Tag: temples of god

God is love.

Everyone loves to hear those words.  They’re very comforting words.  But there are things that God hates, and he lists a number of them here.

Isaiah wrote,

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.  (Isaiah 5:8)

In other words, God hates it when people are so covetous, that they accumulate things to no purpose and to the hurt of others who are in need.

What about you?  Are you solely concerned with accumulating things you don’t really need, not caring for the people around you?

He then wrote,

Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine…

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks.  (Isaiah 5:11,22)

I’m not saying that it is wrong to have an occasional glass of wine, but what God clearly condemns is those who get drunk, and who are controlled by wine.

We are temples of God, and we are to be controlled by his Spirit, not wine.  (Ephesians 5:18)

Debauchery has no place in the temple of God.

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes.  (18)

Here Isaiah condemns those who deliberately follow the path of sin.  They pull around their sinful lifestyle wherever they go.

All of us sin.  All of us fall.  But we are not to be characterized by it.  Instead, we should be known for our righteousness, and to be holy as God is holy.

(Woe) to those who say, “Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it.  Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it.” (Isaiah 5:19)

At first glance, it seems that these were people who were seeking God.

But in reality, they were sneering at God.  They were saying, “If God really exists, then let him show himself so that I can know.”

And all the while they ignored his Word and all the things he was trying to do in their lives.

But God will not be mocked.  And if you are not sincerely seeking him, he will not reveal himself to you.

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 clever in their own sight. (Isaiah 5:20-21)

Isaiah could have been preaching in our age.

Nowadays, people cast aside God’s teaching of what’s right and wrong and create their own standards of right and wrong.

They call the things that God despises “good”, and the things God loves “evil”.

God hates that kind of “wisdom.”

(Woe to those) who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. (Isaiah 5:23)

Anytime we cast aside the wisdom of God and his righteousness, injustice is sure to come.  And today, you see the very things that Isaiah saw in his day, the guilty acquitted for a bribe, and justice denied to the innocent.

How little do things change.  One thing that hasn’t changed is God’s hatred for these things. And just as God brought judgment on Israel for these things, he will bring judgment on those who persist in this behavior.

God is love, but he will judge those who follow the path of sin. 

So as Paul wrote, let us cast aside these things that God hates, and cling instead to that which is good.  (Romans 12:9)