Knowing God through His Word…Day by Day

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25

Since we just finished reading Judges last month on our Bible reading plan, I am passing along another great blog post.  This is by Pastor Ray Ortlund of immanuel Church in Nashville, TN:

The book of Judges tells a story of chaos, wasted years, stupidity and tragedy. It narrates a significant season in the life of God’s people.

What went wrong? The author sums it up in the last verse of his book: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” They were not doing what they saw as wrong. They weren’t trying to mess up. They thought they were doing the right thing. But what was right in their own eyes created disaster. What they needed was a king, a Christ-figure, whose word would save them from their own good intentions, their own moral fervor, their “gut.” “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26).

We have a King ruling over us according to what is right in His eyes. And we learn, often to our surprise, what is right in His eyes from the Bible. That is how he saves us from our disastrous rightness and leads us into green pastures and beside still waters we could never find on our own.