The Simpsons. Episode 7, Season 5. “Bart’s Inner Child.” Original air date, November 11, 1993. If you haven’t seen it, do. What an amazingly accurate observation of society and the human hearts that live within it.
The family feels Marge nags too much, so she finds an infomercial that features pshcyo-babble expert Brad Goodman. Goodman peddles easy answers cloaked in big words and Marge buys it hook, line and sinker. She has the family attend one of Goodman’s self help seminars and that’s where the biting satire ensues.
Bart, the rapscallion of the family, rudely interrupts Goodman on stage and he invites Bart up to ask him why he interrupted. Bart’s reply? “I, dunno man, I do what I feel like.” Goodman proceeds to praise Bart’s free spirited behavior to do whatever he feels like and in a scene reminiscent of The Music Man, Goodman sells the entire town of Springfield on the idea that it’s emotionally and psychologically healthy to just simply do whatever they feel like doing. So excited in their new found freedom, the town has a festival, The Do What You Feel Festival. As everyone simply does what they feel, chaos and anarchy ensue. The festival stage collapses because the worker didn’t connect the bolts properly. He responds with, “I didn’t feel like it.” Another says he didn’t feel like greasing the Ferris Wheel as it serendipitously comes off its moorings and crashes through the front gates of the Springfield Zoo, releasing herds of wild animals. People become angry, and in their freedom to do whatever they feel, start telling each other off in brutal honesty. The episode ends in comical anarchy as everyone is fighting in the streets. Fighting because they feel their right to do what they want overrides the person’s rights to their left and right. It was very funny when I watched it in 1993, today it strikes me as viciously ominous and foreshadowing as I read through Judges chapter 17.
Judges 17 centers on Micah. Micah steals 1,100 pieces of silver from his own mother and as a result she puts a curse on the thief. The son, fearful of the curse, returns the money and his mother praises him for his honesty. (no punishment is mentioned for the stealing, setting the stage for an Old Testament Bart Simpson to do whatever he feels) Micah’s mother gives him a portion of the money as a reward and He immediately proceeds to use it to create a “carved metal image” (Judges 17:3-4) He creates an idol. A false god. He puts it on a shrine he made. He makes his own religion. He hires and ordains his own personal Levite priest. He makes a God and a religion that agrees with him. He’s doing life his way. He’s doing what he feels like.
But just a few verses later we are given this chilling verse. God describes not just the heart of Micah but the hearts of all men and women that were alive at the time. God gives us a glimpse into the hearts of men and women in rebellion.
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.” Judges 17:6 CSB
There was no king over Israel. There was no judge raised up by God to lead the people spiritually. As a result, the people resorted to doing whatever they wanted. They did whatever seemed right to themselves. Other Bible translations state it this way:
“everyone did as they saw fit.” NIV
“everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” ESV
“everyone did whatever they wanted.” GNT
“each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.” ISV
Many different ways of stating that human hearts in their rebellion to God had returned back to the god they knew and loved best…themselves.
You don’t have to look very far beyond the book of Judges or the parody of the Simpson’s to realize the brutal honesty of this message in our society today. I do what I feel like. Today, I don’t think we have ever seen society embrace this motto more. Everyone has rights and somehow, they interpret those rights as they can do whatever they feel, no matter the consequences to themselves or others. If you feel like spewing language that is laced with hate, anger, bigotry, and racism, feel free, do what you feel like. If you are a man but want to be a woman, feel free, it’s your right and you can do what you want. If you’re unhappy at home and seek sex outside of your marriage, by all means do what you feel is right in your own eyes. If you also feel like you want to seek that sex with someone of the same gender, go ahead, do what you feel like doing. If you feel that society has somehow wronged you, feel free to show your disapproval by throwing a bike through a window of a Gucci store and stealing some $1200 handbags. Do what you feel is right in your eyes. If you feel you have been disrespected by mankind in general, feel free to spray paint national monuments, behead historic statues and destroy public property. It’s all ok, just do what you feel is right. Folks, what we see today is no surprise. It is no secret. In fact, we should fully expect it. God showed us this same behavior in the year 550 B.C. during the Babylonian exile, right here in the seventeenth chapter of the book of Judges. But in addition to that, God tells us this same level of anarchy, rebellion and chaos will happen again as Jesus nears His second return.
“But understand this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.” 2 Timothy 3:1-9
The human heart is a constant. It is in a constant state of service to self and in a constant state of rebellion to God. As a result, we see the history of humans repeat, over and over. A human history of rebellion to God. But the cycle can be broken. And it happens not as an entire society, a whole community, or a complete nation…but one life at a time. This world changes one life at a time. And it happens as those single lives turn from themselves and turn to Jesus Christ. You see what is right in our own eyes, isn’t right at all. It’s polluted. It’s stained. It’s spoiled. The human heart has been tainted with sin ever since Adam and Eve settled down in the garden to enjoy that first bite of fruit. Since then every human heart has had the inborn, innate desire to serve themselves, reject God and do what they feel like.
Admit your rebellion and sin against God and call out to Christ today. Ask Him to save you from the condemnation of your sin and He is faithful to save your soul for eternity. Stop the prideful arrogance, stop the selfish pursuits, stop the madness. Call out to Jesus to lead your life in righteousness, goodness, freedom, and peace. And as a result, you will realize that it is so much more satisfying to not do what you want, but to revel in the joy of doing what God has for you to do.
“Every man's way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the heart.” Proverbs 21:2
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