What Does the Bible Say About Suicide?

Arnie and Fred begin this episode by looking at what the Bible says about suicide. We note that everyone faces some kind of discouragement from time to time. If we consider it to be unfixable, our thinking may lead us to hopelessness and despair and ultimately to harmful behaviors and even to suicide. The Bible records a number of people who resorted to this. We begin by noting 5 individuals. The first is Abimelech who was engaged in battle and became disabled. The Bible record of this is in Judges chapter 9. We talk about that situation. King Saul was battling the Philistines and was wounded by their archers according to 1 Samuel 31. We look at that record. Next, we note that David's son, Absalum engaged in a rebellion against his father who was the king. We talk about what happened to his advisor Ahithophel as well as himself according to the Bible record. The last of the Old Testament individuals we look at are about a hundred years later. Those involved are Baasha, who was king of Israel for a short period, Zimri who was commander of half the kings chariot company and Omri who was appointed commander of the Army. We discuss this at length. The last individual we note is Judas Iscariot who most are familiar with. Nevertheless, we review his suicide. With that background, we begin a discussion of how faith can defeat suicide. This will be the primary focus of the remaining episodes on suicide. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:00

This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.

Arnie: 0:33

Good afternoon. This is Arnie Granke And Fred Gosnell, and this is what does the Bible say? Regret to tell you that Glenn is not with us this evening. He had another activity that he had to, had to tend with. But we're glad that you're here, and let's talk about some things in in the Word of God. And one of the things that we've we've noticed is several of us know individuals who have had tragic situations occur in their in their families, and so we thought that we would talk a little bit about the problem of of suicide. And so, so let's start with Genesis chapter nine and and verse verse six, there; Whoso shedeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. And of course, the reason that we're focusing on that is is that we're made in the in the image of God. And it's tragic that that kind of thing occurs from time to time. But we'll look at a number of passages of Scripture and and hope that that will be helpful to you. And by all means, send us a note, send us a text message, or give us a call on the phone or whatever. If you have some things that you'd like to know about this, we'll we'll give you some additional information. Fred, I see that you've got your Bible open.

Fred Gosnell: 2:22

Well, Leviticus, 24 verse 17 has has a similar reading there. Verse 17 says that, He that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. And of course, God said in Genesis that the reason that is the case, is that, because we are made in the in the image of God. And so there's, there are consequences when, when a man an individual is killed, and the one that does the killing or or the murder is going to be, or must be held accountable to that. You know, Job made a statement in job one verse 21 he concerning his his situation. Of course, he was, he was, had lost a number of his family members and his property and and everything. And in verse 21 of Job one, he said, Naked came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And then it ends there, In all this Job, sinned not nor charged God foolishly. Of course, Job was in a serious situation there. He lost everything and and he was, he was about to lose his health as as well, he would, he would be tested by Satan. Probably, if, if we look at the situation of Job, if there was ever anybody that was in such a bad situation that might think about maybe ending it all by by, by ending his his life, Job would be one of those individuals. But of course, Job never did that. Job remain faithful to God, and as the text says, Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. So. so when we talk about people who have difficult situations, remember there are faithful people that have been through similar things, and have just based on, held on to their faith and remained faithful God, in spite of what they were going through.

