Own Eyes

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” 

—Judges 17:6

On April 16, 2009, Yahoo News ran an article that listed the top songs played at funerals. Some on the chart were pop songs like "Bat Out of Hell" by Meatloaf, or "Spirit In the Sky" by Doctor and the Medics or “Highway To Hell" by AC/DC. There were classical pieces like "Ave Maria" by Schubert, "Nessun Dorma" by Puccini and "Canon in D Major" by Pachelbel. There were hymns like “Amazing Grace,” “Old Rugged Cross,” “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “Abide With Me” and “The Lord is My Shepherd.” But none of these songs made it into the top five. The top five songs were as follows: #5. “Over the Rainbow” by Eva Cassidy. #4. "Angels" by Robbie Williams. #3. "Time To Say Goodbye" by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli. #2. "Wind Beneath My Wings" by Bette Midler or Celine Dion. But the number one song played at funerals was/is "My Way" sung by Frank Sinatra or Shirley Bassey.

The song “My Way” is about a man who is nearing death and reflecting on his life. He takes responsibility for his life, but maintains that the life he lived, he did on his own terms; he lived it as he saw fit and had no regrets. Most of our world today could echo this song with the same degree of certainty and pride over a life lived to their own pleasures and values. They were the captains of their own destinies, devoid of God. But it didn’t matter to them; they were the ones who called the shots. They lived by their own rules and they were proud of it. But there is just one major problem—those who live their lives according to their own rules and standards are not living to God’s rule, and to live for anything other than God is to live as a child of the devil (1 John 3:4-10).

Our passage for today is from the book of Judges—the transitional book between Joshua and 1 Samuel after the Israelites had conquered the Promised Land, but before Israel’s monarchy had been instituted. During this transitional period, God sent judges—men and women who were set apart by God to rule and lead the Israelites. It was a chaotic time of indulgence, ignorance and apostasy. The Israelites were constantly being seduced to worship the false gods of the people already living in the area, and they were constantly on guard against other people groups that attempted to conquer them or run them out.

Twice in Judges, the biblical author gives this stinging indictment of the time:  

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”—Judges 17:6, 21:25. 

The people had thrown off all restraint and decided to live their lives as they saw fit, devoid of any consideration of God or His Word, promoting themselves to be captains of their own destinies, the sole arbiters and decipherers of truth, miniature gods and goddesses who determined what was true and what was not.

Our world is similar to theirs. We live in a world where there are “alternative lifestyles,” and where everyone could easily sing the song “My Way.” It is the time when so-called “tolerance” reigns, which is nothing more than a worldly and subversive attempt to condone and to wrap things that the Bible condemns as sin in a blanket of respectability and acceptance without consequence or conscience. Like the naked Emperor in the children’s fable, The Emperor’s New Clothes, we must call out our culture as naked and bereft of any understanding of that which is true. Our time, like that of the Judges of old, is a time that will not continue forever. God will return to judge, and those who have sung the song “My Way” as their life’s anthem will sing it on their way to hell, while those who journey to heaven will be able to sing the Song of the Lamb in great victory and joy (Revelation 15:3-4).

My dear brother or sister, what is your song? Are you singing “My Way” as a way of exalting yourself against God, showing yourself to be the captain of your own destiny? Then know this—it will lead to death and destruction apart from God. You will indeed succeed in living your life on your own terms and you will receive the payment of that life in the one to come. But for those who have laid down the weapons of their own self-sufficiency and have embraced His sweet divine mercy, they will enter into a joy of which the pleasures of this world are but a shadow. Which is the better? Surely you know. I pray that all who read this might see their need of a Savior. He will save; you need only repent and believe. And then together, we will be able to sing the Song of the Lamb in the land of eternal joy in the presence of our Lord and Savior, when  

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."—Revelation 21:4. 

May He do it for His glory. Amen.