Israel, Doing That Which Was Right in Their Own Eyes

This passage deals with the event in which the people of Israel, having gathered at Mizpah and sworn not to give their daughters to the tribe of Benjamin, end up attacking the people of the city of Jabesh and carrying off its young women by force. When the tribe of Benjamin faces extinction because of their own oath, the people blame God, revealing their selfishness and hardness of heart. Through the atrocious incident involving the Levite, the passage also shows a community that has been set against itself and has fallen for Satan's schemes.

The sermon asks, in light of this picture of Israel, what believers should hold on to as they live. It points out that although God waits patiently for our salvation and for the kingdom of heaven, if believers use God or betray him for the sake of the world's pleasures and gain, in the end they will lose everything. In particular, it stresses that sacrificing the weak or making selfish decisions is the sin of not serving God as King and doing what is right in one's own eyes.

The sermon reminds believers not to fall into the desires of the flesh and the temptations of the world, but to live holy lives in obedience to God's will alone. It leads us to consider how we should prepare ourselves so that we do not take lightly the grace God has given, and are not shaken from the rock of the Word.