Medical Decisions

730 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 1Ki 1:1 Now King David was old, advanced in years; and they put covers on him, but he could not get warm. 2 Therefore his servants said to him, "Let a young woman, a virgin, be sought for our lord the king, and let her stand before the king, and let her care for him; and let her lie in your bosom, that our lord the king may be warm." 3 So they sought for a lovely young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 4 The young woman was very lovely; and she cared for the king, and served him; but the king did not know her. I have had several surgeries and one of the things I appreciated after surgery was the heated blankets. I'm not sure of the why as it concerns the healing process of application of heat, but I sure appreciated it. Well, in David's day they didn't have blankets with these kind of thermal properties and so they relied on the truth of Ec 4:11 Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?” This is a fact of course, a natural truth and at the same time a biblical truth. But there is a greater biblical truth at stake here. The question begs to be asked, “where is Bathsheba?” She is David's wife and this is to be her role, not the role of yet another concubine! The Bible is clear on the matter of one spouse till death do us part. As bizarre as this incident is, we should remember that David's servants thought they were applying sound medical advice to his situation. He was cold, and this was evidently an accepted medical practice to keep him warm. It was a way that they saw to keep him as comfortable as possible until he passed. This would be a good time to pause and consider our own choices of medical treatment. Are they ethical? How do they measure up with Scripture. Are we choosing medical treatments that extend our life at the price of the lives of others. Do we really want to start creating embryos, so they can be destroyed for the sake of using them as spare parts? The time to answer these questions is now, before you find yourself in a crisis medical situation. Be informed about available treatments and (more importantly) be informed about God's view of life.