ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 Sapate ‘Okatopa 29, 2023

Woe Upon Woe!

‘Oiaue ‘i funga ‘o e ‘Oiaue!

ISAIAH 5:20

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!

‘AISEA 5:20

‘Oiauē ‘a kinautolu, ‘Oku lau ‘a e kovi ko e lelei, Pea ‘oku lau ‘a e lelei ko e kovi; ‘Oku nau tuku ‘a e po‘uli ko e maama, Mo e maama ko e po‘uli; ‘Oku nau tuku ‘a e kona ko e melie, Mo e melie ko e kona!

Hoy can be used to lament ("Alas!"), but almost every instance is the verbal equivalent of taking someone's face in your hands and preparing to inform them of a cold, hard, unwelcome truth. With six occurrences of hoy in it, Isaiah 5 has this word more than any other OT chapter. Woe to those who hog land (v. 8), guzzle wine (v. 11), rope themselves to sin (v. 18), lie and twist truth (v. 20), are know-it-alls [v. 21), and are gold-medal winners at inebriation (v. 22). The only other portions of Scripture awash with this many woes is when Jesus unleashes a string of them upon the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 23). "Woe" may be an old-fashioned, churchy sounding word, but it's one we would do well to recycle. Calling good evil and evil good is as stylish and mainstream today as millennia ago.

Hoy is the call of repentance, which is not an occasional emotion but an ongoing motion. We move out of ourselves, out of sin, into contrition, faith, and forgiveness in Christ. To heed the woe is to speed into the blessing, to  pass from death in sin to life in the Son of God. 

Give us broken and contrite hearts, O Lord, to repent, believe, and rejoice in your forgiving love.