Samson
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his misery and adored the god who had overthrown “the destroyer of
their country.” After a time, as if weary, Samson asked permission to
rest against the two central pillars which supported the temple roof.
Then he silently uttered the prayer, “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.” With these words
he encircled the pillars with his mighty arms; and crying, “Let me die
with the Philistines!” he bowed himself, and the roof fell, destroying
at one crash all that vast multitude. “So the dead which he slew at his
death were more than they which he slew in his life.”
The idol and its worshipers, priest and peasant, warrior and noble,
were buried together beneath the ruins of Dagon’s temple. And among
them was the giant form of him whom God had chosen to be the
deliverer of His people. Tidings of the terrible overthrow were carried
to the land of Israel, and Samson’s kinsmen came down from their
hills, and, unopposed, rescued the body of the fallen hero. And they
“brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the
burying place of Manoah his father.”
God’s promise that through Samson He would “begin to deliver
Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” was fulfilled; but how dark
and terrible the record of that life which might have been a praise to
God and a glory to the nation! Had Samson been true to his divine
calling, the purpose of God could have been accomplished in his honor
and exaltation. But he yielded to temptation and proved untrue to his
trust, and his mission was fulfilled in defeat, bondage, and death.
Physically, Samson was the strongest man upon the earth; but in
self-control, integrity, and firmness, he was one of the weakest of men.
Many mistake strong passions for a strong character, but the truth
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is that he who is mastered by his passions is a weak man. The real
greatness of the man is measured by the power of the feelings that he
controls, not by those that control him.
God’s providential care had been over Samson, that he might be
prepared to accomplish the work which he was called to do. At the
very outset of life he was surrounded with favorable conditions for
physical strength, intellectual vigor, and moral purity. But under the
influence of wicked associates he let go that hold upon God which
is man’s only safeguard, and he was swept away by the tide of evil.
Those who in the way of duty are brought into trial may be sure that