Posted Jan 9, 2023
Suicide is one of the saddest ends to a human life. It’s our complete lack of hope and our inability to cope with our spiritual despair. It is officially estimated that 700.000 people worldwide decide to take their own lives every year in the world. These are the numbers that can be categorized as such, but many people just give up life and engage in drugs, alcohol abuse, and other risky decisions. In Canada, it is now also allowed to have a ‘medical assistance in dying’, so even people who are too poor to pay their debts or rent are being offered a quick way out by the government. While the current state of things shocks and saddens me, it is not surprising that this is happening as our society gets more and more distant from our Father. What do the Scriptures have to say about suicide?
King Saul, the disgraced first king of Yashar’el, upon the realization that he was surrounded by the enemy, decided to throw himself over his own sword, sealing his sad downward spiral of bad decisions with dishonored demise. Even to kill himself, King Saul was unsuccessful, as he needed the assistance of a Canaanite to finish him off. Other Biblical characters decided to ask to be killed by their servants to avoid torture or the shame of dying by the hands of a woman. Guilt played a role in Judas’ suicide. The recurrent idea of an almost pathetic tone reserved only to the weaker or damned ones is not by coincidence, for Yahuah has told us: our life is not ours to take, he gives life, and he takes it.
Yahuah kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. (1 Samuel 2:6)
Is suicide an eternal damnation seal?
Yahuah is clear that the decision for us to be born and when we go back to him is his. So one can argue that by deciding to end your life, you are rebelling against Yahuah. Or you can believe that one can’t surprise an omniscient Creator, so even if we think we are free to end our lives, the history of our lives in this realm has been written from the beginning of the world, so just as we can’t fool death for an additional second, our demise has also been fixed. The question is, does that mean that those who kill themselves go to hell? There is not a unanimous consensus there either.
For those struggling with suicidal thoughts, it may be hard to reason on eternal life and the Gospel of Yahusha when life seems to be hitting them so hard, and it feels like there is no way out. The spiritual pain can be far worse to cope with than the physical one, and even the true believer will suffer with personal tribulations. The difference is that a true believer, being in touch with the Scriptures, knows that tribulations and earthly suffering bring us closer to our Messiah, which ultimately is a silver lining to the pain. In fact, the Scriptures asks us to rejoice when we are going through difficulties, for they are refining our Spirit for the upcoming Kingdom.
While suicide is not the focus of this post and absolutely not approved by the Father, there is one Biblical figure who had the Father’s blessing to end his life.
Samson: the misplaced focus
We need to talk more about Samson, for his character is immensely interesting and deep; sadly, all we retain from this insightful account of the book of Judges is that Samson lost his strength when his hair was cut. So let’s give him some justice and elaborate.
Like many cases in the Bible, Samson’s mother was barren. Until one day, when the woman saw the angel of Yahuah, who told her that she would get pregnant and that her child was supposed to be a Nazirite, or a sort of an Israelite monk. And Samson was born.
Image credit: Zembillas 2015
A Nazirite was a firstborn son who was dedicated to Yahuah from the womb. For this reason, a Nazirite could not cut/shave his hair all his life, nor touch carcasses of any kind, nor drink alcohol. So lived Samson, with his long hair and a supernatural strength, which made him a mighty warrior against Yashar’el’s oppressors, who were at the time the Philistines. His strength puzzled his enemies, because they could not see anything different in him, yet he seemed invincible.
The book of Judges tells us about a crucial time in Samson’s story. It was the moment he saw a honeycomb in a lion’s carcass (a lion which had been previously killed by Samson with his bare hands). Although Samson was forbidden to touch it, he could not resist, so he ate the honey with his hands and brought it home to his parents.
image credit: Alexandra Beguez
As a side note, please note that honey represents enlightenment, the Word of Yahuah. The Word is sweet when we taste it, but it is bitter in our stomach, for truth is not always sweet. The carcass of the lion represents the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the sacrifice of Yahusha out of which the Holy Spirit (Ruach Ha’Quodesh) will come from. We have a similar episode with Yohanathan (Jonathan), King Saul’s son, when he inadvertently goes against his father’s order of fasting and eats wild honey out of his staff – and is described as having his ‘eyes opened’. I went through this episode in more detail in this past post.
