During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. – Revelation 9:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 23, 2015): Revelation 9

Almost a million people take their own lives every year. Add to that an estimated 10 to 20 million people who attempt suicide but are unsuccessful, and the size of the problem is revealed. But part of the problem for many of us is that we do not understand the immense pain that our friends and relatives are going through. For us, even as Christians, the unknown of death is more troubling than the pain that we may experience in daily life. So we run away from death and fight for every moment that this life will give to us. But, not everyone reacts to this life the way that we do. But what does it mean when pain tips the scale, and the unknown of death seems to be more pleasurable than the pain of life.

In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), suicide is often seen as an offense against God. The idea seems to be that unless death is encountered as either a natural end to life or in an effort to chase down some great societal or god-driven cause, then suicide is wasting the greatest gift that God can give to us - life. But not every culture has treated suicide that way. In some cultures, suicide is an acceptable way of protesting societal ills – and still others, it is an expected way to end life under certain conditions. And to not commit suicide under these circumstances would be considered to be morally wrong.

What causes the nightmare of this passage is the idea that the pain will be so great, and yet death will not come. Suicide will not be an option, although many will wish to choose it. The torture of life will be magnified to a point where we will only wish for a death that never arrives.

What is left is a vivid picture of hell on earth. It is also a picture of what the Romans had been trying to perfect. Crucifixion, an end which John had watched too many Christian friends suffer through, was a practice that magnified the pain of life without allowing death. And the Romans had perfected crucifixion to keep the one being crucified in agony as long as possible before death finally came. John’s words are that for some of those who are living in the final days, there will be something that will be even worse than Roman crucifixion. But even here the pain is not forever. A reprieve will come – but not until many have suffered because for their own mistakes and sins.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Revelation 10