Latest / Scripture Central / The Saddest Verse in the Bible | Judges 2-4, 6-8, 13-16 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | May 25-31

Transcript

The Saddest Verse in the Bible | Judges 2-4, 6-8, 13-16 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | May 25-31 · Scripture Central

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  How do things get to the point where such wickedness is
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  acceptable to so many people? The reality is there is a God.
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  He has proclaimed lost. There are right and wrong.
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  Truth is eternal, doing whatever you want.
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  It sounds like freedom, but it leads to captivity.
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  We have to be smart enough to know what our weak spots are and
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  then fortify them. Just because I served a mission
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  or got married in the temple doesn't mean I've just checked
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  all the boxes. Maybe I had a strong start, but
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  what will the finish be? Today we're going to wrestle
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  with what might be the saddest verse in all of Scripture.
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  It's the last verse in the Book of Judges.
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  Now, we don't know for sure when the Book of Judges was written,
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  and we don't know who wrote it. The Book of Judges covers about
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  300 years of Israelite history. It's telling us what happened
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  from the time that the Israelites went in and conquered
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  the Promised Land until the time when Saul became the first king
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  of Israel. The book is called the Book of
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  Judges because that's the title of the different rulers who were
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  helping the Israelites at this time.
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  And you'd think that with a bunch of judges it would be a
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  happy book, but it's actually filled with troubling stories.
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  We read about a man who helps Israel worship idols.
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  We read about another who makes a rash promise that ruins his
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  family, and another judge brings about the death of hundreds of
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  innocent people. And these are the heroes of the
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  book. But the deepest tragedy could be
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  in the books final line, the saddest verse in the Bible.
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  But don't jump ahead to look at it yet.
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  First I want to see a big picture of the book of Judges,
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  and then we'll look at four of the judges, Deborah, Gideon,
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  Jepfa, and Samson. Then we'll get to that last
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  verse and what it means for us today.
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  When you read through the book of Judges, it can feel like
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  you're watching a sad movie on repeat.
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  The names of the judges, the enemies change, but the
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  storyline is painfully predictable.
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  There's a cycle of sin that just goes over and over again in the
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  book of judges. Here's how it works.
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  Israel will fall into sin in Judges chapter 2 we read.
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  Then the Israelites did that which was evil in the sight of
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  the Lord and worship the balls, and they abandoned the Lord, the
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  God of their ancestors who had brought them out of the land of
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  Egypt. They followed other gods from
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  among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and
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  bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger.
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  The next stage in the cycle is that the anger of the Lord is
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  kindled against Israel, and so Israel will be put in to
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  bondage. Then Israel will repent.
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  God will raise up a judge to help them and deliver them, and
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  finally, Israel serves the Lord. But time goes on, they again
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  fall into sin, and the cycle continues.
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  In the book of Judges, this cycle just spins over and over
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  again, regardless of who the judge is, whether it's Deborah,
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  Gideon, Jepfa, or Samson. Different names, same pattern.
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  So stepping back and looking at the big picture of the book of
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  Judges, I want you to consider this question.
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  What relevance do you see in this pattern today?
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  I see myself going to church, having a marvelous spiritual
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  experience, and maybe by about Tuesday it's worn off and I'm
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  not involved in heavy duty sin. But I've forgotten and I'm just
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  going on with life and that is something that needs to be
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  corrected in my own life is taking care to keep myself out
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  of that cycle. Thank you.
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  I think the good news is, just like God raised up deliverers
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  and was merciful to the Israelites, He's merciful to us.
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  We can cut the sin cycle short by daily repentance, but if
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  we're not careful, the cycle can spin out of control.
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  And that takes us to the saddest verse in the Bible.
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  But before we get to that verse, let's look at for the judges.
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  We'll start with Deborah. Now Deborah's story takes place
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  at a difficult time in Israel's history.
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  Israel is under bondage to the Canaanites, and the king of
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  Canaan has this powerful military force, 900 iron
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  Chariots. The general is a man named
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  Sisera, and no one can defeat him.