Back to Samson, after the honey incident, Samson decides to marry a Philistine. As we know, the Israelites were asked not to mix with people from the nations, but we also know from Scriptures that his interest in the nameless Philistine woman was moved by Yahuah so that He could use Samson to deliver Yashar’el from their oppressors. So against his parents’ wish, Samson marries the woman he wants, and in his wedding feast, he challenges the Philistines with a riddle:
“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”
Unbeknownst to him was that his woman was threatened by her countrymen in order to find out the answer to the riddle, and after some pressure, Samson gives in and tells her the answer to the riddle, which she promptly informs the Philistines. Here’s the strange solution:
“What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?”
Samson’s riddle was not for the Philistines to solve, but for us, who are reading the Scriptures now. Out of the strong lion could mean the lion Samson killed, but for us it might as well mean Yahuah’s almighty strength. There is a reason we are asked to fear Yahuah, but out of trouble, a good thing can come; out of Yahusha’s death, salvation was made possible. Out of Samson’s brute and violent attitude, there was victory over Israel’s enemy. Out of death, Yahuah can bring life!
Frustrated with the fact that the Philistines had ‘cheated’ to get the answer, Samson went on a violent rampage, and to be fair, calling him hot-tempered would probably be an understatement. Still, after his killing spree, he tried to get his wife back; however, in his absence, she was given to a new husband. Even angrier, more destruction and revenge followed. His first wife was then burned with her father as payback. For Samson, this chapter was finished, but a new love would bring his ultimate downfall.
Samson falls in love with a woman who seems to be another foreign woman named Dalilah. Unlike Samson’s first wife, Dalilah did not need to be threatened by Samson’s enemies; she was offered 1100 pieces of silver to find out where his strength came from and how to subdue him. Initially, Samson seems to outsmart her by giving false answers – until she eventually gets the right answer after a lot of drama.
Dalilah then had Samson fall asleep on her lap, but she was not the one who shaved his seven locks; it was a Philistine whom she let into the chambers. His lover is now dominated, a normal man who lost Yahuah’s blessing when his hair was shaved. Afterward, Samson was not only incarcerated, but also had both his eyes blinded and was forced to run a mill in the prison house.
Ultimately, we realize that Samson lost his strength because it was not his to begin with. His strength and his might came from Yahuah, from the Ruach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit), and that required that he respected his Nazirite vows. We can speculate from the Scriptures, though not evident, that he broke all the three vows he was supposed to follow: He touched the impure food out of a carcass, he also probably drank alcohol – otherwise how would he sleep so heavily to let others shave his head? Samson’s strength was not in his hair, but in his faithfulness and obedience. His spiritual blindness running in circles in a prison mill is how we feel when we lose our connection with our Father. Threshing mills have a spiritual meaning, btw, but that’s for another post.
Samson is then brought to the Philistines’ celebration of their pagan god Dagon, as he awaits his destiny between the pillars that hold the roof. After a life of self-indulgence, passions, and violence, Samson humbly prays to Yahuah with all his might. He is about to become the entertainment of thousands of enemies when he asks Yahuah for his strength back, only one more time, so he can bring their building down. Yahuah grants Samson his wish, and when he breaks the building structure, he dies, but with him he brings three thousand Philistines, killing in his death more enemies than he had in life.
Conclusion
Samson is frequently portrayed as this wild, violent beast who was unfair and vengeful, but let’s remember that he was blessed by Yahuah and judged Yashar’el for 20 years, so he was not the mindless brute some commentators like to describe. Undoubtedly, he let himself be carried away by his passions, and his strength made him resort to violence, but the Philistines were oppressing Yashar’el at the time; they were not defenseless victims! Let’s be careful not to read the Scriptures with a humanistic point of view. Yahuah is always correct. If you feel uncomfortable with something Yahuah demands in the Old Testament, study and ask for the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom to understand, because the only thing we can be sure of is that Yahuah always does what’s best.
Now Samson disobeyed Yahuah for his satisfaction and married a foreign woman because he put his lust above his better judgment – but in doing so, he was still doing Yahuah’s work on earth, even in his ultimate sacrifice.
For if we live, we live to Elohim, and if we die, we die to Elohim. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are Yahuah’s. (Romans 14:8 )
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If you’re struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek our good Shepherd, Yahusha ha’Mashiach today!
If you know anyone who is struggling and you wish to have a Christian perspective on how to help, this is a good start:
Preventing Suicide: A Handbook for Pastors, Chaplains, and Pastoral Counselors
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