Rights and leadership of a prophetic people
In the days of Samson, there was no king in Israel. There arose idolatry, sexual promiscuity, murder, rape, famine, and war. These accounts in Judges 16-21 demonstrate what a lack of leadership brings to a nation. No moral compass, no commitment to law-God’s or man’s, reaps the results that we are seeing in our society today. Judges 17:6 says, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” This is repeated in Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” When there is a moral vacuum of leadership in a nation, a state, a community, people do what is right in their own eyes.
A lot is found in the Holy Scriptures about man doing his own thing and thinking it is just and right. Proverbs has many verses about it. Here are some: Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death”; Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkens unto counsel is wise”; Proverbs 21:12, says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD ponders the hearts” meaning that men think their way is right, but God weighs their very motives. In a vacuum of moral leadership, everybody does what is right in their own eyes. Fast forward to today, everybody thinks they have the right to do what they want.
In Deuteronomy 12, the Lord is explaining to the people that they must keep His judgments and statutes, go into the land and “utterly destroy” the altars and high places of the pagan gods, and establish one place of worship to the “Lord your God.” Verse 12:8 says, “You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.” And He instructs them to follow his statutes. Verse 28 says, “Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.”
Some would argue that this is only for the children of Israel. These, however, are the laws of nature and of nature’s God, which are the Laws of God. In natural law, there are consequences to every action. An object will fall to the ground when dropped because of gravity. Similarly, there are consequences for breaking the natural laws that cannot be seen, but are established by God. A vacuum of moral leadership allows for man to grant rights, which are right in his own eyes based on his own mortal standard. But how are they just, if they are man-made? Only the rights to man granted by God can meet a just standard. And only by following God’s laws will it go right for people and nations. We need moral leadership, that holds accountability to God’s standards. This begins in the House of God. Let us repent and so begin anew.