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  At this time, God raises up a woman, a prophetess, and a judge
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  named Deborah. She summoned the Israelite
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  general Barack and said to him, The Lord, the God of Israel,
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  commands you position yourself at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000
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  from the tribe of Naftali and the tribe of Zebulun.
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  I will draw out Sisera, the general of the Canaanite army,
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  and I will give him into your hand.
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  It's a clear commandment from God.
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  But Barack was kind of frightened.
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  Could he really go up against 900 iron Chariots?
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  I don't blame them for hesitating.
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  And I love his response to Deborah.
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  Barack, the general of the Army, says to Deborah, if you will go
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  with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not
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  go. Think about that phrase.
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  It tells us something about Deborah's power.
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  I also like to liken that phrase in our own lives.
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  Is there someone in our neighborhood or in our community
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  who might want to go to church or might want to come to a
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  church activity? But they're afraid in their
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  heart of hearts, they might not say it out loud, but they're
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  saying to you or to me, if you will go with me, I will go, but
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  if you will not go with me, I will not go.
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  Deborah says she'll go. So Deborah Barack 10,000 of the
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  Israelites, they all go to attack the Canaanites and the
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  Lord blesses them. They gained the victory, the
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  Canaanite general Ciceroi, he flees on foot and he finds
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  himself in the tent of a woman named Yael.
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  Yael welcomes in. She gives him some milk to
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  drink. She covers him up with the rug
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  as this tender scene, like a mother tucking in a child.
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  And then she grabs a peg and a hammer and smashes it into the
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  temple of his head, killing him. Not so tender.
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  You know, it's interesting that in the story of Yael and
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  Deborah, the main action, it's not taking place in the
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  battlefield. It's taking place in more
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  domesticated spaces. Deborah, she sits under a palm
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  tree and she does God's work. Yael was at home when she
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  defeated Sisera. It reminds us that today most of
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  God's work is still happening in humble places.
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  Your kitchen, your living room could be a sacred space where
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  God's work is done. Now, there's something
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  interesting about how Deborah identifies herself.
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  She was a powerful figure. The Scriptures call her a
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  prophetess. She was judging the people.
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  But when she describes herself, she doesn't use either of those
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  titles. The image that she gives herself
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  is not of a general or a judge, she says.
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  I arose a mother in Israel. Deborah was a leader in every
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  sense of the word, and her chosen title reminds us of the
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  importance of the word mother. As scholar Rebecca Call notes,
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  Deborah's situation is unique among Old Testament women.
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  She's a prophetess, a military leader and a judge of Israel.
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  In a text that often primarily discusses women in light of
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  their marital relationships and offspring, it is intriguing that
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  none of her story revolves around a husband or children,
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  she writes. I believe that Deborah is an
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  especially enlightening character for women in the
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  church who are childless or single.
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  In the book that I'm quoting from, Doctor Call explains that
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  she's single and without children and many of her friends
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  are in the same circumstance. She says it can be hard at times
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  to feel less valued in a family centered church.
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  So Doctor Call, she knows that motherhood is important.
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  What she's wondering about in this chapter is what about those
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  who don't have the opportunity to be a mother?
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  She continues. What we learned from Deborah is
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  that being a mother is something that can manifest itself in many
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  ways. Any woman who strives to live in
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  harmony with the Holy Ghost can manifest A mothering role, and
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  any of the ways she touches the world and her identity in her
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  very core is to be a mother. In Israel, Deborah is one of the
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  judges. That seems to be universally
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  good. Can we say the same thing about
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  Gideon? Well, let's find out.
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  His story is the classic underdog story.
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  I don't know about you, but I love it when the underdog wins.
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  Like when a horse beats 50 to one odds to win the Kentucky
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  Derby. I'm not sure if the Lord watches
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  sports, but if he does, I'm pretty sure that he roots for
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  the underdog. He seems to love working with
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  those who are weak. In fact, on one occasion the
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  Lord said, My power works best in weakness.
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  Gideon could be the poster child for this.
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  At the time he was raised up to be a judge, the Israelites were
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  being ruled by the Midianites. They were oppressed.
