At the close of his short contribution to the five-hour funeral for Charlie Kirk, Dr. Ben Carson said, “I want to read a passage from the Gospel of John 12.24, remembering that Charlie Kirk was shot at 12.24 pm (Mountain Time).”
Carson is a medical doctor, a surgeon, and I respect his training and his intellect. But I can only wonder what he would think if some well-meaning patient were to say to him, “Dr. Carson, my bleeding started at 4:13 yesterday afternoon which leads me to think that I need 4.13 pints of replacement blood.”
In other words, what is the connection between the time of day and the judgment of a professional about what needs to be done? Or, what is the connection between the time of death and how we appropriate the Word of God as consolation and counsel?
Granted: all scripture is inspired and is useful for instruction, for rebuking, for correction, and for training in righteous living. So writes the Apostle Paul in his second letter to Timothy; so any and every text can without warning jump off the page and speak to us in a powerful way. But such random strategies for hearing and heeding the Word of God are surely to be discouraged.
Here is one good reason why: there are 17 verses in the Bible that are listed as 12:24!
Here is a sampling.
“Remember, these instructions are permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever” (Exodus 12:24).
“Pour out the blood on the ground like water” (Deuteronomy 12:24).
“Fear the Lord and serve him faithfully. Remember all the wonderful things the Lord has done for you” (1 Samuel 12:24).
“There will be no more false visions and flattering predictions in Israel” (Ezekiel 12:24)
“You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God” (Mark 12:24)
“But the word of God continued to spread and flourish” (Acts of the Apostles 12:24)
Several of these texts would work well as a commentary on the death of a gospel worker. By what inspiration or education does a person choose one over the other as the Word for the day?
Dr. Carson choose John 12:24: “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” That is not a bad text, but it is not better than some of the 16 other options.
It is better than Joshua 12:24—“The king of Tirsah”! And certainly more relevant and more readable than Nehemiah 12:24—“The leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their associates, who stood opposite them to give praise and thanksgiving, one section responding to the other, as prescribed by David the man of God.”
But the question remains: by what authority or operation does a man of God connect a biblical passage with an important event? Surely, it is not by correlating the time of day with the textual reference. You could just as reasonably find a biblical event that occurred at the same time of day as the current episode needing commentary. But it is all so random and so reckless. It instructs an audience of one hundred thousand in a haphazard reading of the Bible. No good can come out of such immature and amateur handing of the Word of God.
Charlie Kirk was largely uneducated (or at best, semi self-educated). It certainly provided him no honor upon his death for a highly educated admirer to display such an uneducated manner of invoking the Word of God.
But at least he did not pick Matthew 12:24—“No wonder Jesus cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons”!
