As We See Fit

Judges 21:25 

“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

I remember me and my brother being told to weed the garden in front of the house. It was a huge garden and would take most of the day so we got after it. Pulling Bermuda grass up along with weeds was done in no time and everything looked good. The very next day, my dad pulls us both outside and shows us the gardens. We were thinking he is going to praise our efforts, only to realize that this was not what he had in mind. He showed us little sprigs of Bermuda grass coming up all over the garden. It was clear that we weeded the garden as we saw fit, not going deep to get the roots of the grass up. Well, we had to redo the garden the right way knowing that if we had just done things the right way first we would not have had to do double the work.

The book of Judges ends with an account of a war between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Israelites.  It all started when a man was returning to his home in Bethlehem and stayed that night at city called Gibeah. This was where the Benjaminite’s lived.  In chapter 19:22 the men of town came to the house where this man, his servant and his concubine were staying, and said “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.”  The owner of the house pleads with them not do this vial act but they grow angry and respond instead by throwing the concubine out into the town square, raping, and killing her. 

The next day, the women’s husband finds her dead at the front door.  He then packs his stuff and goes home, cuts up his concubine into twelve pieces and sends them to all the tribes of Israel and, you guessed it, a war began against the Benjaminite’s. In the last chapter, of Judges the Israelites are torn between cutting off one of the tribes of Israel or accepting them back in.

My how things can go a muck while we do as we see fit.  Collecting things we see fit to collect. Keeping relationships that are not healthy but we think are healthy for us. Being stubborn to do everything your way and refusing to listen to wise counsel. The list goes and on until we realize that all our efforts are in vain. They all seem to end up with it either getting you in trouble or just blowing up into a mess that you have to deal with.

How long has your life looked like this story, a mess?  God never left the Israelites nor did his commandments change, but the people did as they saw fit.  Left up to our own ways, you can be sure things will go a muck at some point.  You might not get into a war over a dead wife, but your life will surly be littered with poor choices and those choices lead to poor attempts to cover things up.  Every time the people of God went back to the Lord the mess was cleaned up.  It may be time for you realize that the only way to clean up your life is to return the Lord like the Israelites did.  The Lord raised up judges to rule over Israel only after things were going south.  Maybe you need to rethink your dependence on doing things as you see fit and turn towards the Lord and read about what HE sees fit?  The Bible is your judge from God provided to you by God for your spiritual growth. Today pick up the Bible and begin to read it. Before you start, pray and ask the Father to speak to you through His word. It is called the living word of God for a reason. How long are you going to keep moving forward in life and doing things as you see fit?