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  One day an Angel came to Gideon and told him that he would lead
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  the Israelites against the Midianites.
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  Gideon was astonished. He said, How can I deliver
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  Israel? My clan is the weakest in
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  Manasseh and I am the least of my family.
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  So Gideon is the weakest of the week.
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  But God said to him, I will be with you.
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  Gideon still wasn't convinced. He asked for a sign.
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  You probably remember the story. He says I'm going to lay a
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  fleece of wool on the thrusting floor.
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  If there's dew on the fleece alone and it's dry on the
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  ground, then I'll know that you will deliver Israel by my hand,
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  as you have said. So sure enough, the miracle
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  happens. The fleece is wet, the ground is
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  dry. But it's not quite enough for
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  Gideon. He's like, what could we just
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  do? One more miracle this time?
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  Have the ground be wet and the fleece be dry.
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  That happens too. So Gideon is convinced he tore
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  down his father's idols. He gathered together a group of
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  22,000 Israelites and went to attack the Midianites.
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  But remember, the Lord loves the underdog.
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  So God told Gideon, you've got to reduce the number of men in
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  your army. Why did he do this?
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  The Lord says the troops with you are too many for me to give
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  the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the
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  credit away from me, saying my own hand has delivered me so not
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  once, but twice. God cuts down the size of the
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  Israelite army until there's only 300 men up against an army
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  of 100,000 Midianite warriors. How could 300 Israelites defeat
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  the mighty Midianites? But of course, we believe in a
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  God who loves the underdog. He inspires Gideon with the
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  successful plan and the Israelites are victorious.
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  Sometimes God deliberately shrinks us down in a sense so
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  that His power can be manifest. The apostle Paul had a similar
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  experience. He wrote to keep me from
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  becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger
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  from Satan, to torment ME3 different times.
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  I begged the Lord to take it away.
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  We don't know what this thorn in the flesh was, but it was
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  painful. Could have been a physical or an
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  emotional ailment. Maybe there was a time that Paul
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  felt. Maybe you've had a similar
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  experience. God, please take this away from
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  me. If you would only take away this
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  thorn in my flesh, I could serve you better in the Kingdom.
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  But God did not remove Paul's thorn.
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  Paul writes. Each time I asked the Lord to
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  take away the thorn in my flesh, the Lord said, my grace is all
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  you need. My power works best in weakness.
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  The Lord does love the underdog. Remember Gideon was the weakest
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  of the week and sometimes we're going to feel that way.
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  When we do remember the Lord says to us, just like he said to
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  Gideon, I will be with you. Now if the story ended here, it
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  would be the perfect movie, the classic underdog victorious.
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  The credits start rolling, we all start crying and walk home.
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  But unfortunately the story does not end there.
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  Gideon does something very strange.
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  He says to the people, let me make a request of you, each of
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  you, give me an earring that you have taken as booty from the
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  Midianites that they had conquered.
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  So the people gathered together all of this jewelry, they give
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  it to Gideon, and he makes a golden effort.
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  Gideon might have had good intentions, but the result was
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  devastating. We read all Israel prostituted
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  themselves to the effort Gideon made, and it became a snare to
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  Gideon and to his family. It's a tragic twist.
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  The man who had once tore down his father's idols winds up
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  creating something that becomes an idol.
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  Gideon had a strong start but a weak finish.
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  And unfortunately, this is a pattern that we'll see as we
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  keep going throughout Israelite history.
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  Individuals like Saul, David, Solomon, who start strong but
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  finish week. It's an important reminder for
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  us. Just because I served a mission
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  or got married in the temple doesn't mean I've just checked
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  all the boxes. Maybe I had a strong start, but
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  what will the finish be? So I want you to take a moment,
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  think about your life. How do you think we can avoid
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  the trap of starting strong but then finishing week?
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  We have a creation fall and atonement phase in our lives,
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  and so every time that we start out what we think is strong, we
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  fall and then we get up to the atonement and it's higher power
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  than we feel. I think that it's important that
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  we realize that whenever we fall, there's always that
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  atonement phase that comes in our lives that helps us to
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  finish strong and not finish week.
