Desperate People & Desperate Circumstances

What is right?

Interesting question and for some here in person and those of you online you are already answering the question? Sometimes the answer is not always easy. Sometimes there is no “right” answer; as in do you want spaghetti sauce or alfredo sauce? Other times it is clear and unchanging: Jesus is God; he is the only way of salvation!

Issue: Everyone did what was right in their own eyes!

Our current culture is not the first one to have a relative view of right and wrong. The book of Judges indicates relativism was the primary method of deciding truth and rightness in ancient Israel.

Without a strong foundation, desperation can set in.

This is what happens when truth becomes relative and we try to live out what is “right in our own eyes”. We “see”, pun intended, this in our final chapters of Judges.

Micah is desperate spiritually.

For Micah he is wanting to be faithful but isn’t close enough to the Tabernacle of God to be there. So he is desperate spiritually. We must be careful when we get to a similar situation. Sometimes this will lead to good results other times we unintentional go a way which leads to further erosion of the foundation

The Levite is desperate financially and livelihood.

In those days it was hard to be a Levite, dependent on God and the people to always provide. They had no inheritance like the others and were scattered among the nation to help people in their relationship with God.

The Danites are desperate for security and peace.

This is made explicit in our text.

Desperation may lead to destruction.

The astute observer will realize that no where in our text is there an “oppressor” or ruler over the nation. What changes is we are starting to see that total depravity of Israel is leading it to fight themselves.

Our desperation is only conquered in Christ.

This is where our true needs, security and peace come from. This is seen in the parable of the strong foundation found in Scripture.

The question: what is right in God’s eyes?

This is what we need to be asking. N Graham Standish talks about this in his book Becoming a Blessed Church: Forming a Church of Spiritual Purpose, Presence and Power. However, this is not always an “easy” question nor does it provide easy answers.

Task: Submit to Christ today.

This is our task each and every day.