When Everyone Does What’s Right
How the Book of Judges Warns Us
If you’ve ever read the book of Judges straight through, it’s an odd mix of highs and lows. At first, it’s energizing. God raises up leaders, battles are won, and enemies retreat. You start thinking maybe Israel’s finally turning a corner. Then something shifts.
The stories grow darker. The decisions become harder to stomach. People stop listening to God and start listening to themselves. By the end, you’re still inspired on some level, but you’re unsettled. Especially related to one ke phrase:
Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
That phrase shows up a few times, including at the very end of Judges, almost like God wants us to sit with it a little longer.
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25 ESV
Instead of a conclusion to the text, it feels more like a warning that things are about to unravel again. There’s no king, no authority, and no shared submission to God. And when that happens, both throughout Scripture and history, people slowly drift into confusion, then eventually rush headlong into chaos.
We like to believe humanity has matured since then. More education, better systems, and more awareness. But the human heart hasn’t changed much at all. When there’s no authority above us, we don’t become more compassionate.
A temptation grows to become more convinced of ourselves. Everyone becomes their own moral compass, and that compass always bends toward self preservation, self gratification, and self justification.
Jumping ahead to the New Testament, Paul’s words in to the Roman Church can serve us well:
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Romans 13:1 ESV
Paul’s describing reality shaped by generations of human behavior. Authority doesn’t exist because leaders are perfect. It exists because without restraint, sin runs wild. Then Paul continues:
“For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” Romans 13:3 ESV
Coming back to Judges, we have the description of what happens when that restraint disappears entirely.
When Everyone Does What’s Right in Their Own Eyes
We don’t have to imagine what life looks like without authority. We’ve seen it. When political systems collapse, society doesn’t gently reorganize. It fractures and corruption breeds unrest. Unrest becomes societal breakdown which turns into survival mode.
Next comes looting, violence and exploitation.
In the past few decades, parts of the world have watched communities fall so far that children were trained as soldiers. These child-soldiers then, forced to commit acts no child should ever witness, let alone carry.
When everyone does what’s right in their own eyes, the strong dominate, the vulnerable suffer, and conscience becomes optional. That reality should sober us, and should shape our thinking toward gratitude.
Grateful for Restraint We Rarely Notice
I don’t pretend to have everything figured out politically. I wrestle with the same tensions many of us do. I see cultural cracks forming in places that once felt stable. And yet, when I read Judges, I find myself pausing to give thanks.
Right now, we can work, and we can buy food. We can raise our kids with a measure of safety, and we can gather for worship without fear. That stability doesn’t exist by accident.
God often uses imperfect systems and imperfect people to restrain the worst impulses of fallen humanity. Law enforcement and military personnel step into spaces most of us never see, carrying weight we rarely think about while we sleep safely at home.
They don’t eliminate evil, but they hold back enough of it to keep society from collapsing into Judges level darkness. And that matters more than we usually realize.
Our Hope Has Always Been a King
Judges ends without a king, but the Bible doesn’t. That empty space at the end of the book points forward. Israel didn’t just need better leaders or stronger warriors. They needed righteous rule. And so do we.
Every human system will eventually fail, every nation will shake, and every structure we trust will prove fragile. But our hope was never meant to rest there.
“For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.” Isaiah 33:22 ESV
When the world begins to resemble the days of Judges again, our hope should sharpen. Because Jesus will return one day, and all justice will be restored. In that day, peace won’t be enforced by laws or weapons but secured by His reign.
Until then, we choose to live faithfully in the tension, grateful for restraint, and honest about brokenness. Always anchored in a King who never abdicates His throne.
Join the Conversation; Answer This Question
- When you read the book of Judges, what part unsettles you the most and why?
Reminds me of the book “Lord of the Flies.”
No rules, no leadership, do whatever feels right, etc. Sorta sounds like freedom, but is really bondage and ends in disaster.
I wonder if perhaps the idea of Judges was that God was supposed to be the ruler. It was a shame to see how without a king, or at least a strong leader, the people of Israel turned so quickly from God. Even more so to see how I've done that in my own life.
🙂 Good stuff! Thanks for putting it up!
Thanks for your comments. Before reading through Judges, I read through Joshua and we can see what God can do when a godly man is in leadership. They can overcome anything! After Joshua died, he was not replaced and everything started to break down. Perhaps, God did want them to rule themselves…makes me wonder how we do at ruling ourselves!?!?
Wow, that's some scary stuff. And they weren't just any dudes off the street, they were God's chosen people! I don't think man is capable of ruling himself, because either there's a problem in what he does, or the taint is in his motives. The only way to actually do what's right is to let God do it for you, and allow him to user you as a carpenter might a hammer. The hammer didn't build the house, but the carpenter used him.
Awesome stuff, Jere!