A very important episode of Five Minutes of Truth. Please consider sharing this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
Even though the Bible had 40 authors, mentioned about 1,300 people by name, covers a time period of thousands of years where there were hundreds of millions of people, that there are only three recorded suicides in all of Scripture? And of those three, only one of them fits the paradigm we are most familiar with today. Stick around, and we’ll talk about it here on 5 minutes of truth.
The scope of the Bible is immense. It begins with the creation of the universe and ends near 100 AD when the last book of the Bible was probably written. In these pages we see a myriad of events unique to humans played out on the pages under a variety of circumstances. Nearly every single happy, sad or in between thing that can happen to a person is seen in the Scriptures over and over again. Interestingly enough, however, one tragedy that is played out all too often in the world today is only mentioned three times in the entire Bible: suicide.
The one is probably most familiar to us because of its being linked to the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The other two, however, are probably forgotten by most folks familiar with the Bible. That’s because the reason for those suicides does not really resonate with us today due to its unusual circumstances. Who were the only three people recorded as having taken their life in the Bible? Judas Iscariot; Saul, the first king of Israel; and Saul’s armorbearer.
Be honest…did you remember that King Saul had taken his own life? You probably didn’t. But I believe that has more to do with the reasons for that suicide than as a testimony of our Bible knowledge. Saul’s death is recorded in 2 Chronicles 10:1-7. Israel was at war with the Philistines and at the culmination of the final battle, when all was lost, Saul ordered his armorbearer to kill him, “lest these uncircumcised men come and abuse me” (2 Chronicles 10:4a).
Unable to follow through on his King’s command. The Bible relates that, “Saul took a sword and fell on it” (2 Chronicles 10:4c). Immediately afterward, the armorbearer also threw himself on his sword rather than be taken captive by the Philistines. See what I mean about the impact this suicide may have had on us personally? Saul took his life in battle to avoid torture and humiliation at the hands of his enemies. In the long list of reasons people take their lives today, that one does not resonate with the average person considering suicide. As a result, we have a tendency to forget about that one. Judas is another case.
After Judas Iscariot realized that he had indeed betrayed “innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4a) when He orchestrated Jesus’ arrest which would lead to His crucifixion, Judas, overwhelmed by his actions, “threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5). This suicide has a ring of familiarity to us, doesn’t it? Tremendous regret over a decision or series of decisions that led to tragedy. Tremendous guilt for the actions and the results of those actions. Tremendous emotional isolation as a result of the choices made. Tremendous hopelessness that nothing will get better, and only death will ease the pain.
These are the reasons we are most familiar with an act that will, on average, take the lives of about 45,000 Americans every year and 1 million lives worldwide each year. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US each year. But these numbers lack perspective. Let’s see if we can provide some.
There are on average 17,000 homicides in the US each year. That is less than half the number of suicides. Yet when have you ever heard a politician say: We have to do something about the suicide rate in this country. I have never heard that. Compare that with how often you hear a politician say something about curbing the rate of homicides each year. That is a staple political position despite the