Worn Down for Seven Days

Samson’s riddle came with a deadline: “if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast.” The men couldn’t solve it, so they went to his wife, and she went to work on him.

“And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him.” A whole week of tears, and on the last day he gave in.

Years later it happened again with Delilah: “she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death.” Samson could tear a lion apart, but he could not hold out against steady, daily pressure.

Most of us won’t be beaten in one big moment either. We get worn down: a little pressure every day, until giving in feels like relief. The answer isn’t more strength. It is staying close to the one who gives it, and remembering that the pressure has an end: “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”