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!

Isaiah 5 begins with a parable about a Beloved and His vineyard. Isaiah said: “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (v.1b, 2, ESV). The Beloved was diligent and took great effort to tend to His vineyard. Unfortunately, it yielded wild grapes, that is, bad grapes; they are corrupt and rotten. He asked the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah what should He do to this vineyard that produced bad grapes (v.3, 4). He answered the question Himself. He said He would destroy the vineyard and make it a wasteland (v.5, 6). The explanation of the parable is found in verse 7: “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!” The Beloved is God. The vineyard is Judah and Israel. God had treated the Israel and Judah as a farmer does a vineyard. They were the objects of His faithful and unceasing care. It was His “only” vineyard. Of all the nations of the earth, God had chosen to bestow special attention on them only. But, they were a disappointment to Him. God’s patience had run out and those two corrupt nations would be destroyed by foreign invaders. Their corruption is aptly described in verse 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!” They called evil actions good and good actions evil. It is not that they were a confused people. It’s not that they couldn’t differentiate between right and wrong, good and evil, or light with darkness. It’s because they loved their sins. They condoned sins and approved those who did the same. It may very well be applied to the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time, who preferred the evil traditions of their elders to the law of God. It’s not that they did not know the Law but they loved their traditions more than the Law of God. Christ said to them: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:9). In Romans 1:18-32, Paul gives a long list of the sins of the Gentiles and concludes them to be a people who love their sins: “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:32). Do sinners today know what is good and evil? Of course they do. And, they also know God does not approve of their sins. They also know that one day they will have to face the judgment of God. But they love their sins too much to care about God’s judgment. They also encourage others to follow them in their evil deeds. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is revisited in this generation. Right here in this supposedly conservative society, more are becoming more liberal on gay rights. A recent article published in the Straits Times on 3 May 2019 revealed this: “On homosexual sex, about 49 per cent of those in the younger age group thought it was not wrong, compared with only 10 per cent in the older age group.” Over time, as the old fades away into history, the fate of the society will be determined by these liberal youths.  Evil will be called good and those who oppose it will be called evil instead. Brethren, the wages of sin is eternal damnation (Romans 6:23). Let us call sin by its name and even if the world around us says it is not sin when God’s word says it is, let us listen to the word of God.