Pray the word with David Platt as a resource from Radical.net.

Judges, chapter 17, verse 6.

In those days, there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

I've mentioned that phrase before on this podcast,

specifically when we read about Samson choosing a wife,

according to what was right in his own eyes.

Here, this verse is far more encompassing of everyone.

Like that word, everyone among God's people did what was right in his own eyes.

And the effects of everyone doing what was right in their own eyes

were unimaginably disastrous and deadly and sobering and serious.

Everyone was living according to their own authority.

That's what's interesting about the phrase right before this in Judges 17, verse 6,

when it says, in those days, there was no king in Israel.

And who was the king supposed to be?

God.

They were supposed to be living under the authority of God, their king.

And yet they had all.

Everyone had rebelled against God as king.

And as a result, they were living under their own authority.

This is maybe one of the clearest pictures of sin in the world.

And our need for salvation, so put it together.

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