Dragging Sin Like a Plow.

Isaiah 5:18-20

"Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood, and sin as if with cart ropes."

What an image. I can identify. We think that we are enjoying our sin but we soon realize that it is dragging behind us like a plow. We become chained to our sin by the lies that we use in our attempts to hide it from God and from others and, even worse, to hide it from ourselves. We drag that burden around like a workhorse.

We think nobody sees what we are doing. With our mouths we talk about how we want to see a move of God, how we want revival, how we hope that He will return soon to straighten out the earth. The whole time we are dragging our own sin behind us and we aren’t willing to admit that it is there. How can we ask God to draw near while at the same time we are trying to hide our sin from Him? How can we ask Him to move when we won’t let Him move in us?

In verse 20 we see men who serve God with their mouths but lie to hide their sin. Eventually they either deceive themselves or become so invested in hiding their sin that they begin to call sinful things acceptable or even good. Sinful things can not be good in a person’s sight for very long before the scale shifts entirely and good also becomes evil. You can not be on both sides of the table at once. In this complex, multi-layered deception, they exchange light for dark and darkness for light. Bitter becomes sweet, and sweet bitter. When you have no real reference it is frightening how dramatically you can change your understanding.

Often, if not always, it starts with one person wanting to hide a sin from themselves, from others, and from God. Rather than deal with it, they justify it. Others pick up this justification, which is itself a form of justification (the more people embrace it, the more it is “normal”) and soon massive numbers of people have invested in this cover for their sin. There are a lot of vested interests to keep the lie in place, many of them viewing their role as a service to their neighbor and to God because of the “peace” or “grace” it provides. It takes a major shaking to rip such an important investment out of the hands of so many shareholders.