Depression and Distortions
When we are rejected and persecuted,
we should not be surprised
if we experience depression
leading to serious distortions
in our thinking.
Here now is Gene Getz:
When we look at this Principle,
again there are words that really emerge--
they pop out, as it were:
The word "rejected," the word "persecuted,"
the word "depression," the word "distortions."
And all of that really
grows out of the life of Jeremiah.
We see this in other passages of Scripture--
other situations.
It's a universal principle.
But Jeremiah certainly illustrates this principle.
For example, personal rejection--
chapter 18, verse 18:
Then certain ones said, "Come,
let's make plans against Jeremiah,
for instruction will never be lost
from the priest...
And there they're referring now
to what they're hearing from these false prophets:
...or counsel from the wise,
or an oracle from the prophet. ...
And there were many false prophets.
...Come, let's denounce him
and pay no attention to all his words."
Wow, that's personal rejection.
And he experienced [it] again and again.
But it was more than a personal rejection.
Look at what happened to him
when one of the priests heard
what he was saying about the judgment to come:
Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer
and chief official in the temple of the Lord,
heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ...
"These things" refer [to] judgment is coming.
Judgment is coming.
And so this priest heard him teaching these things:
...So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet
beaten and put [him] in the stocks
at the Upper Benjamin Gate
in the Lord's temple.
And probably, if they followed the law,
he was beaten 39 times.
And by the way, one reason
why they were beaten 39 times rather than 40--
according to the law--they stopped one short
just to make sure they didn't kill him.
That's how horrible this experience was.
It helps us understand what the apostle Paul
went through because he was beaten three times.
Tremendous persecution.
Notice the distortion.
And this is understandable.
He says to the Lord--again here's honesty:
You deceived me, Lord,
[You deceived me]
and I was deceived.
You seized me and prevailed.
I am a laughingstock all the time;
everyone ridicules me.
And serious depression of this nature
leads to serious distortions of God's reality.
It always happens.
In this case, it's certainly understandable.
And by the way,
God really understood that as well.
We see his lament continuing.
By the way, he wrote Lamentations as well--
the book that follows Jeremiah
because he was a prophet of laments:
May the day I was born be cursed.
May the day my mother bore me
never be blessed.
May the man be cursed who brought the news
to my father, saying, "A male child
is born to you," bringing him great joy.
Again, we see a reason why
God told Jeremiah never to marry
and never to bear children.
Because of the horrible sin
that had crept into these situations.
He continues with his lament:
...Let that man be like the cities
the Lord demolished without compassion.
Let him hear an outcry in the morning
and a war cry at noontime
because he didn't kill me in the womb
so that my mother might have been my grave...
Men and women, I want to ask you a question:
Who was alive in that womb?
Jeremiah.
How many babies have found their grave
in their mother's womb
in relationship to what has happened
in our own culture in terms of abortion?
Here's another verse of Scripture
that affirms the fact that life exists in the womb.
And to take life in the womb is murder.
Jeremiah simply testifies to that
as well as other prophets in the Bible.
But specifically what he's talking about
is his depression.
He said in essence:
I'd rather have died. I'd rather
[have] died in her womb so that:
...her womb [would be] eternally pregnant. ...
He's using metaphors but you can get the message:
...Why did I come out of the womb
to see only struggle and sorrow,
to end my life in shame?
That's depression.
And that's one reason why they called him
the weeping prophet.
And God understood it obviously,
even though it was very painful.
Now we have a parallel experience,
I think, in the New Testament,
in some respects. And it involves Paul and Silas.
They came to Philippi, you remember,
on the second missionary journey.
Lydia and her whole household came to Christ.
And then there was a little slave girl
that had a demon--or demons.
And she was being used by individuals
to make a profit because of this
supernatural kind of demonic experience
that she had.
And through the evil spirits even,
she began to testify to
who Paul and Silas were.
And Paul turned and cast out that demon.
And what happened
to the business of those individuals?
They began to lose money
so they turned on Paul and Silas.
They got the whole government--
or the governor and the council
in Philippi--to turn.
And they threw them into prison
and they beat them.
But notice what we read in Acts 16--amazing:
Then the mob joined in the attack
against them, [that is Paul and Silas,]
and the chief magistrates
stripped off their clothes
[and] ordered them to be beaten with rods. ...
Since this was a Roman beating,
we don't know how many times
they were struck--but it was horrible:
...After they had inflicted many blows...
We know it was many blows:
...many blows on them,
they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer
to keep them securely guarded.
Receiving such an order, he put them
into the inner prison
and secured their feet in the stocks.
Almost sounds like Jeremiah, doesn't it?
And then at midnight, what happened?
This is a supernatural response:
About midnight Paul and Silas
were praying and singing hymns to God,
and the prisoners were listening to them.
How can that be?
That's supernatural. That's incredible.
Now you know, an earthquake came
at about the same time.
And as a result of that earthquake,
you know, the chains fell off
of everybody and the gates fell open.
And the Philippian jailer
was going to kill himself.
And Paul said: Don't harm yourself;
we're here and led him to Christ.
His whole family came to the Lord.
And God used that experience
in a dramatic way.
But as you think about that, here's a question:
How can we explain the difference
between Jeremiah's perspective
and that of Paul and Silas?
Interesting question, isn't it?
Here are some of my thoughts
and that is that there's one factor:
Paul and Silas had a much bigger picture
of God's redemptive story than Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was in this very narrow tunnel
of God's judgment.
But Paul and Silas understood
the coming of the Messiah.
He understood the bigger plan.
And I think what that says is,
the more we understand God's overall purpose,
the more inner strength
God can give us supernaturally.
There's another reason:
Paul and Silas were together.
There were two of them.
Jeremiah was all by himself.
And that makes a big difference.
And furthermore, Paul and Silas knew
that Lydia and her whole household
and that little servant girl
were praying for them.
They had support within that situation
from the body of Jesus Christ.
That was something that Jeremiah did not have.
And by the way, one of the most serious things
you want to avoid when you're depressed
is aloneness.
Aloneness can be devastating
in increasing the power of depression.
And Jeremiah was alone.
Now God hadn't forsaken him
but God wasn't flesh and blood.
God was there.
But Paul and [Silas] had flesh and blood
around them--support and love and prayer.
If you really want to look at depression
in another Old Testament character,
look at Elijah and his depression.
I don't have time to go into that
but if you'll take your Life Essentials Study Bible
and go just to the term
"depression" under the Principle Finder
and look at the Principles
that grow out of the life of Elijah
and how God dealt with his depression.
And you'll see that ultimately, one of the things
God did to him to help him
was to bring Elisha into his life:
As a mutual support person
in carrying out this incredible task
relative to God's work in the world.
So here's the Principle:
When we are rejected and persecuted,
we should not be surprised
if we experience depression
leading to serious distortions in our thinking.