Apr 6 (Daily reading: Judges 19-21) Words are hard to find after reading today’s story. I could ask why it is even in the Bible, but then I remember how God’s word is honest in its recounting of how humans can stray from God’s chosen path. I can only call your attention to the words repeated in the very last verse of the book of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25). Identical words had been written in 17:6, so they serve as bookends. Between 17:6 and 21:25, we find stories that illustrate what can happen when we forsake God’s ways.
The Bible is the story of God creating man, of His dealing with man in his disobedience and rebellion, and finally of His redemption of man. Isaiah 53 gives a description of the Messiah who would come to redeem man, and verse 6 describes the human condition: “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” This is a confirmation of the truth that when humans are left to their own devices, they will “do what is right in their own eyes.”
Isaiah 53:6 continues, “But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on Him.” Do you remember what happened when Philip discovered that the Ethiopian was reading from this very chapter? “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him” (Ac. 8:35). The One who was predicted as Messiah, the One who would redeem us by taking our wrongdoing upon Himself, was Jesus! This led to the Ethiopian making this statement: ““I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Ac. 8:37, NKJV). This belief will lead us to do what is right in God’s eyes and not what is right in our own eyes.
– Al Gary
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