Chapter 28. Famous People Who Suffered
Loneliness And Depression
Depression: The Cause of Suicides In The Bible
We will skip over the escapades of Samson, including marrying a
Philistine woman, thus angering his father, only to lose her to his friend.
He tricked the Philistines with a riddle, and set a hundred fox’es tails
on fire to burn their crops. (Obviously the Israelites did not have PETA at
that time!) Then he proceeded to kill 1000 Philistines with the jaw of an
ass. Afterward he procured the services of a harlot in Gaza and the Gazites
were hot on his trail, and laid wait for him all night, saying, “In the
morning when it is light, we shall kill him.” But like a cat with nine
lives, Samson left at midnight and ruined their hastily made plans. Now we
come to Samson’s nemesis, the deceitful Delilah, who was enticed to
deceive Samson for a small fortune in silver. So, with the most innocent
countenance she could muster, Delilah asked him, “Tell me, I pray thee,
wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightiest be bound to
afflict thee?” Now that took a lot of what the Jews call chutzpah,
unmitigated gall, to ask Samson where was the source ofhis great strength
and how could he be bound so that others could afflict him! Naturally he
gave her the runaround, but after the third lie, and more interrogation from
Delilah, Samson grew weary and his soul was “vexed unto death.” At this
point, Christian singles, don’t you think he would have given up on his
one-sided romance with this woman and fled the scene? No, not stubborn
Samson. The Lord must have been vexed with him, too, but the Lord reached
out in love and answered Samson’s last prayer:
Verse 26: And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand,
“Suffer (allow) me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house
standeth, that I may lean upon them.” Now the house was full of men and
women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon
the roof about 3000 men and women that beheld while Samson made sport. And
Samson called unto the Lord and said, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray
thee and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at
once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house
stood, and one which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand and the
other with his left. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.”
And he bowed himself with all his might and the house fell upon the lords,
and and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at
his death were more than they which he slew in his life. Then his brethren
and all the house of his father came down and took him, and brought him up,
and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying place of Manoah his
father.
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