Arnie: 4:49

And I think that that's key to escaping this, this problem, the the matter of having faith. Because faith will help us to defeat suicide. Everybody faces discouragement from time to time. If we allow it to take control of our thinking, it can actually worsen into hopelessness, worse, worsen into despair and lead us to resort,. It to resort in harmful behaviors. And of course, the committing suicide is one of the most extreme of I guess really it is the most extreme of those. It not only worsens our situation, it deprives us of any ability to correct the problem. It even denies God of His right to help and and rescue us. The the Bible describes several situations that ended in that kind of tragedy, and one, of course, was the case of the murderous Abimelech. That may not be a familiar name to you, but he ultimately was disabled in battle at the Tower of Thebez, and in desperation, he ordered his armor bearer to slay him with his own sword. But his death could couldn't relieve him of finally having to face God in in judgment. And I'm and I'm looking right now at Judges chapter chapter nine, beginning in verse one that says, And Abimelech, the son of Jerubaal, went to Shechem with his mother's brethren and communed with them, with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, Speak, I pray you in the ears of all the men of Shechem, whether is better for you either than all the Sons of Jerubaal, which are three score and 10 persons reign over you, or that one reign over you. Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. So he's doing a little politicking here. And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem and all these all these words. And their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said he's our brother. And they gave him three score and 10 pieces of silver out of the house of Baalberith, wherewith Abimelech, hired vain and light persons which followed him. And he went into his father's house, at house at Orpah, and slew his brethren, the sons of Jerubaal. So now we got a murderer on our hands here. Being three score and 10 persons upon one stone, not withstanding yet Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubaal, was left, and he hid himself. All the men of Shechem gathered together and all the house of Milo and went and made Abimelech king. But the Plain of the Pilar was in, or rather by the pain, Plain of the Pilar, it was in Shechem. And then just very quickly here a couple of verses, a little bit later on down in verse 52, Abimelech came unto the tower and fought against it, went hard onto the floor of the tower and to burn it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech's head and all and all to break his skull. Then he called hastily to another man his armorer, to a young man his armorer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword and slay me. That the men may, may not that men say not of Me. A woman slayed him. And his young man, young man thrust him through and he died. When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his own place. So what a tragedy. And it was entirely his own doing that brought that upon him.

Fred Gosnell: 9:39

Of course, the next verse says, So thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did, unto his father and slaying his seven brethren. So. So things didn't work out well for Abimelech. He ended up killing himself. And even though he did all that to become king or he had his armor bearer kill him. Of course, then the armor bearer was violating God's God's law. You just can't kill another person and think you're going to get away with it. Well, you know, Saul had a similar experience. He was in battle against the Philistines and and while he was battling them, he was wounded by the archers, and so he asked the and let's just read first Samuel 31 one through five says, Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. Then in 31 two, The Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons, and the Philistines slew Jonathan, that was his son, and Abinadab, and Malchishua,Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was sore wounded of the archers. So then said Saul unto his armor bearer, Draw thy sword and thrust me through, therewith lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword and fell upon it. So, so Saul ended up killing himself. Sometimes we hear people use the phrase, well, he fell on his sword and somebody that ended up defeating himself. So it's good that the servant refused to kill Saul. But nevertheless, he did the same thing. He killed himself. And again, you know, God is the God of life. God is not the God of the dead. And so when one kills oneself, it's not a good thing as far as God is concerned.

Arnie: 11:52

And of course, if we kill somebody else, then we violated God's law. And I think it would not be difficult for us to recognize the fact that, if we commit suicide ourselves, that we're killing, putting, putting death to one that God has put on the earth here. So we need to be very, very careful about that. Well, not only did did Saul face a situation like that, but there were other other eventual murders that were occurring and suicides that were were occurring, and during a later rebellion against King David, Ahithophel advised the king's son Absalom, to commit adultery with all his father's concubines, which he did. He also recommended plans for an attack against David. But when those plans weren't followed, and knowing he would be captured, Ahithophel set his house in order, as they say, and hanged himself. And in Second Samuel verse, chapter 17, and and, verse 23, when Ahithophel saw that his council was not followed, he saddled his ass and arose and got him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order and hanged himself and died and was buried in the sepulcher of his father. So Absalom became caught. That's Ahithophel. Now, now Absalom becomes caught in a tree and was slain by Joab's armored squad in Second Samuel chapter chapter 18. So beginning in in verse 14, there, Thus said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee, for he took three darts in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom when he was yet alive in the midst of the oak, and the young man that bear Joab's armor accomplished about and smote Absalom and slew him. So that now we've, we've not only got got suicides, but some more murders on the in the picture.

