In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
~ Judges 21:25
This year I've been following Fr. Mike Schmitz's daily podcast, "The Bible in a Year." I've always wanted to be more literate in the Old and New Testaments, the foundational documents not only of the major world religions of Judaism and Christianity but also of Western civilization. While it's still early in the year, so far "The Bible in a Year" has been quite an education.
This week we finished the Book of Judges. The last line of Judges is quite striking in that it describes the very situation America finds itself in today. "There was no king in Israel" made me think of the questions surrounding Joe Biden's ability to act as our president; "every man did what was right in his own eyes" appears to be the condition in which our culture is currently mired. It was chilling to hear words that are thousands of years old so accurately describing the here-and-now.
Since the beginning of the year, I've listened to horrific tales of war, cruelty, murder, torture, rape, mutilation, betrayal, and completely selfish, uncaring, immoral behavior. I'm not referring to stories in current news reports; the stories are straight out of the ancient pages of the Bible.
My certainty that human nature does not change is reinforced with every episode of The Bible in a Year. The difference between good and evil cannot be discerned by people who "do what is right in their own eyes." I see no evidence that history is automatically bending in the right direction. People build history. It is up to each individual to forge that righteous bend, as best we can in our own life and time.
