Imagine a room full of giddy third graders. On a sugar high. With no teacher in the room (or at least, no teacher that they respect). And a loud, frenzied game of tag has broken out. All I can say is, God bless our childcare workers. When chaos erupts and order is abandoned, inevitably, everything starts going wrong and only getting worse. How do you regain control?
Such is the situation in the book of Judges. Israel, much like a group of uncontrollable kids, goes further and further downhill and into more and more chaos, slipping away from the righteousness by which they were supposed to be living. Every person was doing whatever they say fit. Other translations say “what was right in their own eyes.” God was supposed to be their king, but they lived as if without a king. This is the greatest recipe for disaster and multiplying chaos.
This particular story, one which may seem out of place, sets us up to see that even the priests of Israel were messing everything up. Just these first five verses might break the record for breaking as many of the ten commandments as possible in a short time. This man, Micah, dishonors his mother, steals, and worships a false god. His mother bears false witness, uses the Lord’s name in vain, and creates a carved idol. They were turning the list of prohibited things into a checklist! Everyone did as they saw fit. See how much chaos spirals when that happens?
The natural tendency of people who dwell in a sinful world is to judge according to our feelings and senses, and do what is right in our own eyes and follow our heart. But this way always leads us astray. Proverbs 12:15 says this is the way of the fool. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful about all things. How often do we walk according to our corrupted, sin-sullied senses?
The solution we need is a king. A good king, not one that will be susceptible to chaos himself. A permanent king, not like a judge who will only bring peace until his death. We need a king who will establish order out of chaos, righteousness out of evil, and eternal life out of death. Israel waited anxiously for that king all throughout the Old Testament. But our king has come; he has done exactly what we needed, and he has told us what way is right!
In those days Israel had no king, but now the king has come. Will we still do what is right in our own eyes? Or will we obey his Law and live in righteousness?
