National Ethics

National ethics affects national existence and the quality of life therein. This great principle clearly underlies the three key messages of the book of Judges:

• “In those days there was not king in Israel” (17:6; 21:25). Not even the Lord - “The LORD shall reign for ever and ever” (Exo. 15:18).
• “The children of Israel did that which is evil in the sight of the Lord” (2:11; 3:7; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6, 10; 13:1).
• “[E]very man did that which was right in his own eyes” (17:6; 21:25).
  

Social commentators such as Robert Bork (Slouching Towards Gomorrah, 1996), Thomas Sowell (A Conflict of Visions, 2002) and William Bennett (The De-Valuing of America, 1992), have plead with the American people to understand their fate. "Americans now place less value on what we owe others as a matter of moral obligation; less value on sacrifice as a moral good, on social conformity, respectability, and observing the rules; less value on correctness and restraint in matters of physical pleasure and sexuality - and correlatively greater value on things like self-expression, individualism, self-realization, and personal choice." (Bennett, The Children, What to Do About..., p. 5).

Immorality breeds selfishness and selfishness in turn breads a greater yield of immorality, both working like twins feeding off of each other. No nation, regardless of its military or system of government can survive the moral demise of its own people. Consider these warnings:

• “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Pro. 16:18).
• “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom” (Pro. 11:2).
• “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility” (Pro. 18:12).
• “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee” (Oba. 1:3).
• “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Pro. 13:34).