Deuteronomy 12:8-9
8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.
Judges 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
In Deuteronomy, God was being wonderfully merciful to the people of Israel by telling them what he demanded of them. It was not good for the people to try to do whatever seemed right to each individual. No, the people needed to hear from God in order to know how to serve him.
Later, at the end of the book of Judges, Israel reached one of her darkest moments as an undivided nation. As the people had continued down an ever-descending spiral, they failed to obey the law of God. Instead, they each did what seemed right in their own eyes.
Does it sound strange to you for God to condemn people for doing what is right in their eyes? It probably does if you have been influenced by our postmodern culture. However, it was terribly wrong. You see, all of humanity has been contaminated by original sin. We are a fallen race. It is impossible for those who have not been made alive by God’s Holy Spirit to truly do that which is ultimately good. Thus, no person who does what is right in his or her own eyes will ever please God (cf. Isa 64:6). What we naturally see as right in our own eyes might be the right thing; or perhaps what we think is right may be totally and unbelievably wrong.
God wants us to recognize that we are not naturally bent toward doing what pleases him. If we make our own choice based on our own knowledge of what is the right, we will tend to do exactly the opposite, dishonoring our Lord. This is why God’s word is such a treasure. The Scriptures teach us to do that which pleases God. The Bible tells us how to worship the Lord, to find grace in Christ, and to avoid things that are evil. God knew we could not and would not figure this stuff out on our own. So, God was loving enough to give us a tool, a book, that we can use to see who he is and how to please him.
Do you treasure the word of God as your only means of knowing how to please your God? You should, for such a book is a treasure. God could have chosen not to tell us how to please him. God could have left us to be destroyed the moment of our first sin against him. But God, out of his love, chose to tell us how to be right with him. You should love that God. You should treasure his word which tells us how to please him.
You should not, however, be surprised when his word tells us things that seem contrary to our cultural understanding. God gave us his word because we naturally would not do what is right. Thus, when our culture reacts against the Bible, thinking it out-dated, judgmental, closed-minded, or irrelevant, you should not be surprised. God knew we naturally would do what is right in our own eyes. God knew that we would naturally miss what is truly good. We pervert things like marriage, sex, entertainment, law, grace, and worship. This is why we need his word, to set us right and to help us to please the God who made us. Treasure and submit to his holy word so that you do not, like the people of old, only do what is right in your own eyes.
Pastor Travis Peterson 