Fred Gosnell: 14:43

Yeah, and, of course, what, what we need to understand is that the Bible is God's record of of things that have happened concerning his people and what God does not do he he doesn't disregard anything as far as what people do. You know what David did, even David was a man after his own heart. David wasn't perfect and and God reported what he did. What Saul, Saul did, he did the same thing. And about 100 years later, from from, from the time that Arnie just read about, we're still in the period where Israel had kings. We we have Baasha, he reigned as king of Israel, but only for a short period of time. So there was one occasion when Baasha drank him, drank himself drunk. So there you again. You You know these people are not such self upstanding people

Arnie: 15:43

Pretty low standard.

Fred Gosnell: 15:44

So so he drank himself drunk. And then Zimri, who was a commander of about half the king's chariot company, he decided he wanted to be king. So so he assassinated Baasha. And and then Omri, who was appointed commander of the army, besieged Zimri's forces at Tirzah. So and when he realized that he had lost, lost the battle he was engaged in. Then

Arnie: 17:34

You know, one of the things that you recognize as you are reading these accounts is the fact that God holds nothing back. He tells you the whole story for us to learn from. If Zimri set fire to the king's house and and with him and we don't take the take the accounts that God has given us and and think, What about us?, you know, Could I get into a situation like that? What if I was desperate like that, or what if somebody attacked me? What would what would I do? We need himself inside. We're told about that in First Kings 16, 15, 15, to take into account what God has said. So that means that we don't just hop, skip and jump through the Bible and read a passage here, read a verse there, read a read a page or two here, we ought to read the Bible from cover to cover. You can't do it in a night. I know that, and it may take you months to through 18. So so there, the text tells us, In the 20 and accomplish that, but then you know what you do after that. Read it again, because God is laying out for us the tragedies, as well as as good events that have have occurred for us to be able to decide, where are we going to fit ourselves into this seventh year of Asa king of Judah, did Zimri reign seven picture? Are we going to do something tragic? Are we going to do something that that serves God and and helps other people. So the ones that Fred and I have looked at here so far are Old days in Tirzah and the people were encamped against Gibbethon Testament cases. But there's also one, you know, in the new case, in the New Testament of someone who committed suicide and and it was the case of, yeah, you guessed it, Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus own apostles, is probably the biblical suicide that is familiar to most of us. And which belonged to the Philistines. And the people that after Judas had betrayed the Lord and knowing not only that the Master's crucifixion and death were imminent, but that he was condemned himself, Judas repented and attempted to return the priest's 30 pieces of silver that they had, had paid him, but were encamped heard say, Zimri hath conspired and hath also they wouldn't take the money back. And when they when the Jewish priests and elders refused it, Judas, in in desperation, went out and tragically hanged himself. Matthew, chapter 26 and and verse 14, One of the 12 called slain the king. Wherefore all Israel made Omri the captain of Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priest and said unto them, when What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you. They covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver. There was a contract, actually, that they made, and from that time, he the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. So Omri went up sought opportunity to betray him, to betray Christ. Now, on the first day of of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, where will thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? Well, a little bit little bit later on, I've read little bit beyond where we needed to go. from Gibbethon and all Israel with him, and they besieged But in Matthew chapter 27 it's become the next day, and now Judas is, is desperate, I guess you would say, and and beginning in in verse one, When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to Tirzah and it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was put him to death, and that when they had bound him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, the governor Then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed that the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to it. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed. And I wish the story burnt the king's house over him with fire, and he died. So he stopped there. He did exactly what he should have done at that point and and the opportunity for repentance was right there in his hands. But the next line tells us and went and hanged himself. What a tragedy.

Fred Gosnell: 22:28

Yeah, When, when, when people read that, they committed suicide by setting the house on fire. So, so, so again, might say, well, but look at verse three, Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself. They say, Oh, well, he repented. Well, the there's a better translation of that if you read the English Standard Version. Here's what the English Standard Version says. Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind these these people have basically involved themselves in and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. So what? He changed his mind, but he changed his mind concerning the 30 pieces of silver. He took them back to the to the chief priests where he said, and he said, I have sinned. You know, he recognized that by betraying the innocent blood. And they said, Well, what is that to us, to self murder. They they killed themselves. And there's, there's yourself? So then he threw down the 30 pieces of silver. So what he did, he changed his mind concerning the money, and he didn't want the money anymore. Of course, what he should have done was he should have repented and changed his behavior and become faithful again.

