1 Samuel 31:5 NIV
When the armor-bearer
saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him.
Have You Been Impacted By Suicide?
While I was working on my doctorate in marriage and
family counseling, I decided to volunteer for a suicide prevention
hotline. After going through the practical
training on working with callers, I was given my shift. Four hours, once a week calls to the hotline
were forwarded to our apartment and I waited for the phone to ring. Sometimes I would go nearly an hour without
getting a call and other times I spent the entire four hours on the phone. Many times the callers were on the verge of
killing themselves and I was all that stood in the way of them ending their
lives. Sometimes it was a teenager that
called, other calls were from seniors.
Many were from alcoholics who were intoxicated and felt hopeless and
broken. Calls could last a few minutes
and others hours. Often I had to first try to convince the caller to put down
the gun or dump the pills in the toilet.
It was exhausting and unfortunately I did not get to find out what
happened after the callers got off the phone with me. One of the most frequent questions asked of
me was, “If I kill myself, will I go to hell?”
Sometimes I would pray with the callers, other times I prayed silently
as we talked. It was the most stressful
moments I ever had encountered; these shifts I took for the suicide prevention
hotline and I heard many terrible and heart-breaking stories. What struck me was how much pain and sorrow
there was in people’s lives and I often wondered if someone in the supermarket
or on the street as I walked downtown or even in the church where I was a
member was thinking about committing suicide because life seemed too
unbearable.
Perhaps you have been devastated by the suicide of a
friend or relative and had a tough time trying to make sense of it. Is suicide an acceptable option for someone
suffering greatly? Are there times when
suicide is the right thing to do?
Perhaps you have heard someone comment that those with terminal
illnesses or elderly ought to end their lives.
Do you know someone who is thinking about “ending it all”? What would you say to that person? Have you ever considered suicide? Why is it that some people take their lives
rather than face their problems and try to get past them? What does the Bible have to say about
suicide? Does God have anything to say
about suicide in the Scriptures?
There are seven suicides recorded in Scripture. The most famous of course is that of Judas
Iscariot. But there are others also that
must be considered if we are to have a Biblical view of suicide. The first recorded suicide in the Bible is
that of Abimelech who asked a servant of his to kill him when he received a
deadly blow as he and his army attacked a town.
Abimelech went to the tower and
stormed it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, a
woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull. Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer,
"Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can't say, 'A woman killed
him.'" So his servant ran him through, and he died. (Judges
9:52-54 NIV) Technically this was an
assisted suicide but the result was the same.
Pride and the determination that he could not survive the injury led to
his decision. Was he right to demand
that his servant kill him? Was the armor
bearer right to run Abimelech through with the sword?
A similar situation is described in 1 Samuel
31. King Saul led his army into battle
against the Philistines and was wounded.
Three of his sons were killed in the fighting and his army was
decimated. Saul called to his armor
bearer and demanded the servant kill him but this time the request was
rejected. Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me
through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse
me." But his armor-bearer was
terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
(1 Samuel 31:4 NIV) This did not kill
Saul apparently but along came an Amalekite who later confessed to finishing
the job. When the armor-bearer saw what
happened, he took his own life. We see
it here and have found this to be true again and again. Suicide breeds suicide!
In 2 Samuel 17: 23, the advisor to Absalom who was
leading a rebellion against his father, King David decided to kill himself when
Absalom did not take his advice and strike out immediately and attack David’s
army. We cannot say exactly why Ahithophel
hanged himself; maybe it was the humiliation he felt in not being Absalom’s
most valued counselor, maybe it was his sense that the rebellion would now
fail. Whatever the case, it can be
certain that his loss was deeply felt by Absalom at least and we assume his
family too.
Pride…despair…hopelessness. These
are common threads found in the fabric of nearly every suicide. Likewise, Zimri who also led a rebellion
against his king killed himself when it became clear his cause was lost. When
Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace
and set the palace on fire around him. So he died, (1 Kings 16:18 NIV)
A second suicide is recorded in the book of Judges
and it could be argued, and perhaps rightly argued that this in fact was not a
suicide but rather a valiant act of war.
