But the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
The book of Isaiah has several passages contrasting the Lᴏʀᴅ against the ways of mankind. Not to be unkind but we do not come out well when our nature is contrasted against God’s.
Isaiah 5, verse 16 states the truth about a part of God’s nature:
But the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. 1
Straight up—God is just and God demonstrates His distinctiveness by always being in agreement with His revealed character. No wavering, no shading, no indecisiveness—always exactly, consistently Himself.
Then the prophet lists a series on the woeful nature of those who by their actions defy God’s justice, His holiness, His righteousness.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, who 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!”
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 shrewd in their own sight!
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! 2
The ‘woes’ focus on reversals of what God declares to be true and right but those practicing the woeful’s get around this by defying God, declaring their new ways both Truth and Light. After all, this is the modern age and God’s ways are so traditional while we are so progressive!
Jesus—yes, New Testament—proclaims a similar series of woe’s in Matthew 23 where He addresses seven distinct practices of the religious elite and how they replace God’s ways with their own traditions. His decrees are just as direct as what He gave Isaiah 700 years earlier. Casual observation found that mankind was not getting nearer to God but with more knowledge about God, was going away from Him into their own understanding of how life ought to be. That provokes the question, “How much nearer to God’s justice, holiness and righteousness are we 2,000 years after Jesus lived among us?” With both testaments of the Bible, the indwelling Holy Spirit and the witness of 50 generations of Jesus followers, are we inclined toward what God says about Himself or what mankind has calculated as truth? Your decision.
FOOTNOTES:
1 Isaiah 5:16 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/isa/5/16/s_684016
2 Isaiah 5:18-23 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/isa/5/18-23/s_684018