The Bible says, “That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered” (Ecc.1:15). And, “. . . the crooked shall be made straight, . . . and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Lk.3: 5, 6).

There are many things in life that are crooked. But in order to determine if something is crooked there must be something straight to compare it to: a crooked line, compared to a straight line, a crooked stick, compared to a straight stick. We even have a crooked man, a crook, a man that’s wrong, a man that’s dishonest, and not upright in conduct, compared to a man that’s straight or upright.

Solomon, in his wisdom, saw that man was crooked and bent away from God and righteousness and bent toward sin and evil. He saw that man was “lacking” or insufficient, came short of and missed the mark when it came to meeting God’s standard found in His Word (KJV) (vs.15).

With his wisdom, he couldn’t reform man. He couldn’t change his crooked bent toward sin and ungodliness and give him an inclination toward God and righteousness.

As Solomon in his day, we today see the crookedness of man. We see that with his abusive habits and behavior ,he is a danger to himself and others and we have established institutions to straighten him out, hopefully. If these institutions don’t correct his problem, he is eventually sent to a correctional institution for being a crook.

But for all our efforts, we notice that our help is at the best only superficial and temporary. The inclination for the wrong is still ingrained in the nature, and like a sapling that’s been bent, snaps back to its original bent when it’s released, so man will return to his old ways when released from the oversight of man’s institutions.

There’s nothing man in his own power can do to make the crooked man straight. If we could, we wouldn’t need Jesus and His salvation.

Only Jesus can take the crooked and make it straight.

The “crooked” referred to here is the character and nature of man. It would signify all manners of deceit, corruption, guile, hypocrisy, and untruthfulness. Any person who is bent low over a power of sin and who is a crook in every sense of the word, who is a liar, a cheat, a thief, an adulterer, a fornicator, a murderer, and ungodly, is the crook that God can make straight.

Jesus makes the crooked straight through regeneration.

Through His shed blood, He cleanses them and gives them a new heart (Is.1:18; Ez.36:26). When the crook (and we were all crooks at one time) repents of his sins and puts his faith in Jesus and His finished work of redemption at Calvary, he’s saved and forgiven of all his sins and crookedness, and becomes a new creature in Christ (2 Cor.5:17) and begins walking the strait and narrow way, where there’s no room for crookedness.

Once someone is saved, they make straight paths for their feet (Heb.12:13) and follow the “highway of the upright (straight)” which is “to depart from evil (crookedness)” (Pr.16:17).

Jesus was condemned as a crook and bent crooked in the manner He was hung on the cross, and from the pain that gripped His body, in order that we might be made straight through Him.

James H. Cagle is a resident of Ray City.