A few days has passed since America saw two young people murdered in cold blood. Iryna Zarutska was a young girl, twenty-three years-old, a refugee from Ukraine. Iryna was stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte, NC. She had escaped the warzone of her home country only to be murdered by a man that had been arrested 14 times previously. A few days later in a city not known for crime and violence, Orem, UT, a 31-year-old was assassinated on the campus of Utah Valley University. His name is Charlie Kirk. He was an extraordinary young man. He loved America and started an organization when he was 18 years-old that took the message of America and her founding to the college campuses across our nation. If you wanted to help, he asked young people in high schools and college to start a chapter at their school. Many did and there are now over 9000 chapters across America. His efforts have turned the young people in our nation into the most conservative generation in the past 50 years. Iryna and Charlie both struck down just as their lives were starting. These two young people aren’t the only ones who have been struck down. It has gotten to the point that on any given weekend multiple killings in large urban cities, such as Chicago, are expected. Examples? Weekend of September 8, 2025 according to ABC7 Chicago News “18 shot and 6 fatally.” Weekend of September 15, 2025 according to CBS News Chicago “Four killed and 23 hurt in weekend shootings.”
Last Sunday, in my Sunday School Class, our lesson came from Proverbs 4. I covered about one-half the chapter before time ran out, but one particular set of verses captivated me during the week of preparation. 4:14-17, “14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. 15 Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. 16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. 17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.” Notice the last verse in the group. “They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.” Doesn’t that sound like our world today? How did we get this way as a society? The chaotic nature of our times isn’t new. Over 2700 years ago, the prophet Hosea addressed these same sins in ancient Israel. The Hosea 4:1-2 list reads like our headlines today as far as the sins they were indulging. God had a problem with them and spoke to Hosea the prophet, giving him a message for the people. “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” Did you catch that list? No truth, no mercy, nor knowledge of God. Swearing? This concerns oaths and not using foul language. A man accused of something such as stealing, if he claimed innocence, would be required to swear an oath before God in the matter. “Killing” and “blood touching blood” are also used describing the sins of the Israelites. The words “blood touching blood” means that one killing leads to another which leads to another. A chain of killings. Their moral decay placed them at odds with God. So does ours. What did God bring upon them? He brought a red tidal wave in the form of Assyria. The Assyrians dressed their massive army in red tunics and painted their horses red. As they stood staring at the frightened people it looked like a red wave coming toward them striking fear into the hearts, and rightly so. Within thirty years of Hosea’s warning, Israel, the Northern Kingdom, would be conquered, stripped of its resources and the young inhabitants dragged back to Assyria as slaves, while the older and weak were just killed or left to starve.
Am I optimistic about our society? Not really. I see glimpses of good from time to time. Every time I get a little hope for our nation evil raises its head. I am optimistic about pockets of revival in various places. I think God blesses certain places because of their faithfulness to the Word and to the name of God. We must remember the words of the old song, “This world is not my home; I’m just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.” Paul told the Philippians, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” (2:15). We do our best to shine. We don’t talk, walk, or decide things like the world because they drink the wine of violence and eat the bread of wickedness. A bright spot that I have learned about is concerning the organization Charlie Kirk started, Turning Point, USA. I wrote earlier that there were 9000 chapters at the moment. Since Charlie was killed there have been over 32,000 applications to begin another chapter on different college and high school campuses. Will it make a difference? I pray it does. Evil doesn’t need to be anywhere near the levers of power. If you don’t believe that, just ask the Christians at the Roman Colosseum how friendly those lions were. My space is gone.