The above phrase, for those who do not recognise it, is a phrase that is repeated many times in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible particularly in the book of Judges and the era relating to the reign of the prophet judges in Israel, such as Samuel and Sampson etc. If there is a more appropriate definition encapsulating the entire problem facing our secular contemporary society, relating to this day in which we live and exist, then I will have to apologise and change my conclusions ultimately. But I do not think that will ever be a problem or issue in any way, that I will have to consider or admit to.
When I refer above to the era of the judges you will immediately associate that era with law, as judges particularly deal and administer legal issues and justice. As you travel from nation to nation you find, one of the major problems of society at large is the fact that if you are going to conduct business, commerce, or trade of any sort, you must have a central or single code of practice by which you operate.
If that is not the case then your ability to dialogue and operate will always be in confusion and contention, as without a code of practice common to both producers and purchasers then by whose set of laws or standards do you operate.
The more we move away from the central code of what we know to be right and wrong, written in the hearts of all men, or what we call our conscience, by the finger of God himself, the less harmony and justice we will experience. I am amazed, but also disgusted, when I read all the pontification of these so called do gooders or politically correct theorists and social engineers, who seem hell bent on destroying our total society. They do so by insisting on the freedom and right of every man along with the subsequent prosecution of every offensive violation of that same mans rights, based on his culture and his personal preferences and not on the universal creed of what we all know to be actually right and wrong. What is right for me is often termed as offensive in another mans culture, so somehow we must find not a compromise but common ground in law by which men can find common justice.
You can easily see why the politicians of this world are pushing for a universal law to which all men irrespective of culture or creed are held accountable and that seems to be good, the only problem is that we have to first consider whose standard or definition of law is going to be that single universal code. What men normally do, is negotiate downwards form a base of absolute law or divine law to a platform that is accommodative and acceptable to all and sadly it always gets negotiated down to its most acceptable simplistic position for all people inclusively. The term we use to explain this process is compromise, and compromise always finds the path of least resistance till there simply is no law at all thereby no one is ultimately guaranteed justice.
Take for example the scenario where two men are involved in an altercation, one of the men’s personal code is based on retaliating and revenge (an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth) while the other mans code is based upon unconditional forgiveness and mercy. Normally what happens in a conflict such as this an arbitrator is called in to resolve the conflict and the most frequent way to do this is to find a mutual compromise. When the negotiations start in earnest the bar of what is acceptable is always lowered never raised to accommodate the man with the lowest and least demanding standard. Can you ever remember or recite an occasion where an unprincipled mans concepts were cast aside in any negotiation in order for a principled and righteous mans lifestyle to be given precedence. I sure haven’t.
When we were created we were given the power to choose to do right or wrong by utilizing our free will, but there is an overriding law that supercedes free will and that is the honorable consideration of the free will of others, as we go about life. Scripture teaches we do not live or die to ourselves but each person lives his life in conjunction and participation with others, so when we as an individual make a mistake or do wrong some one else is also affected by it. Likewise when we do something good then the benefit of that action normally touches someone else also, we must realize our actions effect the world around us whether we like it or not. This then must cause us to conclude if we do not get to grips with the fact that all law is given ultimately by God and is already universal and if we do not get back to its just and sovereign application then society and humanity will ultimately destroy itself.
One of the craziest things I see at present is this pointless and benign joke being argued in the United States of America, by one group who fights for it using their constitution and another group also using the same constitution but redefined by totally different opinion. The argument being that of the separation of church and state. The whole argument is warped and pointless, as how can a society govern itself without a central moral compass to go by, it must have a code of conduct a standard of law by which justice and equity can be fairly administered and measured. My contention is that you cannot separate church and state. State must be entrusted with a moral code or standard of life which is his belief system or religion in order to govern fairly and effectively. State legislators must be guided by a central law of absolute defined right and wrong, not a code of practice that changes and renegotiates itself according to every individuals personal whim and fancy or his self opinionated definition and interpretation of it.
Well has it been stated that that those who ignore history are bound and constrained to repeat it, and when you read the scriptures relating to the title of this article you realize mankind has not learned or embraced the age old yet simple fact, that man is not capable of making a set of governing rules by which justice can be guaranteed to all men equally.
Every occasion through out history when man has been given control of his own destiny and attempted to formulate his own path of law and justice it has lead to the genocide and destruction of other dispossessed or alienated people groups who do not fit in with the ruling classes opinion or stipulations of what is considered acceptable. This statement or title above, certainly is still very applicable and appropriate for today, “That every man does that which is right in his own eyes”, and sadly the outcome or results will be no different than those results experienced in the past.
How do you change a society? The only way you can do it is to change one person at a time because you have to change his convictions and the only way you will do that is by centralizing our ideas and concepts of right and wrong to a common but absolute definition of them. It never ceases to amase me that when you sit a group of people down and ask them to define what would be a set of standards that that group must honour and respect in order to protect the individual in the group, that they will impose upon themselves stricter guidelines than others on the perimeter looking on. The first prerequisite to any communal system of law and protection is to get every one on the same page by removing any isolatedindividual perspective of them and replacing them with a corporate united perspective of the statutes, thus making us all accountable to them.
The seeming insurmountable problem we face today is that no one is prepared to stipulate what is the correct or absolute definition of what is right or wrong, and that definition by the way must be defined by a being beyond ourselves as we will always renegotiate its terms to an acceptable and watered down preference and version of it. When humanity lives by what is acceptable to what is right in his own eyes someone else will suffer someone else will be disadvantaged. We must get to a place where we are all subject to a universal law governed and administered without favour or prejudice to anyone above another. And that my friends is why mankind himself can never be entrusted to write any code of just and pure law, only a being beyond ourselves namely a God of absolute holiness has the capability to do that.
The problem with what we have now is that the rich influence the poor by forcing their greed and desire for power upon those who can not defend or standup for themselves. We live in a world where intellectualism enforces its so called solutions upon the uneducated, a world where the silent are herded by the dogs of the oppressors, where the poor are the cannon fodder of the political elite and the young and weak are prostituted for want of what ever it is they need to survive. Incredibly it seems to be the socalled religious and moral leaders who see themselves as the guardians and drafters of the laws who themselves think they are above them.
Take for example a recently published article in the Israeli Ha’aretz National newspaper along with many other simultaneous reports around the world admitting to the fact which was tabled in the Jewish Knesset (Parliament) that it is the Orthodox Jewish Rabbis and wealthy European Ashkenazi believers who are behind the entire white slave trade of Prostitution in the middle east and the world.
Believe me there will be no utopia or state of nirvana or tranquility at the end of this era except the Biblical one God himself defines in his word the book of Revelation where it states God will set up a new kingdom ruled by a rod of iron and governed by righteousness and his word and precepts alone.
If we do not get back to the centrality of Gods word and commandments and the reverence and respect of them not only will we have no peace or justice more importantly we will have no future.
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