Ukraine reburies Nazi collaborator with state honors, drawing Israeli condemnation
Ukraine's state reburial of a Nazi collaborator with honors, endorsed by its Jewish president, reflects a deep moral inversion where evil is called good and national identity is placed above truth, echoing Scripture's warnings against calling evil good.
Isaiah 5:20
Direct Principle“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!”
Why this passage
In its original context, Isaiah pronounces a series of 'woes' against Judah's leaders and people who have inverted God's moral order—calling what God calls evil 'good' and what God calls good 'evil.' This is not a vague metaphor but a specific indictment of a society that has lost its moral compass, particularly among those in authority.
The principle is timeless: when a nation's government, led by its highest officials, publicly honors someone who participated in the systematic murder of innocents (here, Jews during the Holocaust), it is a textbook case of calling evil good. The act of reburial with state honors is a ceremonial declaration that this person's actions were worthy of honor, not condemnation.
Isaiah 5:20 declares, 'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.' This reburial ceremony in Ukraine honors a woman who collaborated with the Nazi regime that murdered millions of Jews, yet she is celebrated as a national hero.
When a nation's leaders—including a president of Jewish heritage—participate in such a ceremony, it reveals how far moral confusion can spread. The woe pronounced by Isaiah is not distant history; it is a living warning for every people and leader who would trade truth for the sake of national pride.
Today's Prayer
Pray that the Lord would raise up truth-tellers in Ukraine and every nation who will call evil evil and good good, and that He would protect His people from the deception of nationalistic idolatry.
Further Scripture
Additional passages that illuminate this event, each grounded in a distinct interpretive lens.
“They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.”
Why this passage
Amos 5:10-12 describes a society that hates those who speak the truth and loves those who pervert justice. The prophet indicts Israel for trampling on the poor and afflicting the righteous while maintaining a facade of religious observance.
The core sin is the rejection of truth and justice in favor of self-interest and national pride.
The principle is that God judges nations not by their military strength or nationalistic fervor but by their treatment of truth, justice, and the vulnerable. When a nation honors those who participated in evil, it is a form of 'afflicting the righteous'—in this case, the memory of Holocaust victims and the truth of history.
How it applies
Israel's condemnation of the reburial—calling it 'ignoring of historical truths'—is the voice of the one who 'reproves in the gate' that Amos describes. Ukraine's leaders, by honoring a Nazi collaborator, are rejecting that reproof and choosing to honor a false narrative over the truth of history.
This event shows a nation choosing to 'hate him who reproves' and instead celebrating a collaborator. The moral decline is not accidental but a deliberate choice to elevate national myth above divine truth, a pattern Amos warned would bring judgment.
Related by Scripture
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Source: timesofisrael— we link to the original for full context.