4:8-10
The priests fed off the sins of the people, delighting in their wickedness. This is the complete opposite of what priests are meant to do. They are meant to lead people away from sin and towards God, not the other way around! Sadly, we often see this pattern repeated today with many sin-affirming churches. More widely, we see the media and society’s leaders applauding behaviour that should not be applauded. Both priests and people would be punished. Their works would all be frustrated. When we abandon God’s ways and pursue other ways they will all end in futility and failure. “Because they have ceased obeying the Lord”.
4:11
ESV says “whoredom, wine and new wine take away understanding”, NKJV says they “enslave the heart”. One thing to note is that heart in the Bible includes our mind, will and emotions, not just our emotions. Whichever of these translations is the more accurate, they are both true. When we follow sinful ways they do take away understanding. With wine it is obvious that too much wine takes away understanding, but all sin does that. It clouds our vision, for we start trying to justify or excuse our sin, or even to try and prove that our sin is actually good. This leads to crazy thinking. Sin also enslaves us, as Jesus said (John 8:34).
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