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  Yeah. So in a sense, we're all going
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  to have a strong start and a stumble.
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  We just don't let that stumble become the finish.
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  Exactly. Thank you.
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  I just think that a lot of times we think all is well in Zion if
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  we're just. I think that's a trap that many
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  of us fall into, that we're just going through the motions of
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  just the basics and not progressing as much as we should
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  and really seeking and serving and relying on our Savior.
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  Thank you. Well, let's turn from Gideon to
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  Jephthah. Jephthah is called to lead the
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  Israelites against the Ammonites.
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  Like we said at the beginning, it's sort of like the same scene
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  over and over again. A different group of people is
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  now oppressing the Israelites, but it's a similar story.
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  Israel ascend. They're in bondage.
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  God's going to raise up a judge, in this case Jephta.
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  Before a key battle, Jephta makes a rash vow to the Lord.
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  He said, if you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then
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  whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I
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  return victorious from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's to
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  be offered up by me as a burnt offering.
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  It's a silly oath. I have no idea why Jephta made
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  it. He was victorious in battle, and
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  when Jephthah returned, his daughter came out to meet him
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  with timbrels and dancing. It's a heartbreaking moment.
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  Maybe Jephthah thought a goat or a chicken was going to come out
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  to meet him, but instead it was his daughter, his only child.
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  Realizing the horror of what had happened, Jephthah tears his
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  clothes and his daughter responds with quiet faith.
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  She says, My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord,
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  do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth.
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  After two months of mourning, we read her father did with her
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  according to the vow he had made.
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  It's a horrific story. Why would Jetha make a foolish
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  oath? And if he did, why would he keep
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  it? It's interesting.
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  There's a contrasting story in the Book of Mormon.
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  You might remember the prophet Mormon.
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  He also made a foolish oath. He said that he would not help
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  the Nephites anymore. But then we read Mormon, say I
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  did repent of the oath which I had made.
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  Why didn't Jeff the repent of his foolish oath?
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  Now, you've probably never made a foolish oath, but I remember
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  making some, especially when I was a kid.
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  I'd say something to my little brother, like if you say one
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  more word, I'm going to hit you, I promise.
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  And then he'd say one more word and I'd hit him.
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  I was like, I had to. I promised you don't have to
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  keep the foolish oaths you make. Hopefully we don't make any
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  foolish hosts, but if we do, let's be like Mormon and repent
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  of them. Now, the only small glimmer of
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  happiness in this account, and it is a very small glimmer, is
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  that we read there a rose in Israelite custom that for four
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  days every year the daughters of Israel would go out to lament
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  the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
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  There's a scholar named Phyllis Tribble who several decades ago
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  wrote a groundbreaking book called Texts of Terror, And in
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  this book she really emphasizes the perspective of females in
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  the Bible, people like the daughter of Jephthah, Dr.
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  Tribble writes, the unnamed virgin child becomes a tradition
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  in Israel because the women with whom she chose to spend her last
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  day have not let her pass into oblivion.
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  Like the daughters of Israel, we remember and mourn the daughter
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  of Jephthah. In her death, we are all
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  diminished by our memory. She is forever hallowed.
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  Though not a survivor, she becomes an unmistakable symbol
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  for all the courageous daughters of faithless fathers.
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  There's no happy ending for Jephthah.
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  There's no happy ending for his daughter.
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  But hopefully we can learn from them and help to create happier
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  endings for others. This story can only be explained
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  by the saddest verse in the Bible.
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  But before we get to that verse, there's one more judge that we
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  want to explore. It's Samson.
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  Samson's life begins with such promise.
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  First, we're introduced to his mother, a remarkable woman.
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  We don't know her name. She's just known as the wife of
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  Manoah, who's Samson's father. When God wants to announce
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  Samson's birth, the Angel comes to Samson's mother, Manoah's
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  wife, scholar Lori Denning points out in Judges 13.
