Their Own Eyes
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” is a statement that is repeated throughout the book of Judges. Because there was no authority in the land to guide all the people, the people in Israel each lived life according to their own view of justice. The context for these statements is always after a record of people doing some pretty wicked things.
We have one such account ending in Judges 21:25. The people of Gibeah had attempted to sexually assault a Levite and had assaulted and killed his wife. All of Israel had been morally outraged by the account of that encounter and had gathered an army to punish the men of Gibeah.
After being defeated multiple times, eventually they did nearly wipe out the tribe of Benjamin.
Their Vows
When the people of Israel had gathered, they had made two vows. The first was to kill any family who did not go to battle with them. The second was to never give their daughters in marriage to the men of Benjamin.
After realizing that the population of Benjamin had been reduced to near extinction, they decided it would be wrong to allow a tribe of Israel to disappear from the Earth entirely. Therefore, they wanted to ensure the remaining men of Benjamin had wives. This was a problem because they had vowed not to let them marry any of their daughters.
Because nobody from the camp of Jabesh-gilead had fought with them, they decided a way to solve both of the problems created by their vows was to kill that family but keep the women who were still able to be wives for the men of Benjamin alive.
When they realized there were still not enough wives for the men, they encouraged the remaining men of Benjamin to kidnap the daughters of Shiloh at their annual festival. Despite the fact that these women would have been daughters of a family who had vowed not to give their daughters in marriage, they decided it was acceptable because they hadn’t given them (since they had been kidnapped).
What Was Right?
It seems easy to relate with the moral outrage of Israel to a point only to, in turn, be shocked by their own lack of any sense of right and wrong in what they did as a result. How could a people so serious about their own moral standard that they would war with a tribe turn around and be so messed up themselves?
This is probably the most common problem with subjective morality. Without any objective standard, each person is left to decide for themselves what is right. The problem is, man not only has a limited perspective on life but that perspective is often colored by his own sinful nature. Dishonest scales are the norm in such a view of morality. A person may even be offended by the same activities in others in which they, themselves, are also engaged.
Man cannot puzzle out what is right and wrong, because our view is not perfect. Without a transcendent principle of righteousness, morality becomes only another means by which man attempts to use empathy to manipulate his fellow man.
A Better Standard
In a world without God, right and wrong are meaningless terms. What makes one man angry is what pleases another. Even the worst horrors imaginable today could be the standard of moral virtue given enough societal pressure exerted in that direction.
Thankfully, we live in a world created by God. His nature is the standard of perfect goodness and he has revealed his nature through the inspiration of the scriptures. We aren’t left to justify our own behavior or condemn anything we don’t like in our neighbor. Instead, both we and our neighbor are under the judgement of a perfect judge. What is “right in our own eyes” is irrelevant.
In our own nature, we are incapable of living up to that standard. However, by the perfect righteousness of Jesus we can be made right with the Father. By the work of the Spirit, we also begin to desire what is right. In Christ, life is no longer about manipulating people into believing our behavior ought to be the standard of morality. Instead, we celebrate, like David, that God’s ways are good. There is no sense of good outside of him and no wrong to be found within him.
