Following The Crowd
Good Morning,
Mankind has a crowd mentality, meaning humanity has a tendency to follow the crowd, whether it be it to lynch someone or buy a certain new phone. Some trends are not logical, but are ordered by the crowd.
Some folks seek to live independently, yet they may mature into strange adults who become total misfits in society -– that situation has its own difficulties. We live, shop, and attend schools and churches with others; and as such, to some extent, we need to "fit in"– but both extremes can ruin us.
The book of Judges is the story of people who forgot godly leaders and did what they personally thought was best; hence, the theme of the book, "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." What a book of wrong doing! One such story illustrates the "crowd mentality."
A wrong had taken place. The situation needed to be dealt with in a wise and orderly manner. Because we cannot stop all of the wrong in the world, we need to focus on our response to the wrong; the rest is under the control of the society.
One group of Israelites reacted, and another group responded; the result was two entire cities of people all dead, in addition to at least 65,000 others who were killed. The ripples of wrong continued, but for the moment, this illustrates the development of rage and hate. When one stirs anger and hate, it becomes a plague that spreads and increases. Others are infected, violence develops, and tragic results follow (this is how tyrants, as Hitler and Stalin, stirred revolutions).
Judges 20:21 “And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.”
Judges 21:25 “And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.”
With some planning a whole city was destroyed:
Judges 21:37 “...and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.”
A whole city was destroyed, and in verses 44-45, and another 23,000 people were killed. The anger and bitterness that grew in this situation developed into the likes of an animal in a killing frenzy. Then they realized that a whole tribe in Israel was about to be destroyed, and that could not be done. The only people left were soldiers – their families and children had been all killed. The result? Emotions ran high, foolish decisions were made, and someone with a big mouth (or who was good at speaking) threw out an idea. The soldiers decided to attack another city. The people who had not been involved in the fighting previously, were suddenly attacked – and all were killed except the potential wives.
Judges 21:11 “And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.”
The rage that the emotional "crowd mentality" inflames initiates endless harm, often more than the original wrong that was done. That is the way of man who has no "north star" or foundation upon which to temper his behavior and prevent his emotions from controlling his life. In this book, every man did that which was right in his OWN EYES – that was the problem. We need to do what is right in the eyes of God; our own eyes and hearts are influenced far too much by passion and the crowd.
Genesis 8:21 ”..for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;”
Since the imaginations of man's heart are unreliable, we need godly leaders as Judges points out:
Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Also see Judges 18:1; 19:1; 21:25)
Many verses dealing with this topic exist, and all are worthy of our attention that we might be guided by truth and wisdom, not by our own hearts.
Pastor