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  The surprising twist of the Annunciation story is that it is
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  the wife of Manoa, not her husband, who receives the divine
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  message directly. Later, when he prays for God to
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  send the messenger back, it's the wife of Manoa who once again
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  sees the Angel. She's the one ready and open to
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  receive. Now, when Samson is born, he's
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  set apart as a Nazarite, dedicated to God, marked by his
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  uncut hair, and blessed with extraordinary strength.
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  At the time, the Philistines were oppressing the Israelites.
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  And you would think that with all that Samson has, his story
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  will be amazing. He starts out with great
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  potential, but quickly things begin to unravel.
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  First, he chooses to marry a Philistine woman against his
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  parents wishes. At the wedding feast, he poses a
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  Riddle to the other Philistines and they use his new wife to get
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  the answer from Samson. And when Samson finds out that
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  they cheated to solve his Riddle, he's really angry.
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  He goes and kills a bunch of Philistines.
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  And this starts a cycle that occurs throughout Samson's
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  story. People will do something that
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  Samson perceives as a wrong. He'll get revenge, then they'll
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  try to get revenge on him. It just goes over and over
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  again. At one point the Philistines say
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  we want to do to Samson as he did to us.
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  But Samson is no better, he says, as they did to me, so I
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  have done to them. You've heard of the Golden Rule.
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  This is the Samson Rule, and it doesn't take us down a good
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  path. Then comes Delilah.
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  When Samson fell in love with her, the rulers of the
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  Philistines come to Delilah and they offer Delilah a lot of
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  money if she will help them discover the secret of Samson's
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  strength. So Delilah asked Samson, what's
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  the secret of your strength? Don't you think if you were
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  Samson, that would seem like an odd question to you?
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  I wonder how the conversation went.
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  Hi, honey. What's for dinner?
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  Got some goat Stew for you? Oh, good.
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  My favorite. And by the way honey, what's the
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  secret of your strength? I mean, you feel like what now?
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  When Samson responds to the question, he lies and he tells
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  Delilah. If I'm tied up with 7 fresh
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  chords, I'll be weak like anybody else.
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  Sampson falls asleep and Delilah ties him up with 7 fresh cords.
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  Then she says Sampson, the Philistines are here.
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  He breaks out of the cords. Now do you think at that moment,
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  if you were Sampson, you'd be a little suspicious, right?
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  I told Delilah if I'm tied up with 7 cords, I'll be weak like
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  someone else. Then next day I'm tied up like
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  that. Kind of random.
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  It should have been obvious that Delilah was trouble, but Samson
• 20:09
  doesn't get it. This happens multiple times
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  where she'll ask him what's the source of your strength, He'll
• 20:14
  tell her a lie, and then whatever he tells her, she'll
• 20:17
  do. It should be obvious.
• 20:19
  Come on, Samson, don't fall for the scam, one author wrote.
• 20:23
  Samson's resume reads like Superman's.
• 20:26
  Killed a lion with his bare hands.
• 20:28
  Slaughtered 30 Philistines who plotted against him.
• 20:30
  Defeated 1000 man Band of the Enemies with the jawbone of a
• 20:34
  donkey. But just as Superman was
• 20:36
  vulnerable to kryptonite, so Samson had a chink in his armor.
• 20:41
  He was king of the hill when it came to physical prowess, but
• 20:45
  when it came to women, he was a pawn of his own passions.
• 20:49
  For Samson, his weakness was women.
• 20:52
  For you, your weakness might be something else.
• 20:54
  But one lesson we can learn from Samson is we need to protect
• 20:57
  ourselves in the areas that were weak.
• 21:00
  Do you remember what Chief Captain Moroni did We read In
• 21:03
  their weakest fortifications, he did place the greater number of
• 21:08
  men. We have to be smart enough to
• 21:10
  know what our weak spots are and then fortify them.
• 21:13
  But Samson wasn't that smart. What happens next would be
• 21:17
  humorous if it weren't so tragic, Delilah said to Samson.
• 21:21
  How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me?
• 21:25
  In other words, Delilah says, if you really love me, you would do
• 21:28
  something that you know is obviously wrong.
• 21:31
  Come on Sampson, do the right thing.
