Everyone did what was right in their own eyes — the cycle of sin and deliverance
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Judges 21:25Judges is one of the darkest books in the Bible — and one of the most relevant. It covers roughly 300 years between Joshua's death and the rise of Samuel (c. 1380-1050 BC). With no king, no central leadership, and no consistent worship of Yahweh, Israel fell into a repeating cycle: they sinned, God let an oppressor afflict them, they cried out, God raised up a deliverer (a 'judge' — Hebrew shophet, more accurately 'champion' or 'rescuer'), peace was restored, then they sinned again. The cycle repeats six full times over the course of the book.
Thirteen judges are named, of varying renown. The famous ones — Deborah, Gideon, Samson — receive extended treatment. The minor ones get a verse or two. But by the end of the book, the judges themselves are corrupted. The book closes with Samson's tragic death, two appendix narratives of horror (Micah's idol; the Levite's concubine and the near-extinction of Benjamin), and the recurring phrase that summarizes the era: 'In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.'
The theological point is profound. Judges shows what humanity is like when self-determination is the highest principle and God's law is forgotten. The 'every man did what was right in his own eyes' refrain is not approval — it is judgment. The book exposes the desperate need for a true King — first earthly, in David, but ultimately the divine King, Christ. Judges sets up the entire monarchic narrative that follows, and points to the only King whose righteous reign can break the cycle.
2 chapters per day · with attention to the cyclical pattern
Gideon's army of 32,000 was already outnumbered by the Midianite host. God tells him this is too many: 'lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me' (Judges 7:2). Twenty-two thousand fearful soldiers leave. God further reduces the remaining 10,000 to just 300 by the curious test of how the men drink water from the stream. With 300 men, torches, trumpets, and empty jars, Gideon routs the entire Midianite army in a night attack. The pattern is consistent throughout Scripture: God works through weakness so that the glory unambiguously goes to him. Paul builds his entire theology of ministry on this principle (2 Cor. 12:9-10): 'my strength is made perfect in weakness.'
Samson is the great tragic figure of the Old Testament. Set apart from before birth as a Nazirite, gifted with supernatural physical strength, called to deliver Israel from the Philistines — and ruined by his own lack of discipline. He marries a Philistine woman against his parents' wishes. He visits a prostitute in Gaza. He gives his heart to Delilah, who systematically betrays him. He breaks every Nazirite vow. Eventually his hair is cut, his strength leaves him, his eyes are put out, and he grinds grain as a slave for his enemies. Yet at the end, blind and broken, he prays one last time and brings down the temple on himself and 3,000 Philistines — 'so the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life' (16:30). Hebrews 11:32 lists him in the Hall of Faith. Even shattered vessels can be used.
The phrase 'every man did that which was right in his own eyes' appears twice in Judges — at 17:6 and again as the very last verse of the book (21:25). Paired both times with 'in those days there was no king in Israel,' it is the editorial frame the inspired author places around the whole era. The implication is unmistakable: self-determined morality is not freedom; it is slavery to whatever happens to feel right in the moment. The book proves the diagnosis by example: idolatry, civil war, gang rape, mass kidnapping — and all of it justified by individuals doing what was 'right in their own eyes.' The need for a righteous King is not a political point. It is the spiritual point of the entire Old Testament.
Judges 2:11-19 is the theological skeleton of the entire book. The author lays out the pattern that will repeat six times: (1) Israel does evil in the sight of the LORD and serves other gods; (2) God's anger is kindled and he gives them into the hand of oppressors; (3) Israel cries out under the oppression; (4) God raises up a judge to deliver them; (5) the land has rest during the judge's lifetime; (6) when the judge dies, Israel returns to corruption, worse than before. This is not just ancient history. It is the pattern of every individual life apart from grace: rebellion, consequence, repentance, deliverance, drift, repeat. The point of the book is to drive the reader to long for a Deliverer who breaks the cycle once and for all.