Bought it and looking forward to reading it!

It reminds me of a favorite passage of mine in another book, Empire of the Risen Son, Book One by Steve Gregg:

"A common refrain in the Book of Judges reminds us that “In those days there was no king in Israel”—sometimes adding, “and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” In modern preaching, it is common to hear this described as a bad arrangement. “When everyone does what is right in his own eyes, there is moral chaos”—so goes the familiar commentary. This is true, when the thing that is “right” in a man’s eyes is contrary to what is “right” in God’s eyes. However, Israel had the Torah—God’s Law—to teach them what is right in God’s eyes. It seems that, for most of the period described in Judges, what is right in God’s sight was what was deemed right in the people’s eyes as well. The period of nearly four centuries was punctuated by relatively brief periods of general rebellion and idolatry, for which God disciplined His people and restored proper order. When the Bible says, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” the contrast is not between this policy and that of doing what is right in the sight of God. The contrast is between having personal and qualified liberty of conscience, on the one hand, and having an earthly king, on the other, being forced to do what is right in his eyes. As Israel’s later history proved, having a human monarch is the more disastrous arrangement of the two. The biblical comment tells us that liberty of personal conscience prevailed, rather than domination by a human (and therefore corrupt) earthly ruler. The former is what God desired for the society of His Kingdom—individual liberty of conscience, under God. For citizens to do what is right in their own eyes is certainly preferable to them doing what is wrong in their own eyes. According to these verses, the alternative is to have a government under an earthly king—which God saw as undesirable. He found it offensive (bordering on treasonous) when Israel later asked for a change in this arrangement (1 Samuel 8:7). Freedom to follow one’s own conscience in the fear of God is the highest biblical standard. Later in Israel’s history, when they actually did have earthly kings, oppressive rulers often interfered with such freedom of conscience (the biblical examples of Ahab and Manasseh come immediately to mind—as do the tyrants of Babylon, Syria and Rome, who governed and oppressed Israel at later times). For everyone to do what is right in his own estimation means to follow the dictates of individual conscience. There is nothing bad about this, so long as one’s conscience is informed by God’s revealed moral norms. This was precisely Yahweh’s ideal when He set up and governed His Kingdom in Israel during the period of the judges. Through most of this period, it was quite acceptable, and things went smoothly. It was only on the occasions when Israel disregarded God’s Law and compromised with idolatry that things turned bad. Whenever Israel did stray into idolatry, their True King would step in and discipline them, allowing foreign invaders to overtake and oppress them. When they had learned their lesson, He would likewise bring deliverance in the persons of certain individuals who served as military leaders and judges. These judges served in these emergencies for the remainder of their lives, but, upon their deaths, did not leave their offices to successors. Their passing was not viewed as leaving a vacuum to be filled. There was no permanent family of hereditary leaders, since God was the only permanent governing official. He proved Himself quite capable of keeping, or restoring, order in His Kingdom. Under the oversight of the judges, when there was no earthly king in Israel, the years of Israel’s obedience to Yahweh exceeded those during which they strayed by a factor of three to one. This means that Israel was obedient three-quarters of the period when they had no earthly king. Things were far worse, during the later monarchy era—a period of almost 500 years—during which the kingdom of Judah had very few faithful kings after David, and the northern tribes of Israel had none. The tribal league, prior to the monarchy, served to allow Israel to maintain Yahweh as their only direct Ruler. The obligations laid upon them by Yahweh were simple: they must worship none but Him, doing so in accordance with the Levitical practices, and live harmlessly toward one another. Apart from these things, they were a completely free people. They had previously suffered oppression for hundreds of years under a cruel king in Egypt, but now, under Yahweh’s rule, they had become the most liberated people on earth." (Pp. 77-79)

#anarchy