• 21:34
  But we read after she had nagged him with her words day after day
• 21:38
  and pestered him. Sampson was tired to death.
• 21:41
  The only smart thing for Sampson to do is to get out of the
• 21:44
  situation. Do you remember Joseph in Egypt?
• 21:46
  He fled and got him out. But Sampson sticks around.
• 21:51
  He finally is worn down and he tells Delilah the secret of his
• 21:55
  strength. It's a terrible scene.
• 21:57
  Delilah lulls him to sleep. She has Samson fall asleep on
• 22:01
  her lap, and then she shaves his head.
• 22:04
  She tells the Philistines, who easily come.
• 22:06
  They capture Samson. They gouge out his eyes, and the
• 22:09
  man who once judged Israel becomes a prisoner to the
• 22:14
  Philistines. Later, during a feast, the
• 22:16
  Philistines brought Samson into this large temple complex.
• 22:20
  They mock him, they make fun of him, and Samson prays for
• 22:23
  strength one last time, braces himself against the temple
• 22:26
  pillars and pulls down the whole structure, killing himself and
• 22:29
  thousands of the Philistines. Yeah, I know what some of you
• 22:32
  are thinking to yourself. Wow, this sounds like an
• 22:34
  incredible story. I wish there was a movie about
• 22:36
  it. Which, granted, there actually
• 22:38
  is a movie with Samson, and you're welcome to watch it.
• 22:41
  Just a warning, it's not as scripturally accurate as we
• 22:44
  might hope, but it's still a lot of fun.
• 22:45
  Now when I think about Samson, I remember one day walking into a
• 22:49
  seminary classroom and seeing a question written on the board.
• 22:52
  There were just 4 words, Samson hero or hoax.
• 22:57
  God gave Samson great strength and Samson won many battles, but
• 23:03
  ultimately he squandered his calling.
• 23:06
  He was supposed to deliver Israel, but he never delivered
• 23:09
  himself. And that's why Samson's story
• 23:11
  pushes us to look for a greater deliverer and we find him in
• 23:16
  Jesus Christ, the true and better Samson.
• 23:20
  Samson was set apart from birth as a Nazarite, but he constantly
• 23:23
  broke his vows. Jesus, too, was set apart from
• 23:26
  birth, but perfectly kept his covenants.
• 23:30
  Samson gave in to lust, but Jesus resisted temptation.
• 23:34
  Samson's ultimate victory came in his death, but it wasn't
• 23:38
  permanent. The Philistines rose again, and
• 23:40
  Israel still needed saving, but Jesus's greater victory at his
• 23:45
  death was permanent. Jesus is the true hero, the
• 23:48
  deliverer that Samson never could be.
• 23:51
  And Jesus delivers us not only from external forces but also
• 23:55
  from ourselves. And this would be the perfect
• 23:57
  place to end this class. Jesus is the true and better
• 24:01
  Samson. Amen.
• 24:03
  But we still need to see the saddest verse in the Bible.
• 24:06
  Let's get to it. It's the last verse in the book
• 24:08
  of Judges. It says in those days there was
• 24:11
  no king in Israel. All the people did that which
• 24:15
  was right in their own eyes. Now, some of you might be
• 24:17
  thinking to yourself, really, Hilton, where's all the hype?
• 24:19
  Right? That's not, that's not that side
• 24:20
  of a verse. It actually sounds kind of good.
• 24:22
  People did what was right in their own eyes.
• 24:24
  They have freedom. They can do whatever they want
• 24:26
  to do. Isn't that a good thing?
• 24:29
  Well, not really. Gideon, Jephthah, Sampson, they
• 24:32
  all show us what happens when you live in this type of
• 24:35
  society. And in Judges, chapters 19
• 24:37
  through 21, there's another story.
• 24:38
  It's so tragic and so bad. I won't share all of it, but let
• 24:43
  me share a little bit of it so we can see what happens in a
• 24:46
  world where people do what is right in their own eyes.
