Isaiah 5:21 – Bad Fruit: Wise in Their Own Eyes
Now we come to the fifth of these bad fruit. Those that are so wise in their own eyes, who flatter themselves about their own intelligence and cleverness and wisdom. They weren’t around merely in Isaiah’s time. They’re around even today. You can find them all over the place. You find a lot of them in academia, you find them in the media, news, and entertainment. You can find them all over the Internet. And most astonishingly and horrifyingly — maybe it shouldn’t be because that was the case in Isaiah’s day — you find them in the church. Instead of being faithful shepherds, they’re wolves. What a horrifying thing. There is great danger, sadly, for the leaders of the church. Far too often they become wise in their own eyes. Instead of being God’s agents of transformation, as they apply the Scripture to the world and call the world to surrender to Jesus Christ, they end up attempting to conform to the world, saying, we’re engaging the culture and the times. They are pursuing a course that seems to them very wise, but it is not according to true wisdom.
Where do we find that true wisdom? The scriptures testify that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jehovah. Wisdom is based upon proper application of the truth. Where is truth? God’s Word, the Bible, is truth.
Those who are wise in their own eyes are proud and unteachable. They think they already know what is good, so they will not listen to anything contrary. There is the utmost contempt for those who truly are wise, who know the wisdom of God and the power of God in Jesus as revealed in and through the Bible.
What can you do for someone that you know who is like this? All you can do, but it may be used by the sovereign God, is pray for them. They are invincible to your reasoning, and no more than a leopard can change its spots into the stripes of a tiger can they change themselves. But though they be invincible to themselves or to your argumentation, they are not to the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray for them.
Questions
- Where is true wisdom?
- What are those who are wise in their own eyes like?
Prayer Points
- Pray for those who you may know who are “wise in their own eyes”.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.