NOTES for Isa 5:16-25
“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!” These words are very difficult to accept, because it is unpleasant, and sometimes simply disastrous, to feel neither wise nor clever. In Moscow there is an excellent school specializing in physics and mathematics, where the most talented children are brought together. This school has produced a remarkable constellation of people in science and education; its graduates include a great many professors, and not only in physics and mathematics. But one day a boy who studied at this school took his own life and left a note saying, “I don’t want to be a fool.” A girl who also studied there later had to spend many years treating her depression. Sadly, these two were by no means the only ones traumatized in this way, even to the point of death. Can this be good? Why, then, does the Bible call us to something like this—to feel that we are neither wise nor clever, that is, simply fools—if it is so terrible? In fact, however, the opposite is true: with these words the Lord warns us against precisely this terrible darkness. What was the fall of the first human being? He wanted to be like God (“you will be like gods,” Gen 3:5), and God is wise above all. But the words continue: “you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” Today the prophet also says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.” That is, woe to those who know the good yet call it evil. The trouble here is no longer that we know, but that, knowing, we pretend not to know—a kind of second fall, but “in the opposite direction.” Why should we fall away from God in either direction? If we grasp deeply within ourselves that God is many times wiser than the wisest among us human beings, if we always remember it and keep this unattainable and indisputable height in mind, then all the differences between us are leveled out. They become barely noticeable, just as the difference between houses—even skyscrapers—and huts is barely noticeable when viewed from an airplane window. The question itself simply loses its meaning. When we think about our own insignificance, foolishness, sinfulness, and worthlessness, we inevitably come to the thought: “Then why do I live?” Only one thing will save us: God, who is so wise, wiser than the wisest human being, loves me, wants me to live, and “willed me to be.” Then the question, “Am I a trembling creature, or do I have the right?” simply ceases to exist. He loves me, He brought me here and blessed me with life, for “God speaks to each one before creating him…” (R. M. Rilke).