Arnie: 23:29

Sought, forgiveness,

Fred Gosnell: 23:30

Yes, sought forgiveness, but, but, but he didn't do that. He killed himself. And we, we know that, no place that we find that tells us that this is a good thing. that that's not good. Now, what are the passages we have, and what we're going to do next is, is we're going to talk about the fact that that faith defeats suicide. And of course, Judas, had he done the right thing, had he been a faithful individual, he would have accepted his his sin and repented of it and and This is not a good thing to kill yourself. confessed it and and went on,

Arnie: 24:03

And changed his behavior.

Fred Gosnell: 24:05

Changed his behavior. But he didn't do that. But, but notice, what what Deuteronomy, 30 verse, verse 19 says, notice Moses here. He says, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, speaking to to his people That I have set before you, life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live. And so, so the choice is between life and and death. And Moses told the people there, he said, choose life. And of course, had they chosen death, then they would have made the wrong choice. They'd have chosen that which was, that which was against what God intends for us. And of course, the next verse says that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, as thou mayest obey his voice, notice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him, for he is thy life, notice, and thy length of days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord swear unto you thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give them. So Moses said, you know, make your choice. You choose to live and then to to serve God and then live in the land that was given to Abraham and which you are about to inherit.

Arnie: 25:28

Well, in in the Old Testament book of of Joshua, there's another passage that that talks about changing our thinking and avoiding suicide and other sins of that sort. Joshua, chapter one and verse seven, we'll start actually at Verse six, Be strong and of good courage, for unto this people, shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee. Turn not from

Fred Gosnell: 27:33

Yes, and of course, we, you know, we need to thee from it, to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest remember that that death is the enemy. Satan is the one that that introduced death and First Corinthians 15, verse 26 tells about when Jesus returns. Then, of course, He's already been resurrected, and he's in heaven now, but and he's reigning. prosper. Whatsoever thou doest this Book of the Law shall not Verse 25 says, For he must reign till he had put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. So to to kill oneself is to allow the enemy to over overcome one. And of course, sometimes people do that, but depart out of thy mouth. But thou shalt meditate, listen to they become convinced that that's the only way that they can solve their problem. Of course, those that learn of what the Bible has to say and what God has to say to us won't do that. Thou shalt meditate therein, day and night, that that. And one of the probably one of the most favorite Psalm of a lot of people is Psalm 23 and of course, David wrote that and has just six verses, and here's what he says, The Lord is thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the therein. Pay attention to these passages that say things like shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my that. For them, thou shalt make the thy way prosperous, and then head with oil, my cup runneth over Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And of course, this is a this is a Psalm, a comforting Psalm, and David, regardless of the thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be situation he was in, he had enemies that were trying to kill him, but he said the Lord's rod, his staff, comfort him. So he followed the Lord. Well. He had a problem one time, but well, he strong and be of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou remained faithful after that. And that's what we need to do. People need to learn that the Lord is for them, and God will take care of us if we are faithful to Him.

Arnie: 29:44

That is one, indeed, one of the favorite Psalms and and dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou so I would say, you know, when you find some favorite passages, don't just read them and forget them. Why don't you try to memorize them? That one's a good one, to try to memorize it. Yes, goest. And while that was true with regard to people during the it's easy. Let me give you one more passage of of scripture from from Psalm 42 and verse five says, Why art thou cast down, Oh, my soul. Of course, that's the beginning of Old Testament period. It's also still true today, almost as if desperation there. And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Remember, God always seeks to help us. Let us this was written in the New Testament. Doesn't matter which seek to obey Him and do His will. We'll stop at this at this point this week. We hope that you'll tune in next Lord's day and and let's consider these thoughts and give you a little part of the Bible you read, the point is still the same. bit more reason to recognize that faith does, in fact, defeat suicide. May God be with you. Have a great week.