Doing What's Right In One's Own Eyes

Recently I finished reading the book of Judges in the Old Testament, and was again struck by the phrase, "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." It appears three times, in 17:6; 18:1; and in 21:25. What's wrong with doing what we think is right in our own eyes? These days we're bombarded with such expressions as - "If it feels good, do it!" or "Follow your inner light!" or "You can be whatever you want to be, and do whatever you want to do!" The problem lies in the first part of that sentence: "In those days there was no king in Israel." The Israelites had the Law of Moses and the Levitical priesthood - a source of spiritual authority; but with no binding physical authority - a king: each man became an authority unto himself.

The result is what was right in their own eyes was evil in the eyes of the Lord, as we see in Judges 2:11-12 - "The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals; and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger." "The Baals" were the various pagan false gods of greed, lust for power, drunkenness, sexual lust, human sacrifice and violence.

Inevitably mankind repeats the cycle of falling into the various depravities and perversions of idolatry; then suffering the consequences and trying to straighten out. The book of Judges illustrates several turns of this wheel: falling into pagan idol worship, then being conquered by surrounding enemies, which caused the Israelites to call out to God for His mercy, so He sent them a judge who brings them back to God. But then the cycle repeats itself, again and again.

God, however, had a greater plan than simply yanking the Israelites out of the pit every time they fell in, over and over. His secret plan, hidden from the Israelites in the Old Testament but revealed "when the fullness of time had come," was to send His Son to redeem all mankind, not just the Jewish nation. We see a foreshadowing of God turning evil into good in the stories of Jacob's son Judah who lusted for a prostitute and ended up begetting a child with his Canaanite daughter-in-law Tamar, then the spies who visited the prostitute Rahab in Jericho and saved her and her family, and again with Orphah and Ruth... but this story has a special twist! Orphah ["Ophrah" is a misspelling] turned back to live with the pagans in Moab, but in Ruth 1:16 we read - "Do not entreat me to leave you, and to return from following after you, for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God [shall be] my God." - Ruth turned to the Lord God!

In all three of these stories, as well as the whole book of Judges, we see the principles of self-gratification versus self-denial: "If it feels good, do it!" versus following God's Law and His ordained authority, the prophets and priests. Yet, God oversaw the result - in Matthew 1:3-5 we read that Tamar, Rahab and Ruth - all pagan women - became some of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah! Why? Because they all three foresook their false worship of the surrounding cultures and joined wholeheartedly into God's chosen people: "your God [shall be] my God."

The cycle of God's people falling into sin and calling out for help, however, continued into the New Testament era: many of the scribes, pharisees and sadducees in the time of Christ were corrupt, and led the people into sin. Finally, though, after Jesus the Messiah had risen from the dead and Peter was preaching on the Day of Pentecost, when the people called out, "Brothers, what shall we do?", Peter replied: "Save yourselves from this perverted generation!" (Acts 2:37 & 40). [Yes, the word is "perverted" in the Russian Bible.] God delivered 3,000 souls on that day, when the Church was born!

So today we have the Word of God, the full Bible, just as the Israelites had the Law of Moses that came from the mouth of God on Mount Sinai. Do we, however, "do what we think is right in our own eyes"? Do we think that every person who believes in Jesus has the right to choose for him- or herself what the Bible really means, and live accordingly? Many people, especially in the "enlightened" West, think they should follow their inner light, their own autonomous rationality and intellect. Western civilization for the past 500 years is the repeated story of revolutions against established authority, both of Church and state.

The result is what we see today: a return to the various depravities and perversions of pagan idolatry. Western Christianity has splintered into approximately 40,000 denominations and uncounted non-denominational "independent" churches, many of which deny basic Christian truth such as the pre-existing divinity and Virgin birth of Christ, His real and physical crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, His real and physical Second Coming and other doctrines and moral teachings of the Early Church.

What must we do? Repent, turn from those evil ways, and join the real and visible Church! Hint: it's not the centralized authority of one supposedly "infallible" man, nor each person being the only authority in his/her own eyes, but rather the authority of national and universal councils led by godly men in direct descent from Christ and the Apostles.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 30 Mar. 2014.)