Right in my own eyes

I was challenged by a message I heard this weekend about the book of Judges. The pastor spoke on the book of Judges and how the message of the book points to fact that the Israelites during this time period were doing what was 'right in their own eyes.' The word 'right' means just, upright, or straight: it means more than that they were simply doing whatever they felt like. They were doing what to them appeared to be righteous - and the sad thing is they didn't realize that God had declared it to be 'evil' in his sight. In their eyes, it was right; in God's eyes, it was wrong. Why didn't they see it?

They had rejected the authority of God in their lives and had set themselves up as their own authority, reserving the right for themselves to make the decision about what was acceptable to God and what would be considered 'righteousness'. This can be seen through the last statement of the book, "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 21:25

Isn't this so like our own context of Christianity? Aren't we just like this? Our Christian songs, books, and media have the nutritional content of a marshmellow; We approach God's word as if it were a buffet that allows us to eat only the things we like; and we can't stand to actually think through the thoughts we are presented from the Text. We don't know God, so we make our own god that allows us to have things the way we like it. Let us repent and return to our Creator - who loves us and desires to actually relate to us.

Click here [Overview of Judges] or here [Life of Sampson] to listen to these sermons on the book of Judges: I was the speaker.