Isaiah Chapter 5:21: The Six Sins of Stinky Fruit Part 5. Cynicism
Some commentators see verse 21 paired with verse 22 describing a single “fruit” or “sin.” I think there is a difference here, even if it is subtle. The next “stinky fruit” Isaiah highlights in his day that applies still today is cynicism.
“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and discerning in their own sight.”
You might call this sin the sin of self-deception. It does dovetail with the previous verse where people perverted reality with false speech. However, here things are taken to another level. The sin of self-deception is the conviction that we know best, better than anyone else. We know better than God. We place ourselves in the seat of God, as judge of reality, morality, and our own little world. We do not yield to things the way God defines them. (Another way of putting it would be to say that we do not yield to reality.) We decide what we think is best.
However, as is already seen in the previous verses, the “best” here is not any sort of objective good. These people are taking from the poor, spending their lives in self-indulgence, pursuing evil and sin, and redefining the rules as they go along. It is not really and exercise in doing better than God, but rather an effort to simply do what we please.
The reason this is cynicism, and not just deception, is that when people live like this, they have abandoned the idea that there can be any objective good. They claim a morality but live under the conviction that there is no morality. Reality, not just everyone else, is amoral, so I might as well do what I please.
A world where this thought prevails is a scary place indeed!
“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and discerning in their own sight.”
You might call this sin the sin of self-deception. It does dovetail with the previous verse where people perverted reality with false speech. However, here things are taken to another level. The sin of self-deception is the conviction that we know best, better than anyone else. We know better than God. We place ourselves in the seat of God, as judge of reality, morality, and our own little world. We do not yield to things the way God defines them. (Another way of putting it would be to say that we do not yield to reality.) We decide what we think is best.
However, as is already seen in the previous verses, the “best” here is not any sort of objective good. These people are taking from the poor, spending their lives in self-indulgence, pursuing evil and sin, and redefining the rules as they go along. It is not really and exercise in doing better than God, but rather an effort to simply do what we please.
The reason this is cynicism, and not just deception, is that when people live like this, they have abandoned the idea that there can be any objective good. They claim a morality but live under the conviction that there is no morality. Reality, not just everyone else, is amoral, so I might as well do what I please.
A world where this thought prevails is a scary place indeed!
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