As I read this morning about 104 year-old Australian scientist and botanist, David Goodall taking his own life by assisted suicide (see USA Today article here), one of the key words in the article is the word "pain." As we read the book of Job in Chapter 2, we clearly see that God allowed Satan to inflict Job's body with painful boils (vs. 7), as a test to validate Job's integrity and faithfulness to God (vs. 9-10), even in the midst of horrible pain (Job 30:17).Job correctly reasoned that adversity is the means by which God tests each one of us as to whether or not we are made of the "right stuff" (see here, here, here, and here), and did not once consider suicide as a viable option. Rather, his goal in life (even through much pain and hardship), was to maintain his integrity before God (Job 2:9-10; cf. Job 27:1-6), and we should do the same.
Even though suicide continues to be a major societal problem in our nation (see here and here), know that suicide (whether assisted or non-assisted) is never a solution to the problems we must face in our temporary existence on earth - not even those problems associated with pain and heartache.
We must realize (as did Job), that any pain we must endure here on earth, is only temporary relative to having to endure an eternity of pain in hell, if we choose to end our own life by suicide (self-inflicted murder - Genesis 9:6; Exodus 20:13).
Mr. Goodall needed to have read the book of Job before insisting that his life here on earth be ended by his own choice and by his own hand.
Beloved, God is the Author of life, and only He is authorized to bring our earthly life to its appointed end (Hebrews 9:27). The greatest revelation to man, is when he realizes that he is not God (see article). When we realize this fact, we can then realize that suicide is still murder in God's eyes, whether assisted or non-assisted.
---Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
Comments
Post a Comment