Over 2,500 years ago God sent Isaiah the prophet to his people to condemn them for their hypocritical worship and disobedience to his covenant. The people had out of convenience spurned God’s truth and followed their own pernicious ways. On one occasion of censoring Israel’s impudent self-righteousness, Isaiah proclaimed woe on their wicked posturing. “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! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” (Isaiah 5: 20-23)
Those who despise truth will suffer the consequences. Israel’s sin led to their destruction and captivity by the invading Assyrian armies in 722 B.C. The danger in rejecting truth is real though, perhaps, not immediate. God does not settle his accounts at the end of every day, but neither will he be patient with a man’s sins forever. “Be not deceived. God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) The law of the harvest is both sure and trustworthy.
Our nation is in the throes of great confusion. Isaiah could have spoken his message of woe today. As a people we’ve exchanged God’s truth for convenient relativism while ignoring, even scoffing at the examples of history and the warnings of his messengers. Be assured, there is no safety when truth is abandoned and folly is embraced.
But let’s make this teaching more personal and, consequently, something that each of us can lay hold of. Let’s set aside our contemplations of the nation to considering our own behavior. After all, the footprint of a nation is made from the paths of each individual. What is your view of truth? Is it something that you determine or is it something you discover? There is a vast difference. To determine one’s own truth is to be one’s own god. When I consider that my own heart is, as Jeremiah tells us, “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” to serve as my own god is truly a frightening posture.
On the other hand, to recognize that truth is external to ourselves and declared unto us by the God of truth prepares us to follow a path that is trustworthy and safe. That path is not one necessarily that will never encounter danger nor does following it make us exempt from the difficulties common to man. But as Christ said in his sermon on the mount, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25) Follow his truth – not our own folly!
From the Chaplain 