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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.
Ver. 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me] A pitiful peevish prayer, such as was that of Job, and that of Jeremiah above noted; to which may be added Sarah’s hasty wish for God to arbitrate between her and her husband; Moses’ quibbling with God, till at length he was angry, Exo_4:10; Exo_4:14; Elias’s desire to die out of discontent, &c. What a deal of filth and of flesh clogs and cleaves to our best performances! Hence David so prays for his prayers, and Nehemiah for pardon of his reformations. Anger is ever an evil counsellor; but when it creeps into our prayers it corrupts them worse than vinegar doth the vessel wherein it standeth. "Submit yourselves therefore to God," as Jonah should have done, "resist this devil" of pride and passion, "and he will flee from you," Jam_4:7; as by giving place to impatience ye "give place to the devil," Eph_4:26, who else by his vile injections, or at least by his vain impertinencies, will so spoil and mar our duties that we may well wonder they are not cast back as dirt into our faces. Sure it is that if the Holy Ghost had not his hand in our prayers there would not be the least goodness in them; no, not uprightness and truth, without which Christ would never present them, or the Father accept them.
For it is better for me to die than to live] sc. in that disgrace that I shall now undergo of being a false prophet, not henceforth to be believed. Lo, this was it that troubled the man so much, as it did likewise Moses, Exo_4:1, "They will not believe me; for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee." But God should have been trusted by them for that, and his call obeyed howsoever, without consults or disputes; careless of their own credit, so that God might be exalted. True it is that a man had better die with honour than live in disgrace truly so called. "It were better for me to die," saith holy Paul, "than that any man should make my glorying void," 1Co_9:15. Provident we must be (but not overly tender) to preserve our reputation; learning of the unjust steward by lawful (though he did by unlawful) means to do it; for our Saviour noted this defect in the children of light, that herein they were not often as wise as they should be, Luk_16:8. But Jonah was too heady and hasty in this wish of his death; because his credit, as he thought, was cracked, and he should be looked upon as a liar. But was the Euge of a good conscience nothing to him? was God’s approbation of no value, nor the good esteem of his faithful people? It was enough for Demetrius that he had a good report of the truth, 3Jn_1:12, whatever the world held or said of him. What is the honour of the world but a puff of stinking breath? and why should any Jonah be so ambitious for it, as that without it he cannot find in his heart to live? Life is better than honour. "Joseph is yet alive," saith Jacob. To have heard that Joseph lived a servant would have joyed him more than to hear that he died honourably. The greater blessing obscureth the less. He is not worthy of honour that is not thankful for life. St Paul’s desire to be dissolved that he might be with Christ, which is far the better, Php_1:23, was much different from this of Jonah.