part, because people live without the guidance of God’s word.
The chosen people of God, the Israelites, fell into this state of confusion. Due to the influence of the surrounding nations, the people of Israel chose a path that led them away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Several prophets warned Israel of their wickedness. One such prophet was a man named Isaiah, the son of Amoz.
Isaiah prophesied during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. In chapter 5 of the book of Isaiah, we see a song expressing God’s disappointment in the nation of Judah. In verses 3 and 4, we read, “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:3-4, NKJV). Judah was God’s vineyard. Yet, instead of producing good grapes, they produced wild grapes. In other words, Judah disobeyed the Lord and walked in the wicked ways of the surrounding nations.
While there were several problems with the attitudes and behavior of the Israelites, there was a specific problem I would like to bring to the forefront. In verses 20 and 21 we read, “Woe 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! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21, NKJV). The people of Judah rejected God’s law in favor of their own worldly wisdom, desires, and moral values.
Because the people of Judah rejected their covenant with God, God rejected them and established a new covenant for a people who would come to Him (cf. Hebrews 8:6-13). Under this new covenant, God would put His laws in the mind of His people and “write them on their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10).
Listening to Lies
Why did the nations of Israel and Judah disobey the Lord? One of the reasons had to do with Israel and Judah listening to the lies of false prophets. When the Lord told Jeremiah He would consume the people of Judah by the sword, famine and pestilence, Jeremiah told the Lord the prophets were telling the people they would not see the sword, famine, and pestilence. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart…And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them” (Jeremiah 14:14,16, NKJV). In chapter 23, the Lord charged the prophets of Jerusalem saying, “They commit adultery and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah” (Jeremiah 23:14, NKJV). The people of God chose to listen to the lies of the false prophets.
Under the new covenant of Jesus Christ, God’s people still face the danger of believing lies. In His rebuke of the Pharisees, Jesus referred to the devil as the father of lies. Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44, NKJV). The devil continues to spread his lies through the mouths of false teachers, men of worldly wisdom, those who call evil good and good evil, etc.
Sadly, many people profess a belief in God but do not have a love for the truth. God sees into the hearts and minds of those who do not love the truth. He will allow them to believe the lies. Regarding those who did not receive a love for the truth, the apostle Paul wrote, “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, NKJV).
Returning to our original premise, people will call good evil and evil good, when they believe the lies of the devil, of the world, and sometimes, of their own desires. The goal of every Christian should be to properly discern what is the truth and what is a lie. However, the only way to tell the difference between a truth and a lie, between what is right and what is wrong, is to allow the word of God to live within your heart and mind. Remember the words of the writer of Hebrews who wrote, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14, NKJV).
Allow a love for God’s word to grow within your heart. Accept what God’s word says to be right, true, and faithful. Make God’s word the final authority in your life today. -- John Duvall