Samson had been captured by the Philistines when he stupidly let out the
secret of his great strength to a Philistine lover. Betrayed by the object of his lust, Samson’s
eyes were gouged and with his strength gone after the Philistines cut off his
hair, Samson was chained and thrown in prison. When the Philistines celebrated
a national festival in their temple, Samson was brought out to entertain the
crowd. It all unraveled for the
Philistines though when the Lord restored Samson’s strength. Now
the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines
were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching
Samson perform. Then Samson prayed to
the Lord, "O Sovereign Lord, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just
once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two
eyes." Then Samson reached toward
the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against
them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said,
"Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might,
and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed
many more when he died than while he lived. (Judges 16:27-30 NIV)
Now if this was a suicide, then you could argue that
God assisted Samson in it but it seems reasonable that this was in fact an act
of war that would be no different than a fighter pilot attacking an enemy ship
realizing full well he wouldn’t survive.
Yet the knowledge that many lives on his side might be saved if he followed
through with the attack made this not a throwing away of his own life but the
“laying down of his life” for his friends.
By taking down the temple, Samson killed the leaders of the Philistines
and ended for a while the war between the Israelites and the Philistines. Judges indicates that this was in fact a
great victory for the Israelites, wrecking for a while the Philistine
leadership and military strength which God seems to have helped Samson achieve.
Now we must turn to the last clear example of
suicide found in Scripture, that of Judas Iscariot. Only here and with the attempted suicide of
King Saul is there given any sort of indication what the spiritual state of the
person killing himself was. With Saul,
we are told that many years earlier, the Spirit of God left him and was
replaced by an evil spirit that tormented Saul. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit
from the Lord tormented him. (1 Samuel 16:14 NIV) Something similar is described with Judas
Iscariot. After Judas went to the Jewish
leaders and offered to betray Jesus, he was with the Lord and the other
disciples eating when Jesus offered Judas a piece of bread and instantly Judas
was taken over by Satan. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan
entered into him. (John 13:27 NIV)
In both cases, with Judas and Saul, there is
described an evil invasion of the personality that is supernatural. Both ended up taking their lives or at least
trying to do so. This sort of occurrence
is not mentioned in any other of the suicides recounted in Scripture. Of course not much at all is said about the
mental state of any of the other men who killed themselves. We can only guess at what was occurring
internally with them. What we do know is
that the two most important suicides spoken of in Scripture involved people who
were dominated by evil spirits. Jesus
says of the devil that he is a murderer.
You belong to your father, the
devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from
the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he
lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John
8:44 NIV) Christ also said of Satan that
he comes as a thief who destroys. The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have
life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV)
Before we take up this topic again next week and
develop a Christian response to suicide, we must note carefully what the author
of Hebrews insists. The devil is the one
who is in charge of death…Satan is in fact the death master planner. He concocts plans for death, develops schemes
to bring about death and pushes death on humanity. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their
humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death
— that is, the devil— (Hebrews 2:14 NIV) The only times we know
anything about the internal state of those who committed suicide or tried to do
so as documented in Scripture, Satan or demonic forces had hold of them. If the devil is the one who drives people
into death, then we must conclude that Satan is the one pushing people to
suicide. There is not a single instance
in Scripture where you find a person of God committing suicide. Even Job and Jeremiah, despite being
miserable and wishing God would end their lives, never attempted suicide or
tried to do so. Despite the poor
theology often developed by many writers in of the Middle Ages, they were right
about this. Suicide is self-inflicted
murder and it must be assumed that Satan is behind it. To aid in a suicide is to join the devil in his
plans and to commit suicide is to make oneself his instrument. Any careful assessment of suicide must take into
consideration the fate of both the devil and death. And
the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where
the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and
night for ever and ever…Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
The lake of fire is the second death.
(Revelation 20:10,14 NIV)
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