Denial on Death Row

One of the amazing things about visiting death row is seeing such a large number of people who don't deserve to be there. One prisoner will tell you that he didn't do it, and another that he got framed. The next one will say no one understood him, and the next will tell you that many others have done the same thing and have not paid with their lives. Despite their insistence that they don't deserve to be there, we can be quite certain that most are indeed lawbreakers.

Likewise, all of us who break God's laws are lawbreakers. Indeed, we are prisoners of sin who are on death row. We may not think we deserve it, but that is where we are. The Scripture says,

Those who do such things deserve death.
-- Rom 1:32 NIV

We protest, "Surely not me! Tell me, what kind of person deserves death?" The answer is those "filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity," those "full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice," those who "are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful," those who "invent ways of doing evil" and "disobey their parents," and those who "are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless" (Rom 1:29-31 NIV).

Even one of these sins means we fall short of the glory of God. There is absolutely no sin that does not separate us from God. God is the giver of life and every good gift, and when we separate ourselves from the Giver by our sin, we will eventually die.

"The wages of sin is death."
-- Rom 6:23 NIV

We cannot deny our condition. The sooner we accept it, the sooner we will discover the gift of God.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-- Rom 6:23 NIV

Dead End

Reflections on 1 Sam. 31:1-13 [1 Chron. 10:1-14]

When the battle was finally engaged, the Philistines prevailed and overtook Saul and his sons on Mt. Gilboa. His sons were killed, but Saul continued to fight. He himself was not overpowered in hand-to-hand combat, but archers found their mark and Saul was badly wounded. “Badly wounded” suggests that he was writhing in great pain (BDB, ?ûl, p. 296-97) and so was unable to continue fighting. In that condition, he feared that before killing him, the Philistines would mistreat, abuse, or humiliate him because he could no longer defend himself.

A LIFE SHORTENED. Knowing that he was unable to defend himself and fearing the agonies of torture and ridicule more than death, Saul asked his armor-bearer to kill him. The armor-bearer, however, was greatly afraid to kill the king whom he was bound by devotion and duty to defend (contrast him with the armor-bearer who killed Abimelech whose skull had been cracked when a woman threw a millstone from a tower – Judges 9:54-55). Saul then fell on his own sword, and his armor-bearer did the same.

A DREAM SHATTERED. Saul’s death was premature not only because he died by his own hand, but also because he died without fulfilling the dream of Israel when they made him king. They wanted a king to give them victory on the battlefield. God gave them Saul, and told Samuel, “You shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines” (1 Sam. 9:16). Saul showed promise of fulfilling the dream against the Philistines (1 Sam. 14:47-48), but then he acted presumptuously and lost the Lord’s blessing (1 Sam. 13). He became indecisive, but Jonathan took the initiative and won a great victory (1 Sam. 14). On another occasion, he was afraid, but David slew Goliath and initiated a great victory (1 Sam. 17). His final battle was a disastrous defeat. When the victorious Philistines returned to the battleground the next day to strip the dead, they found Saul’s body. They cut off his head and sent it with messengers to their cities as evidence of their great victory. They hung Saul’s body and the bodies of his sons from the walls of Beth-shan, a city about six miles east of Mt. Gilboa. The dream was shattered.

A FAMILY FALLEN. Not only did a man and a dream die on Mt. Gilboa, but a dynasty also died. Saul fell on his own sword and three of his sons including the valiant heir apparent, Jonathan, died in battle. Only one rather weak son continued as king for a short time. In this way, the book ends much the same way it began. The book begins with the high priest Eli and his sons not giving honor to God as they should. When the Philistines attacked Israel, his sons carried the ark into the battle where they died at the hands of the Philistines. When news of the Philistine victory reached Eli, he fell from his chair and died. His family continued in the priesthood only a short time. As it had been with the high priest who did not honor God, so it was with the king who did not honor God. Their families were no longer allowed to serve God as priests or kings.