Thursday 10 November 2005

The result of doing right in our own eyes

“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 21v25

Chapter 17-21 of Judges begins and ends with the same word, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” In between we see the terrible consequences of that fact.

Look at the litany of almost unimaginable sins- 1) A priest who prostitutes himself to a pagan worshipper, 2) Expecting God’s blessings based on external religiosity 3) A priest being bought out my a group of people, 4) A daughter and a concubine being offered to a group of perverts who wanted the men, 5) The murder and consequent butchering of the concubine and her body parts dispatched all over Israel, and 6) a civil war.

How does this happen? The heart is deceitful above ALL things and desperately wicked, no man can know it. No measure of evil is beyond man’s capacity. This is the result when man turns from God and follows his own dictates.

What are we asking for when we reject God’s way for our own? There is a way that seems right to man, but then end of it is the way of death.

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