Woe

Woe, now there's a word you don't hear all that often. Woe.

Woe- 1)a serious affliction or misfortune

2)grief or distress resulting from a serious affliction or misfortune

Woe unto them.

Serious affliction and misfortune to them.

If I tell you that you are going to suffer a serious affliction, and have serious misfortune that's not a very good thing, right? No one wants to suffer affliction, no one. And when misfortune befalls us we are not very happy, not ever. When we do suffer afflictions and misfortune overcomes us we usually are very distressed with good reason. If we tell a friend about our afflictions we'd gain sympathy from them. Bottom line- WE DO NOT WANT serious afflictions NOT EVER and WE DO NOT WANT misfortunes in our lives NOT EVER. They'll happen, but we do all we can to prevent them, don't we? We never willingly invite serious afflictions and misfortunes into our lives. In fact we try to prevent serious afflictions and misfortunes. We take precautions to prevent hardships. I personally do not know a single person who invites serious afflictions and seeks out misfortune, quite the opposite.

When God's word tells us- WOE UNTO THEM….  Pronouncing serious affliction and misfortune on people we'd better pay attention.

Isa_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!

If you call evil…good, then woe unto you!

If you call good…evil, then woe unto you!

If you put darkness for light, then woe unto you!

If you put light for darkness, then woe unto you!

If you put bitter for sweet, then woe unto you!

If you put sweet for bitter, then woe unto you!

Contrariness is what is at play here in these verses.  You are living a life contrary to God's design. Make no mistake there are going to be a lot more people living contrary to God's plan than those who live for it. This is why we know the world right now seems to have come unglued and is clearly falling apart morally. Yes, morally. 

What is evil? You can name some things can't you? Just name a few evil things that exist. Murder is evil, yes? Stealing is evil, yes? Torture is evil, right? Can you dispute these statements? Some will say they can and give various situations where such things may be justified, but without any sort of justification whatsoever- they are evil. As soon as we admit to evil existing there has to be the opposite of evil. Not murdering is morally sound, not stealing, not torturing anything is morally good. God has moral standards for His creatures, all of us. We usually comprehend right from wrong early on in our lives. There is something in us that knows when we do wrong and a sense of guilt results from the wrong we do.

There exists right and wrong and for reasons that we can understand, and some we cannot understand. When we can't understand we need to trust it is for our good. WE DON'T have to understand to accept and believe, we trust, we have faith without full comprehension.  In our everyday lives we are often called to trust others. If you love anyone and are dating or married to them- you have to develop a trust in that love because otherwise you will live in a constant unending state of fear and suspicion which would warp any love that exists. Yes, very often trust and faith is broken, and when it is we are understandably very hurt. But it isn't always broken, not everyone breaks the trust and faith others put in them.

We must have faith in the morals that God has revealed in His word to us, words that are untwisted and unaltered. 

We have to have faith in God's goodness, His light, and the things He calls sweet.

When we choose to take what God has revealed as good, light and sweet, and change it to evil, darkness and bitterness- we can only expect misfortune and affliction of the eternal kind.

When we choose to take what God has revealed as evil, dark, and bitter and change it to good, light and sweet - again we must only ever expect woe to befall us.

The trouble arises when we take this so far that we no longer care to know the difference between good and evil, light and dark, sweet and bitter. When we as a society begin to teach our children contrary to God's moral standards we have created a future society that like Sodom and Gomorrah, a society such as the one which existed before Noah and the flood-  it is so corrupted with evil there is nothing left to do but destroy all but the very few who have kept the faith of God.

Pro 17:15  He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.

This is truth!

We live in a world that justifies the wicked, and condemns the just all too often. We are not to raise up any arms and fight against this tide of evil overcoming the world, we are to continue on in the love of God. We are to pray, we are to render only God's love to every single enemy of God and therefore, us. God's moral laws were created out of love, and it is in that love we are to live in His moral laws.  God please help us, and protect us from the vile evil that has filled our world at every turn. Protect us from the evil that seems to demand we give into it or else suffer under the condemnation of the vast majority of the world. Let us live solely in YOUR LOVE as JESUS revealed to us and as the HOLY SPIRIT keeps us in always.

Please Lord, help us to forever discern between good and evil, light and darkness, sweet and bitter, and let us follow only in the good, the light and the sweet - all through Your mercy, Your grace, Your love now and forever!!!!

Amen!