Don't Do Your Own Thing! Series

There is an old story about a captain on a ship, who looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message: “Alter your course 10 degrees south.” Promptly a return message was received: “Alter your course 10 degrees north.”

The captain was angry, because his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: “Alter your course 10 degrees south – I am the captain!” Soon another message was received: “Alter your course 10 degrees north – I am a seaman third class Jones.”

Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: “Alter your course 10 degrees south – I am a battleship.” Then the reply came: “Alter your course 10 degrees north – I am a lighthouse.” (Paul Aiello, Jr., Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com)

In these dark and foggy times, many people want to be the captain of their own lives. They refuse to submit to any authority, but that can only lead to certain disaster. I believe that’s the root of the chaos we see around us today.

Five years ago (August 2015), Barna research conducted a poll, which highlights what they call our “new moral code” here in the United States. They presented a series of statements and asked whether people agreed “completely” or “somewhat” with those statements. This is what they found for the following statements:

“The best way to find yourself is to look within yourself”—91 percent of U.S. adults agreed; 76 percent of practicing Christians agreed.

“People should not criticize someone else's lifestyle choices”—89 percent agreed; 76 percent of Christians agreed.

“To be fulfilled in life, you should pursue the things you desire most”—86 percent agreed; 72 percent of Christians agreed.

“The highest goal in life is to enjoy it as much as possible”—84 percent agreed; 66 percent of Christians agreed.

“People can believe whatever they want, as long as those beliefs don't affect society”—79 percent agreed; 61 percent of Christians agreed.

“Any kind of sexual expression between two consenting adults is acceptable”—69 percent agreed; 40 percent of Christians agreed.

These results led David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons to conclude in a book they wrote the following year that “the morality of self-fulfillment is everywhere, like the air we breathe. Much of the time we don't even notice we're constantly bombarded with messages that reinforce self-fulfillment – in music, movies, video games, apps, commercials, TV shows, and every other kind of media.” (David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Good Faith, Baker Books, 2016, pages 55-57; www.PreachingToday.com)

A selfish, self-centered lifestyle is “the air we breathe” these days. Everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes, including a lot of believers. As a result, our culture is crashing on the rocks of relativism.

So how do you live in such a culture? How do you navigate in these dark and foggy times? How do you move forward without crashing into those rocks, yourself? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Judges 17, Judges 17, where we see Israel in a time when “everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes.”

Judges 17:1-6 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD.” And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (ESV)

This is a refrain that you will see three more times in the book of Judges. It summarizes what is behind all the chaos in the country: There is no authority. So everyone is doing whatever they want to do. They’re doing whatever they think is right, which leads to chaos in the home, 1st of all.

What you have here is a typical Jewish home during the period of the Judges in Israel. Micah, whose name means “Who is like YHWH,” steals from his crazy mother, who curses the thief and then blesses him when she finds out its her son. He then builds a little god-house and makes a priestly garment, along with some household idols (vs.5). These are teraphim in the Hebrew, which were used to tell the future in the occult practice of divination. Micah also illegitimately elevates one of his sons to the priesthood, who had no business being a priest since he was not from the tribe of Levi.