• 24:49
  There was a Levite. He was traveling with his
• 24:51
  concubine, and they stopped for a night in the Benjaminite town
• 24:55
  called Gibeah. An old man offers them some
• 24:57
  hospitality, but that night a mob surrounds the house and is
• 25:01
  trying to abuse the people that live inside.
• 25:03
  So the man sends out his concubine to protect himself.
• 25:07
  She's abused all night long and dies at the doorstep the next
• 25:12
  day. The man takes her body, cuts it
• 25:13
  into 12 pieces, sends it to the different tribes of Israel, and
• 25:17
  says, I demand justice against the tribe of Benjamin because
• 25:21
  the tribe of Benjamin was the tribe that the people who had
• 25:24
  abused his concubine were from. So the Israelites all gathered
• 25:27
  together. They demand justice from
• 25:30
  Benjamin, but Benjamin refuses to give up the men of Gibeah.
• 25:34
  So this results in a civil war where the combined tribes of
• 25:37
  Israel annihilate the tribe of Benjamin, leaving only 600
• 25:41
  survivors. After the battle, Israel then
• 25:43
  realizes, Oh no, now Benjamin will become extinct because
• 25:47
  they've all sworn not to give their daughters in marriage to
• 25:50
  Benjamin, and there's only 600 men from Benjamin left.
• 25:54
  They've killed all of the women to add to the horse.
• 25:57
  They go to another town, kill everyone except virgin women to
• 26:00
  marry the surviving Benjaminites.
• 26:02
  And that's how the story concludes.
• 26:05
  It's horrific. It's terrible on every level.
• 26:08
  Doctor Tribble writes to the Israelite men.
• 26:10
  The story of the concubine justifies the expansion of
• 26:13
  violence against women. With these men claim to abort.
• 26:16
  They have re enacted with vengeance.
• 26:18
  They have captured, betrayed, raped and scattered hundreds of
• 26:21
  virgins. Furthermore, they have tortured
• 26:24
  and murdered all of the women of Benjamin.
• 26:27
  How do things get to the point where such wickedness is
• 26:30
  acceptable to so many people? This verse explains how that
• 26:34
  kind of wickedness can take place.
• 26:36
  It's what happens when people do what is right in their own eyes.
• 26:41
  It sounds good, but when people do what they want, society
• 26:45
  eventually falls apart. You remember that one of the key
• 26:48
  purposes for the Book of Mormon is that it exposes the enemies
• 26:52
  of Christ. One of the chief antichrists in
• 26:55
  the Book of Mormon, Koro Hortat. Whatsoever a man did was no
• 27:02
  crime. Sounds kind of like that.
• 27:04
  Status first, right? Just do whatever is right in
• 27:07
  your own eyes. This is describing moral
• 27:11
  relativism, basically saying you do what you think is best.
• 27:15
  There's no objective right or wrong.
• 27:17
  It sounds good, there's no judging, no guilt.
• 27:20
  But it's a fiction. I love what the Catholic Bishop
• 27:22
  Robert Baron said. In the minds of far too many
• 27:25
  people today, the category of the intrinsically evil act has
• 27:30
  disappeared. In classical moral philosophy,
• 27:33
  in intrinsically evil act is one that is by its very nature so
• 27:38
  disordered that it could never be justified or permitted.
• 27:42
  Examples of this include slavery, rape, the direct
• 27:45
  killing of the innocent, and acts of terrorism.
• 27:48
  Nothing in the circumstances surrounding such acts could ever
• 27:52
  turn them into something morally praiseworthy.
• 27:55
  When we lose a sensitivity to the intrinsically evil, we fall
• 28:00
  automatically into a moral relativism whereby even the most
• 28:05
  egregiously wicked act can be justified or explained away.
• 28:09
  To give just one obvious example, abortion, which
• 28:12
  involves the direct killing of the innocent, is justified by
• 28:16
  millions today on account of its purportedly positive effects.
• 28:21
  Now, I don't think very many of us would say out loud.
• 28:24
  I believe truth is relative, but if we're honest, sometimes we
• 28:29
  live like it. Maybe I'm willing to be obedient
• 28:32
  in the areas that are convenient, but when it cost me
• 28:35
  something I try to stretch the definitions.
