Jan 3 Suicidal Prayers

Jan 3 

Suicidal Prayers

Jon 4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

“I hate these glasses!”  It was the voice of our pastor during a deacons meeting. His old glasses had been a source of frustration for him for a few months. His frustration had turned to anger and anger caused him to speak in a rash manner.

 “The first thing I am going to do when my new glasses arrive in a couple weeks, is to put these old glasses on my cement driveway and smash them with a sledge hammer” 

A couple days later at another meeting we noticed his anger and frustration were gone, as were his glasses. He related how he had learned a valuable lesson about being angry. When he arrived home from the first meeting and was getting out of the car his glasses fell onto the driveway where he stepped on them and shattered both lenses.

His rash comments about his glasses is mild compared to people who prayed suicidal prayers. Perhaps there are some lessons for us in looking at the men who prayed that God would kill them.

Who in their right mind would do such a thing? Let’s start with a guy who was swallowed by a whale and delivered unhurt to dry land. He should have been one of the most thankful people around, but he wasn’t.  In the 4^th chapter of Jonah we find him praying to die.

Jon 4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

He didn’t want to die in the belly of the whale and God heard his prayers and brought him safely to land. So why did he want to die now?  The simple answer is he was angry.

Jon 4:1  But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,

and he was very angry.

Jonah was from the tribe of Zebulun, which was one of the ten tribes that made up Israel, and would later be known as Galilee. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, who had been a cruel adversary of Israel and the ten tribes. Jonah did not want Nineveh to repent. He wanted to see God’s wrath fall upon the wicked, ungodly evil people of Assyria and especially the capitol city of Nineveh.  But God sent Jonah to prophesy against Nineveh and tell them to shape up or God would destroy them. So they shaped up and God spared them. That was the worst possible thing in Jonah’s way of thinking. He was so angry he told God he might as well be dead.   

Later in that same chapter a gourd grew and gave him relief from the sun, until God sent a worm that killed the gourd and left Jonah baking in the sun. Jonah again wanted to die.

Jon 4:8 …and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah,

that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said,

It is better for me to die than to live.

The last we hear of Jonah is in his answer to Gods question about why he is so angry. Jonah’s bitter reply is

And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

Then we have the tragic story of Samson, the strong man, who was a judge of Israel for 20 years.  His weakness was his longing for bad women.  He should have known better than to trust Philistine women. But he didn’t. As a result he was captured by the Philistines and blinded.  When his strength returned as his hair grew back, he was taken to a temple filled with people who wanted to make fun of him. That was when Samson asked God to let him die.

Jg 16:30 And Samson said,

Let me die with the Philistines.

God gave him strength to pull the supporting pillars down, collapsing the temple on thousands of Philistines and killing Samson.

Even earlier when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt they sent spies into the promised land. The spies reported the land was filled with giants, and the people, in spite of God’s working miracles for them, were too afraid to go where God told them to go. They murmured against Moses and God and said they might as well have died in the wilderness as be killed by those giants. 

Nu 14:2 …and the whole congregation said unto them,

Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt!

or would God we had died in this wilderness!

Little did they realize that God was fed up with them and decided that if they wanted to die in the wilderness then it was OK with Him.

Nu 14:28 … As truly as I live, saith the LORD,

as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness

One final example of people who told God they wanted to die is Elijah. He was not afraid of false prophets, but when King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, threatened him he ran for his life. He was so afraid he even left his servants in town while he headed for the wilderness alone. Tired, hungry, and discouraged he prayed that God would let him die!

1Ki 19:4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die;

and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life.

Elijah thought he was the only prophet left, and was so discouraged he wanted to give up and die. But instead of allowing a discouraged prophet to die, God sent him food, let him get some sleep, and only then reasoned with him and explained there were 7000 people who had not worshipped Baal.  Refreshed and strengthened Elijah went back to work following God’s direction. His fear and discouragement had been replaced with courage and determination.

Our meditation for today is to consider the events that led to people praying suicidal prayers. Jonah was angry at God; Ungodly women were the death of Samson; Fear without faith had doomed the Israelites, and Elijah needed food, sleep and encouragement to overcome his depression and desire to die.

Anger, immorality, fear, and discouragement can blind us to God’s mercy and grace. May we learn from these Biblical events and become what God wants us to be; forgiving, moral, faithful, and encouraged. Selah. Think on these things.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples:

and they are written for our admonition, …