And the Reporter Said. . . Then the Killer Took His Own Life

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From I Samuel we read a very disturbing report,

“Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’s sons. The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armorbearer, ‘Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me.’ But his armorbearer would not . . . Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it. And . . . his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead . . .” (I Samuel 31:1-5 – NKJV)

I’ve read of “Saul” often in my Bible readings. His whole story is a very sad one to this writer, one starting well but ending in disaster . . . a most serious disaster.

We all know about how he fell from favor with the LORD, how he failed to obey the commands he was given as a King of “Israel, and how the LORD left him and when he attempted to inquire of the LORD, he received no answer. (I Samuel 28:5-6, 16-19)

The Spirit of God had left the once favored King, left him to his own thinking and his own schemes and devices. He had to figure things out on his own, and from his position of power, that became more than he could handle. As reported in the Scriptures, he began to act irrationally.

One of the most irrational actions “Saul” carried out turned out to be his last one . . . he committed suicide. For “Saul . . . took a sword and fell on it.” In his very last act this side of eternity, he once more acted in disobedience to God.

If this event were to take place in this current day in which you and I live, the report on the nightly news would probably be some reporter giving us all the details of the battle and possibly concluding his report with this information regarding the King of “Israel,” saying, “. . . then he took his own life.”

That seems to be a message that we hear all too often on news reports these days. Some terrible killing spree has occurred and reporters report the carnage and circumstances surrounding it, and so very frequently they end what they have to say with, “. . . and the killer took his own life.”

It is a most frustrating thing to hear for this writer, for I am of the mind that our spurning of God’s counsel and the embracing of an evolutionary mindset for society, for our culture, has spawned this terrible wave of slaughter and a thinking that I can escape the consequences of my actions by taking my own “life.”

Oh, fret you citizen of these United States! Fret that “life” has become so cheapened in the hallowed halls of education that we have raised, and are raising, a generation that places no value on it. It cries out to us, this self-induced belief system that we are somehow the guardians of our souls . . .

But beware of such thinking . . . for the Scriptures say,

“‘As I live,’ says the Lord God . . . ‘Behold, all souls are Mine'” (Ezekiel 18:3-4 – NKJV)

This Hebrew word for “souls” is translated “life” in other passages and is literally, “lives, life.” Why the very “lives” that we manage on this earth, according to the Word of God, are His! God tells His creation, and emphatically, “Behold, all lives are Mine.”

That we would hear . . . that we would repent of our sin of evaluating “life” in the sphere of such a terrible realm as Darwinism, and that we would take unto us the counsel of our Creator God, and in this counsel, see that “life is valuable and also . . . eternal!

Does the value God puts on every “life” stop the would-be killer? Does the would-be killer grasp that if he decides to end his/her “life” that in fact, it doesn’t end there? Can you imagine? The killer thinks he is bringing an end to what he believes belongs to him and in doing so will escape the consequences of his evil deed. If God be true . . . he is in for a serious awakening! And pity the culture that has led him to believe such a lie!

King “Saul” and his taking of his own “life” has always reminded me of just how far he had fallen away from God. It also would serve to remind us, as we hear of the next attempt on human “life” and the killer’s decision to take their own “life,” just how far our own culture, our own nation has fallen away from God.

Oh, pray that we would repent . . . and that we would see our folly and turn back to God, the One who really owns the “souls” of men. As long as we fail to do this we will continue to hear of the terrible taking of “lives” and, most sadly, some reporter saying to us, “. . . then the killer took his own life.” Oh what a tragic report.