• 28:39
  Maybe I relabel sin. Yes I know that gossip is wrong
• 28:43
  but I'm just venting. Or a person might say I know
• 28:46
  lust is bad but I'm just looking.
• 28:48
  Pride becomes self-confidence. But if I'm redefining sin to
• 28:52
  make it more comfortable, I'm doing what Israel did.
• 28:55
  I'm just doing whatever is right in my own eyes.
• 29:00
  The reality is there is a God He has proclaimed lost.
• 29:03
  There are right and wrong. Truth is eternal, President
• 29:07
  Russell M Nelson taught. Many now claim that truth is
• 29:10
  relative. There's no such thing as divine
• 29:12
  law or divine plan. Such a claim simply is not true.
• 29:17
  There is a difference between right and wrong.
• 29:19
  Because the Father and the Son love us with infinite perfect
• 29:22
  love and because they know we cannot see everything they see,
• 29:26
  they have given us laws that will guide and protect us.
• 29:30
  We often hear the phrase you do you, but remember Jesus didn't
• 29:35
  say you do you. He said be like me.
• 29:40
  Christ taught everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.
• 29:44
  At first doing whatever you want it sounds like freedom but it
• 29:47
  leads to captivity. That's the bad news.
• 29:51
  The good news is that Christ also said if the Son makes you
• 29:54
  free, you will be free indeed. I want to pause for a moment and
• 29:58
  think about this principle of moral relativism.
• 30:00
  We live in a world that is saturated with the principle
• 30:03
  that you can just do whatever is right in your own eyes.
• 30:09
  What do you think? How do you see the principle of
• 30:11
  moral relativism today? And how can we live in a world
• 30:17
  that so frequently tells us whatever you do is no crime?
• 30:21
  I think that the key is keeping Christ at the center.
• 30:25
  It's like the Book of Mormon says, where people start going
• 30:28
  wrong is when they look past the mark.
• 30:31
  Jesus Christ is the mark, and if we don't keep Him at the center,
• 30:36
  then anywhere else is off the mark.
• 30:40
  Thank you. In your life, have you seen this
• 30:43
  force of, hey, do whatever you want, it's no crime?
• 30:46
  How do you see that in the world around you?
• 30:50
  I think that I've seen that in every aspect in which people
• 30:54
  look for what makes them feel good in any given moment, but
• 30:59
  what they're not doing is thinking celestial is thinking
• 31:02
  of the eternal impact on their choices.
• 31:05
  And so the key is keeping that eternal perspective and
• 31:10
  realizing that what we do now affects us in the eternities.
• 31:15
  Thank you. I often get answers or thoughts
• 31:20
  that are a lot of play on words and with all the division and
• 31:24
  things that happened in the world and a lot of times we
• 31:27
  think it's left versus right or whatever.
• 31:30
  I think it's really we have left what's right or we have left
• 31:35
  who's right. I think that's something we can
• 31:38
  reflect on individually of where am I left the right thing or the
• 31:42
  right thing? Who was our Savior Jesus Christ?
• 31:46
  Thank you. Well, we began today with the
• 31:49
  cycle of sin, and we've seen how it spirals out of control.
• 31:52
  The judges couldn't change it. The people couldn't change it.
• 31:56
  And even when Israel asks for a king, the king can't break the
• 32:00
  cycle. But the good news is this.
• 32:02
  There is a king who can break the cycle in Judges.
• 32:07
  The last verse in the book of Judges says that all the people
• 32:11
  did what was right in their own eyes.
• 32:14
  That's how Judges ends. But the gospel ends differently.
• 32:18
  In Philippians chapter 2, we read that at the end, everyone
• 32:22
  on earth will kneel down to worship Jesus Christ.
• 32:26
  Judges ends with everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.
• 32:30
  The gospel ends with everyone kneeling before Jesus Christ.
• 32:35
  The question each of us needs to ask is today.
• 32:38
  What will I do today? Will I do what is right in my
• 32:43
  own eyes? Will I fall on my knees before
• 32:47
  the Savior?