Everyone Does What Is Right In Their Own Eyes

February 24, 2025

What is the most twisted chapter in the Bible? The answer has to be Judges 19. People who struggle with the authority of scripture often ask me, “How did that chapter get in the Bible?” It is a good question. This chapter has betrayal, gang rape, inhuman treatment and cutting a body up into pieces. All of this leads to a tragic civil war in ancient Israel in Judges 20. The whole sordid tale begins with Judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This line is repeated in Judges 21:25. This whole section of scripture is twisted and awful.

So, why is it in the Bible? It is there to remind us what happens when people and a nation try to live without God as said in Judges 2:10b-11 which reads, “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.”

That is what the whole book of Judges is all about. If you live in obedience to God, the nation will be blessed. People will treat each other better, leaders will lead the nation better, spiritual leaders will live their lives pointing to God, business leaders will use honest measures and the nation will be safe and protected by God.

If all these leaders decide to do “what is right in their own eyes,” then just the opposite will occur. The leaders will collect lots of concubines, taxes and power. The religious leaders will twist faith into anything they want it to be and the church will look much like the culture. The business leaders will build their wealth on the backs of the poor they take advantage of. Does this sound anything like our country today?

If you look closely at the book of Judges, you find an ominous pattern emerges over the 400+ years it covers. This pattern is bondage, deliverance, blessing, prosperity, comfort and then back to bondage. I think this pattern was not just an ancient occurrence, but one that can be applied throughout human history, especially to those nations that worship the God of the Bible. God’s promises are sure. God tells us in II Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Note, it is believers who turn from their evil ways that will see the healing of their nation. So, if a nation who has faith in God turns from its evil ways, then God will heal that nation. Thus, bondage is replaced by deliverance.

Usually deliverance occurs with great miracles, so those that experience those miracles know beyond any doubt that it was God that delivered them. They worship the Lord with no compromise. In the second phase of the cycle, God blesses such worship richly. It may be financial, but not necessarily. God blesses as He sees fit. With such blessings come the third phase, great prosperity, which again could include financial, but may also include medical, peace, safety and other important blessings that make life a real joy.

As our prosperity grows, we fall in love with being comfortable. Then, we humans have a way of becoming arrogant, thus thinking we built all the prosperity without any help from God. Maybe there isn’t a God at all. Perhaps, it is because of all humans on the planet we are the smartest, and that is why we are the richest and most prosperous. Who needs God anyway? If a nation’s political, religious and business leaders live doing “what seems right in their own eyes”, is that nation moving back toward bondage?

When I read the book of Judges, I always have a very eerie feeling that I am living out this cycle, and I don’t like where my nation and I are in the cycle. What do you think? Have I correctly discerned what Judges teaches about nations and their cycles? Where do you think our beloved country is in this cycle? What does that mean for the person who professes faith in the God of the Bible? No matter where you think we are in the cycle, live desiring to give glory to God above all things. Live praying for revival and deliverance and giving thanks to God for all His blessings.

(To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional).