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 4th 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, …
