Judging Right From Wrong

Judging Right from Wrong

Deborah

Read: Judges 4:1-5

A professor at a prestigious university advocates for the choice to kill severely disabled infants. One Internet article questions why our government does not develop “anti-fetal drugs” to remove what it considers organisms that invade women’s bodies—unborn children. Some university students in an ethics class think it is incorrect to state unequivocally that the Nazis’ slaughter of Jews was wrong. National polls show that most Americans believe that truth is relative and that morality is a matter of personal opinion.

Deborah’s heart surely must have been broken because her nation, Israel, had for the most part abandoned God’s absolute standards of right and wrong. She has a unique place in biblical history as the only woman to rule the nation during the period when Israel had no king. As Deborah sat under a palm tree near her home, Israelites asked for her counsel, and she settled their disputes. As a judge and prophet, she shared God’s wisdom and instruction at a time when everyone did whatever seemed right to them. Deborah did not seek power or authority for her own gain; her burning desire was that her nation would turn back to God from their idolatry.

We live in a time similar to Deborah’s. People define “right” as whatever seems to fit a situation, or even as whatever they desire. Anyone who takes a stand for objective principles of morality is labeled judgmental or intolerant. In reality, each of us is a judge. We decide how we will treat other people and how we will live. In order to judge correctly, we need to base our decisions on the standards of right and wrong that God has laid down in his Word. After all, someday he will judge us all.

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

Judges 21:25