Woe to those who call evil good and good evil! Putin is not a great “humanitarian”!
The Hebrew Scriptures describe a horrific period in Israel’s history in which the ethical norms of the nation were totally upside down. The nation had lost its way. God raised up the prophet Isaiah to rectify the situation. Isaiah’s message was quite clear as he denounced the moral “experts” of his day:
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. (Isaiah 5:20)
Isaiah’s message is just as relevant today. Donald Trump sent his special envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia to schedule high level talks between the Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin and President Trump. International diplomacy can be quite difficult as envoys and ambassadors must deal with unsavory leaders. Nevertheless, Witkoff failed miserably in his conversation with Putin. Putin released an American citizen from a Russian jail and Witkoff responded by praising Putin as a great “humanitarian”.
Putin is many things, but he is not a humanitarian. He rules over Russia with a heavy hand. He has imprisoned many of his citizens for just expressing their criticisms of Russia’s injustice. He invaded Ukraine four years ago and his war has caused thousands of military deaths. In addition, his missiles and drones have targeted civilian populations in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing hundreds of innocent civilian. The U.S. Congress sanctioned Putin with the goal of quickly ending the war, but those sanctions were recently weakened by our own administration’s deal to purchase large quantities of Russian oil. Putin is savvy and astute and has played his opponents as fools. He is not a humanitarian. Woe to those who today heap false praise upon Putin!
