Throughout human history, there has been a persistent mindset that makes a virtue out of simple obedience. If one is following the king, one's actions are immediately cleansed of sin. Obedience becomes a form of sanctification.
The flip side of that thought pattern can be found in the closing verse of Judges.
"In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."
Regardless of how one frames one's beliefs, moral choices are invariably individual and personal choices--outsourcing those choices can never be a moral act. Judges and also the opening passages of 1 Kings teaches this.
There's never a good empirical explanation for why people choose to follow thus--it just is human nature.
There's a bit of Shakespeare's Henry V (Act IV, scene 1) that somewhat illuminates the logic involved:
" Henry V. I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish him here
alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other men's
minds: methinks I could not die any where so
contented as in the king's company; his cause being
just and his quarrel honourable.
Williams. That's more than we know.
Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know
enough, if we know we are the kings subjects: if
his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes
the crime of it out of us."
https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=henry5&Act=4&Scene=1&Scope=scene
Throughout human history, there has been a persistent mindset that makes a virtue out of simple obedience. If one is following the king, one's actions are immediately cleansed of sin. Obedience becomes a form of sanctification.
The flip side of that thought pattern can be found in the closing verse of Judges.
"In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."
Regardless of how one frames one's beliefs, moral choices are invariably individual and personal choices--outsourcing those choices can never be a moral act. Judges and also the opening passages of 1 Kings teaches this.
https://blog.petersproverbs.us/2021/11/no-king-in-israel-no-king-required-then.html