Regardless of how you feel about the situation, I think it can be safely said that this is not a simple case of someone’s "right to die." The whole thing is complicated by:
- Lack of a living will
- An adulterous husband who has everything to gain by his wife’s death
- Sealed medical records
- A large malpractice settlement
- A 3-ring media circus pumping out conflicting (and often misleading) reports, and
- Judges who defy the governor, the president, and congress
In my opinion, this should not be a test case for either side of the debate. It is just too complicated to be used in setting legal precedence. It may, however, test the backbone of both the legislative and judicial branches to see if the balance of power is still balanced.
But even the debate and the court issues are not the real heart of the matter. The war is.
A Matter of Life and Death
There is a war going on now. I am not talking about the war on terrorism. I am not talking about a conflict between the executive and legislative branches against judicial activists. I am referring to an older war, one with universal consequences.
It is a war between life and death.
This war has been going on since the beginning.
God created everything. Life is the greatest gift that God has ever given. Life is good Life is powerful.
If you don’t think that God has placed in everything the power of Life and a will to Live, just watch as weeds grow through concrete to get to the sunshine, or notice how a brain-damaged woman fought for 2 weeks to stay alive without food or water.
Death came into the world when sin came into the world. Death has been fighting Life ever since.
I am concerned about this because God is concerned about this. Here is a very straightforward Bible passage that may shed some light on the whole matter (emphasis added by me):
Behold! I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, in that I command you today to love Jehovah your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, so that you may live and multiply. And Jehovah your God shall bless you in the land where you go to possess it. But if you turn away your heart, so that you will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days on the land where you pass over Jordan to go to possess it. I call Heaven and earth to record today against you. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your seed may live, so that you may love Jehovah your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, so that you may dwell in the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them.
- Deut 30:15-20
God is giving the Israelites a choice here: Choose life and good, or choose death and evil. It was such an important choice that he mentions it twice and states that He has called Heaven and earth to record their choice.
Yes, God gave them, and us, a choice. Then he tells them what He wants them to choose: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life.”
The same choice is set before our nation today. Heaven and earth are set to record our choice. Some folks in Florida have chosen death.
If we had any sense at all in this country, we would take God’s advise and Choose Life.
