Evil’s Hold


Isaiah 5:18-23
18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,
19who say: “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!”
20Woe 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!
21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
22Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!

All of us are painfully aware of the presence of evil in the world. Adam and Eve were unfortunate enough to have to speak with Satan personally. And that was a verbal battle they lost, much to our dismay even today. So it is only fitting that we should take a look at evil through the eyes of the Cross. Paul succinctly wraps up our sin problem in Ephesians 2:1-3.

Ephesians 2:1-3
1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

We battle against our flesh, the ways of the world, and against the devil. Chief among those three being the devil. If we remain ignorant of Satan, we do so at our own peril.

The prophet Isaiah speaks words of warning and woe as he addresses those who allow evil to be their leader and source of strength. In these six verses, he shines light on the evil actions that fall from the hands of those deceived by Satan.

·     First, he draws a verbal picture of a cart being drawn by ropes made of falsehood. Just imagine your life, contained in that cart and it is being pulled along by falsehood.
·     Second, the evil one encourages us to call evil good and good evil.
·     Third, the evil are wise in their own eyes.
·     Fourth, the evil are drunkards.
·     Fifth, the evil will happily accept a bribe to acquit the guilty
·     Sixth, the evil deprive the innocent of justice

Such a short passage that so vividly describes the evil life. When I read these words, it is not difficult to see these sins abound in our culture. We’re surrounded on every side by Satan’s influence. The rest of the week, we will look at how Satan is a defeated foe – already. He continues to abuse us and attempts to deceive us at every turn. But when seen through the lens of the Cross, we know that he has no power over us. Jesus blood denies him the right to accuse us. We are free.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The...
Read more

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv...
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl...
Read more