No Suicide

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

NO SUICIDE

1 Kings 16:15-20

15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah seven days. The army was encamped near Gibbethon, a Philistine town. 16 When the Israelites in the camp heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and murdered him, they proclaimed Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day there in the camp. 17 Then Omri and all the Israelites with him withdrew from Gibbethon and laid siege to Tirzah. 18 When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died, 19 because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD and walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in the sin he had committed and had caused Israel to commit. 20 As for the other events of Zimri's reign, and the rebellion he carried out, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

NIV

Being king for only seven days, he still had time to order the murder of the son of Baasha and all the family and all that belonged to the house of Baasha. From this account, Zimri did not have much support. When the Israelites found out that Zimri plotted against the king and murdered him, they proclaimed Omri King. So much for this Zimri fella, he was out, and in fact, the army laid siege to the city he was living in. What we learn here is that Zimri was a coward because instead of facing the people, he set fire to his palace all around him, so he committed suicide. We do not know Omri's intent regarding Zimri’s judgment, but Omri did not have the opportunity to pass any judgment because of Zimri's cowardly act. There are two aspects of doing what is wrong in the eyes of the Lord. The first is when we offend someone. Because we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, spirit, and strength, and love others as we love ourselves, we would not intentionally offend others. But if we do, then the right thing to do in the eyes of the Lord is to go to them and seek their forgiveness. If we don’t, that person may hold our offense against us, becoming bitter, failing to forgive us, and in some sense, committing suicide. If we do not forgive, God will not forgive us. It is right in the eyes of the Lord to ask any person we might have offended, purposefully or unintentionally, to forgive us, so they can do what is right in the eyes of the Lord by forgiving us. The second way of doing wrong in the eyes of the Lord is to sin. We may sin unintentionally, but we could also sin purposefully. In either case, our Lord is ready to forgive; in fact, he has already forgiven us, but we still need to seek his forgiveness. It is not that he would not forgive us, for Jesus paid the price for all our sins. But it is for our benefit that we repent and ask for forgiveness. If we never ask, we might be committing suicide.