“In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (v.6)
God had raised up judges to rule and deliver the people of Israel when He saw fit; and at other times for their sins, He allowed them to be without them. This verse speaks of those days with no judge to govern nor a supreme magistrate to control the nation. However, there was in fact a king in Israel – Israel should have recognized the LORD God as their King. But since Israel rejected God as King, they were without any good and effective leadership.
Without a judge or a king the people again forsook the Lord and did what was right in their own eyes. The people looked to self for their guide to morality and ethics. They genuinely felt that they did what was right, but they measured it only by their own eyes.This accounts for the idolatry of Micah and his lust for money. It was his love of money that made him so undutiful to his mother as to rob her, and made her so unkind to her son, as to curse him (v.2).
Still today many people, and even some professing Christians, ignore God’s clear revelation of Himself in His Word. They think they are free to form their own ideas of what God is like and what He expects. Strongly influenced by a godless culture, they live at the center of their own little world and walk in their own ways. That creates moral and spiritual confusion.
Scripture tells us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12). When man follows his own instincts – apart from the redeemed nature of the converted person – it leads to ruin. We need to follow God’s way, not our own. We must take God’s Word seriously if we are to show our world that Christ gives us freedom to do what’s right.
The Truth: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
